Conference title: "Towards Better University Teaching"
Venue: Michna Palace, Újezd 450/40, Prague 1, Czech Republic
Date: November 22-23,
2018
Number of participants: 100
Key target audience: HEIs management and academic staff
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michn%C5%AFv_pal%C3%A1c_dv%C5%AFr_1a.jpg
Contributions for download:
Presentations available HERE.
Password: teaching
Keynote lecture by Grace Neville: 
Grace_Neville_November_2018_Towards_Better_University_Teaching.pdf (347,53
KB)
Feedback:
Participants of the conference were asked to evaluate the conference by answering a questionnaire with two simple questions. The online questionnaire was eventually filled in by 28 participants.
The first question was “How do you generally rate the conference?” with possible answers ranging from “very beneficial” to “not beneficial at all”.
Precisely one half of the participants who filled in the questionnaire rated the conference very beneficial and second half of the participants rated it somewhat beneficial. No respondents felt that the conference was not very beneficial or not beneficial at all.
The second question was “Please mark up to three most interesting/inspiring presentations”. Almost one half of the respondents considered Grace Neville’s keynote presentation as one of the most interesting/inspiring. Other very popular presentations were those delivered by Jeffrey A. Vanderziel, Zdeněk Hurák, Petr Hedbávný and Roman Čermák.
Programme:
DAY 1 – 22/11/2018
|
9.00–10.00 |
Registration and coffee |
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10.00–10.30 |
Welcome word Pavel Doleček, Acting Deputy Minister for Higher Education, Science and Research |
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10.30–11.15 |
Keynote Lecture Grace Neville (IR) – Boosting the Debate and Efforts to Enhance the Quality of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Thoughts, Mistakes and Experiences |
|
11.15–12.15 |
European Perspective on Teaching in Higher Education Hana Machková (CZ) – Involvement of the Czech HEIs in teaching platform of EUA Tia Loukkola (EUA) – Learning & teaching in Europe: lessons learnt from recent EUA work
Pedro Torralbo (ESU) – From Lectures to Student Centred Learning |
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12.15–13.15 |
Lunch |
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13.15–15.15 |
Parallel session 1: Policies for the Development of Teaching Competences Snježana Šušnjara (BiH) – Enhancing the quality of teaching competences in higher education through the project’s activities Jeffrey A. Vanderziel (CZ)- Pedagogical Competence Development Center operating at the Masaryk University
Hana Marešová (CZ) - Career advancement of academic staff in the teaching activities
Milena Králíčková (CZ) – Centre for teaching competences at Charles University - Paedagogium Parallel session 2: Innovative methods in Teaching Practice Petra Aczél (HU) - Immersive Teaching and Learning Stefania Bocconi (IT) - Essential elements characterizing innovative learning environments in formal education Zdeněk Hurák (CZ) – Flipped classroom
Jiří Zemánek (CZ) – Learning through making |
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15.15–15.45 |
Coffee break |
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15.45–17.30 |
Parallel session 3: Development of Learning Competences Julie Bienertová Vašků (CZ) – Methodological Recommendations Based on the Problems Identified During Education - the Comparison of the Two Faculties Roman Čermák (CZ) – Teaching at Technical Universities: expectation of students and teachers and study completion
Libor Čapek (CZ) – Activities leading to the reduction of study failure and the increase in the
employability of graduates in the labor market Parallel session 4: Technology Enhanced Teaching: Risks and Opportunities
Reiner Salzer (DE) - Tools to increase attention and collaboration of
students Petr Hedbávný (CZ) - Increasing Classroom Participation with Offline Gamification: IMAGLEE Playing Cards Lukáš Macenauer (CZ) - Fabricando fabricamur 400 years later: online simulation games as a catalyst of quality improvement in training and education |
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17.30–20.00 |
Networking Dinner |
DAY 2 – 23/11/2018
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8.30–9.00 |
Registration and coffee |
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9.00–10.30 |
Plenary Session Caroline Ennis (UK) – How can universities meet students’ expectations? Alexander Kohler (AT) - Teaching in performance agreements with Austrian universities |
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10.30–11.00 |
Coffee break |
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11.00–12.45 |
Teaching Awards: Promoting Active Teaching Alexander Kohler (AT) – Ars Docendi state award for excellent teaching at Austrian universities
Radka Mrázková (CZ) – Masaryk University Rector’s Award for Outstanding Teachers Zdeněk Hurák (CZ) – Recipient of the Award for excellent educational activities by the Dean of Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague
