Mgr. Veronika Švandová, Ph.D.

Since 2014, she has worked as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Science at Masaryk University, at the Department of Chemistry. She now also holds the position of Vice-Dean for the Development of Teacher Education Programmes. She is involved in the accreditation and innovation of study programmes and participates in a range of projects aimed at improving the quality of teacher education.

Already during her studies, she taught at the Biskupské Gymnázium in Brno. Since 2020, she has been teaching chemistry at the Evangelical Secondary School and Primary School in Brno. She completed her doctoral studies at Palacký University in Olomouc.

 

Teacher training has been changing significantly in recent years. How will that affect your work as Vice-Dean?

One of my main tasks is to implement the teacher education reform that started around 2020 in connection with the Strategy 2030+.

We need to translate the individual elements of the reform into teacher education programmes. Part of my agenda is therefore focused on developing study programmes in teacher training.

At our faculty, teacher education is delivered across several departments – chemistry, physics, mathematics, biology, and geography – so some activities need to be coordinated across the faculty. I’m also involved in the joint programme board for teacher education.

We’re currently preparing new accreditation for teacher training programmes, which now have to follow entirely new rules – framework requirements.

It’s going to be quite difficult to coordinate and align the different disciplines with other faculties. We work most closely with the Faculty of Arts. The basic outline of the new programmes should be ready by June this year, and students are expected to start studying under the new rules from September 2028.

So it was a flying start for me because I didn’t just take over some routine, well-established responsibilities, but found myself immediately in a position where I’m communicating with vice-deans and deans from other faculties. Time is pressing, and teacher education really needs to undergo substantial change.

 

What exactly is going to change in the programmes?

One key part of the reform is the definition of a graduate competence framework. It clearly sets out what a graduate should look like – what competencies they should have and at what level.

Our task now is to implement this framework into teacher training – not just formally in accreditation documents, but throughout the entire study programme: in the information system, in individual courses, in teaching methods, formats, and learning outcomes.

Teachers responsible for different components of teacher training – foundational courses, teaching practice, subject content, and subject didactics – will need to work together to ensure everything is interconnected and aligned with the competence framework.

We also want to align our programmes with the framework requirements so that they can be combined with programmes from other faculties at Masaryk University such as the Faculties of Arts, Education, Informatics, and Sports Studies. For that to work, the university needs a certain level of consistency, and our faculty has to respect these requirements.

 

What are the biggest changes introduced by the framework requirements?

They include strengthening teaching practice and moving subject didactics courses into the bachelor’s level. The amount of foundational training – pedagogy, psychology, special education, digital competencies – is also expected to roughly double.

That’s a big shift for us because our bachelor’s programmes used to focus more on subject content, while the master’s programmes focused on teaching practice and how to teach the subject.

Now the pedagogical component is being significantly strengthened. Students should be going into schools more often already during their bachelor’s studies and focusing more on how to teach their subjects.

At the same time, this inevitably reduces the number of credits devoted to the subject itself. Subject lecturers will need to take into account that they are teaching future teachers, and that the competence framework must also be reflected in their courses. Teaching schedules will also need to adapt to more extensive teaching practice.

We’re trying to set things up so that the reduction in subject depth is as limited as possible – we still need our graduates to be capable of preparing secondary school students for their final exams.

 

What benefits will this bring for students?

A few years ago, it wasn’t uncommon for students to have their first teaching practice as late as the fourth year of a five-year programme. After four years, some would realise they didn’t actually want or weren’t able to teach.

Now, teaching practice should be part of the programme from the very first year. Students will get a realistic idea of what teaching involves and will be better able to connect theory with practice.

It should also help them in courses like pedagogy or general didactics, because they’ll be able to link concepts to real classroom situations.

 

Cooperation with secondary schools is another key part of the reform. How do you plan to strengthen it?

We’re aiming for much closer cooperation with secondary schools so that university teachers stay connected to what actually happens in classrooms. We don’t want teaching to be purely theoretical. It should be grounded in real experience.

Ideally, subject didactics specialists should also have their own teaching experience at secondary schools.

We’re also establishing a so-called clinical secondary school, which should serve as a space where these ideas are put into practice. Secondary school teachers could get involved in university teaching, and students would gain direct, hands-on experience from them.

This is also part of a broader vision from the Ministry of Education. Masaryk University is currently preparing two such schools – a primary and a secondary one.

At the same time, together with the Faculty of Arts, we’re training mentor teachers who supervise teaching practice. This should help ensure that teaching placements are carried out effectively and improve their overall quality.

We also want teaching practice to include structured reflection. At least once during each placement, this reflection should involve not only the student and their mentor teacher, but also a subject didactics specialist from the university.

Implementing this so-called “tripartite reflection” is another challenge – it requires significant time and staffing capacity – but it leads to deeper collaboration between schools and universities, and among all those involved in training future teachers.

 

Your agenda is quite broad. What does it include?

In addition to coordinating teacher education programmes across the faculty, I’m also involved in lifelong learning, where my work overlaps with Vice-Dean Karel Kubíček.

For example, I’m responsible for the pedagogy programme that provides teaching qualifications for primary and secondary schools.

We also now have an obligation as a faculty to train the teachers who supervise our students during teaching practice. I’ve recently submitted accreditation for a course designed for these mentor teachers.

My agenda also includes promoting the teaching profession at secondary schools, and I’m partly involved in projects and their funding as well.

 

What do you see as the biggest challenge?

The biggest challenge will be preparing the new programmes and communicating all the changes clearly to individual departments. It’s important to explain that these changes come from the Ministry and to get people on board.

We’ll also need to track how students develop their competencies in line with the framework.

This may also involve changes in how studies are completed. For example, introducing a portfolio instead of a traditional bachelor’s thesis. That would be a major shift for both students and staff.

 

How would such a portfolio work?

It would be a collection of materials that students produce throughout their studies, documenting their progress in different competencies.

Students would leave better prepared for teaching practice and would feel more confident at their final state exam, because they’d be presenting work they’ve developed over a longer period of time.

 

What do you see as the main benefit of your role as Vice-Dean?

For me, it’s both a great opportunity and a challenge. It’s an area I’ve been involved in for a long time and feel confident in.

I’d like to share my experience across disciplines, support my colleagues, and help them navigate the changes ahead.

The main benefit is that it brings together people from different fields to discuss teacher training. It allows certain things to be set centrally and coordinated across the faculty, which would otherwise be much more complicated.

 

What would you like to say to teacher training students?

I’d like to tell them they made a good choice in becoming teachers. The Czech Republic is facing a shortage of teachers, so their job prospects are very strong.

At the same time, I want to stress that they are important to our faculty and we don’t want them to feel like second-class students. We value their activities – whether it’s science outreach, working with secondary school students, or their own projects – and we want to support them in that.