Grace Neville (IR) – Recipient of President's Awards for Excellence in Teaching at UCC and of the French
Légion d’Honneur for her work in the innovation of teaching practices
Irena Kozmanová, Tomáš Fliegl (CZ) – Proposal of a Czech national award for teaching
activities |
|
12.45–13.00 |
Conclusions |
|
13.00 |
End of the conference |
Participating speakers:
- Grace Neville is Emeritus Professor in the French Department, University College Cork and Adjunct Professor of French at University College Dublin, having retired from UCC in 2012 after a career of c. 35 years as lecturer in French literature and language. She is recipient of the French Légion d’Honneur for her work developing and supporting innovation in teaching practices. Grace has been involved in Teaching and Learning initiatives since the early 1980s, from the UCC Teaching Development Unit to more recent initiatives inspired by the Teaching and Learning Scholarship at Harvard and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. In 2002, she was one of the first recipients of the President's Awards for Excellence in Teaching at UCC. As Vice President for Teaching and Learning, Grace had particular responsibility for Ionad Bairre, the Centre for the Support of Teaching and Learning in UCC and was a member of the teaching/organizing team of the Certificate, Diploma and Masters in Teaching and Learning, as well as the university-wide postgraduate module in Teaching and Learning.
- Hana Machková is Rector of the University of Economics in Prague since April 1, 2014. She has been working at the University of Economics in Prague since 1981, where she studied Economics and Management of Foreign Trade. She is actively involved in several international associations, for example she is a member of the Strategic Board of the international alliance CEMS and she is also the Czech member of the Executive Committee EUA.
- Tia Loukkola is Director for the Institutional Development unit of the European University Association, which encompasses various activities with particular focus on providing services and supporting EUA’s members among others through EUA’s Learning and Teaching Initiative. Tia and her unit are also in charge of EUA’s quality assurance and rankings activities, which include organising the European Quality Assurance Forum. Before joining EUA in April 2008 she worked at the University of Turku for ten years in various capacities both in faculty and central administration.
- Snježana Šušnjara is Head of Department of Pedagogy at the University of Sarajevo. Her research interests consist of communication in teaching, anthropology of upbringing and education, pedagogical management. In her project activities she focuses on how to perform an adequate preparation and training for teaching among quality criteria in order to enhance the quality of higher education.
- Jeffrey A. Vanderziel works as a coordinator for the Pedagogical Competence Development Center (CERPEK) at the Masaryk University and as a senior lecturer in the Department of English and American Studies, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University. He was also a board member of Fulbright Commission in the Czech Republic.
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Hana Marešová is Vice-Rector for Strategic Planning and Quality at Palacky University in Olomouc. From 2011 to 2016, she worked as the Vice-Dean for study affairs and lifelong learning and the Vice-Dean for organization, development and lifelong learning at Faculty of Education, Palacky University. Her research work is focused on the use of digital technology in education, including the lifelong learning, and the development of key competences at elementary schools (literacy, digital literacy, media education). Currently, she coordinated the preparation of institutional accreditation and the external evaluation of EUA at Palacky University.
- Milena Králíčková is Vice-Rector for Education at the Charles University and her research focus is early embryogenesis, differentiation and regeneration in relation to other cellular processes. From 2010 to 2013, she worked as the Vice-Dean for Development of the Medical Faculty in Pilsen. Since 2012, she has been an honorary ambassador of the Fulbright Commission.
- Stefania Bocconi is researcher at the Institute for Educational Technology of the National Research Council of Italy (ITD-CNR). Her research interests are in the field of Technology Enhanced Learning and the role of ICT in improving teaching and learning processes. During 2012, she was research fellow at the European Commission, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (JRC-IPTS), where she contributed to projects on ICT for Learning, Creativity and Innovation, focusing on essential elements that characterise creative learning environments in formal education settings (SCALE CCR project). She also contributed to the analysis of the impact on teaching and learning of recent 1:1 computing initiatives in Europe (1:1 Learning study).
- Zdeněk Hurák is associate professor in technical cybernetics at Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague. His main research focus is on the mathematical foundations of control theory and dynamical systems but he also frequently steps into various application domains such as (micro)robotics, microfluidics, mechatronics, transportation and aerospace (see more at his group webpage http://aa4cc.dce.fel.cvut.cz/). He is passionate about teaching and within the Cybernetics and Robotics study program (see http://kyr.fel.cvut.cz/) he enjoys freedom and support to explore new ways of teaching, including flipped classroom, specification/competence-based grading and project-based teaching. For all these activities (and their warm reflections by students) he was awarded the Dean's Prize for the best teacher of the year 2018.
- Petra Aczél is university professor and head of the Institute of Behavioural Science and Communication Theory, Corvinus University of Budapest. She earned her MA and PhD degrees at Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences, and as a distinguished teacher and scholar she was honored as recipient of the European Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Social Sciences and Humanities by Central European University in 2017. She was also selected as a Teacher of the Year at Corvinus University of Budapest in 2012 and 2015 and she received the Kenneth Rice Prize for Teaching Excellence. Prof. Aczél focuses on teaching innovations in courses on political rhetoric, new media communication, and related topics.
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Jiří Zemánek is Teacher and researcher in the field of control engineering at Czech Technical University in Prague, Faculty of Electrical Engineering. The program director of the Prague Maker Faire, the festival that celebrates arts, crafts, engineering, science projects, and the do-it-yourself (DIY) mindset. Member of the nonprofit organization Zadna Veda (roughly, Not Rocket Science) organizing fun public experiments. Lifelong maker passionate about high-tech toys popularizing science and technology. Winner of several international prizes for his projects and videos.
- Julie Bienertová-Vašků is Associate Professor in Physiology and Pathophysiology at the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University in Brno. She is a team leader of the "Adipose tissue and stress" team at the Faculty of Sciences at Masaryk University, too. JBV has multiple excellent research collaborations with outstanding institutions worldwide (UCL, ETH, Mayo Clinic, Ghent University, etc). JBV is mainly focused on the physiology of stress in humans and its relation to the functioning of the adipose tissue (brain-adipose tissue axis). JBV has been also devoting a significant part of her efforts to the support of methodology of education in the medical field.
- Roman Čermák is Dean of the Faculty of Technology at Tomas Bata University in Zlín, associate professor in the field of Technology of Macromolecular Substances. His pedagogical and research activities are directed to the field of processing, structure and properties of plastics and elastomers. He advocates for modernizing the study environment at the faculty and fostering communication between the faculty and its students.
- Libor Čapek is professor of physical chemistry at the Faculty of Chemical Technology, University at Pardubice.
- Reiner Salzer retired as Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the Technische Universität Dresden, Germany, in 2007. His main scientific interests include molecular monitoring for early diagnosis of diseases, integration of biologically active functions into polymers, and for quality standards in university education. Professor Salzer has authored 15 patents in different fields of analytical chemistry, and over 300 books and scientific publications. He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science, a recipient of several national and international medals, among them the Hanuš Medal of the Czech Chemical Society and the Ioannes Marcus Marci Medal of the Czech Ioannes Marcus Marci Society for Spectroscopy.
- Petr Hedbávný is adjunct lecturer at Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague. He has co-authored IMAGLEE playing cards, a multi-semiotic and pictogram-based learning tool targeting conceptual thinking and emphatic exchange of ideas.
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Lukáš Macenauer has been active in Ed-Tech since 2007, implementing live-online teaching in his language school and becoming an area representative for Pearson Digital Platforms. He later specialized in simulations for VET while studying Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh and in 2015 he co-founded an HR-Tech startup Behavera which has developed a new behavioral method of competency assessment based on simulation games. Currently, he is working with his team and partner organisations on solutions for a growing demand on quality control in and improvement of relevance of teaching in HE.
- Caroline Ennis is active management educationalist who is professionally oriented, supportive and effective in roles as a teacher, manager and internal/external examiner. Her teaching roles are with Westminster Business School and Birkbeck, University of London. In addition to this, she has operated a consultancy business since 2005 that provides services for management learning design and delivery, to both the public and private education sector. Experience gained working across educational departments and faculties, in both an academic and operational role, has facilitated her constructive and progressive approach to improved educational design and service provision. At present her research is considering the responsiveness of higher education providers to the expectations of students. Through an exploratory approach the work seeks to inform future curriculum design.
- Alexander Kohler works for Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research in the Office of the Quality Assurance Council for Teacher Training Programmes. He worked as a managing director of the Austrian Quality Assurance Agency (AQA) and as a national expert at the European Commission, DG Education and Culture and at the CEDEFOP.
