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Pedagogická fakulta UKF v Nitre je spätá s odkazom 9. storočia, kedy boli na území Nitrianskeho kniežatstva so sídlom v Nitre Konštantínom Filozofom a Metodom položené prvé základy organizovanej vzdelanosti. Je to fakt, ktorý u každého, kto pôsobí na fakulte, podnecuje hrdosť na príslušnosť k inštitúcii. Uvedené zároveň predstavuje záväzok do budúcnosti - pokračovať v pokrokovom odkaze minulosti. Počas svojej histórie prekonala fakulta niekoľko reforiem a zmien. V príprave učiteľov PF UKF v Nitre nadväzuje na dávnejšie stredoškolské vzdelávanie učiteľov v Nitre na učiteľskom ústave, pedagogickom gymnáziu a pedagogickej škole, ako aj na vysokoškolské vzdelávanie učiteľov na Pedagogickej fakulte Slovenskej univerzity v Bratislave s pôsobnosťou konzultačného strediska v Nitre v rokoch 1949 - 1956. Novšie dejiny Pedagogickej fakulty v Nitre siahajú do roku 1959, kedy bol v Nitre zriadený Pedagogický inštitút so 6 katedrami. Na nich sa začalo pripravovať prvých 315 študentov - budúcich učiteľov. Pedagogický inštitút sa v roku 1964 pretransformoval na samostatnú Pedagogickú fakultu, na ktorej sa pripravovali študenti v prírodovedných, spoločensko-vedných a umenovedných odboroch. Novšia história inštitúcie je spojená s rokom 1992, kedy na krátky čas tvorila Pedagogická fakulta spolu s Vysokou školou poľnohospodárskou Nitriansku univerzitu. Ďalšiu reformu predstavovalo osamostatnenie pedagogickej inštitúcie a vznik Vysokej školy pedagogickej (1992 - 1996). Pedagogická fakulta sa etablovala ako relatívne autonómna fakulta VŠPg, s vlastnými riadiacimi a vedeckými orgánmi, administratívnou a organizačnou štruktúrou. Relatívnu samostatnosť si zachovala aj po premenovaní VŠPg na Univerzitu Konštantína Filozofa v Nitre v roku 1996. Pedagogická fakulta UKF je nielen vysokoškolskou vzdelávacou inštitúciou, ale zároveň i vedecko-výskumnou inštitúciou. Jednotlivé pracoviská PF UKF a ich pracovníci sú zapojení do riešenia desiatok vedecko-výskumných projektov, ktoré sa riešia na celoštátnej i medzinárodnej úrovni. Osobitosťou PF UKF v oblasti vedy a výskumu je, že sa realizuje vo veľmi širokej škále tém, výskumných oblastí, umeleckých a športových činností, čo vyplýva zo zamerania jednotlivých katedier. Každoročne sa na fakulte uskutočňujú desiatky vedeckých, odborných, umeleckých a športových podujatí.
Zmeny, ktoré fakulta prekonala boli vždy späté so spoločensko-ekonomickými podmienkami na Slovensku a determinované ďalšími tendenciami rozvoja spoločnosti. Preto výchovno-vzdelávací systém na fakulte nikdy nebol statický a rigidný. Pedagogická fakulta je najstaršou fakultou UKF v Nitre, pričom počas svojho vývoja prešla progresívnym vývojom, prekonala mnohé obsahové, organizačné, personálne i materiálne zmeny. V súčasnosti sa takmer všetky pracoviská fakulty nachádzajú v moderných priestoroch v samostatnom areáli s parkom v krásnej časti Nitry pod Zoborom.
FACULTY OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF CONSTANTINE THE PHILOSOPHER IN NITRA Faculty of Education of the University of Constantine the Philosopher in Nitra proudly avows to the oldest cultural traditions and onset of education in the Slovak national history. The first foundations of organized education on the territory of the Nitra Principality were laid by Constantine and Methodius in Nitra in 9th century. This culture was based on the old Slovak language – the first literary language on the territory of Great Moravia, the first script - Glagolics - and was inseparably connected with the evalgelization.
Newer history of the Faculty of Education reaches back to 1959, when Pedagogical Institute originated in Nitra. 315 future teachers started their education at six of its departments. In 1964 the Pedagogical Institute was transformed into an independent Faculty of Education with a wide spectrum of study fields of teachers education, with 2984 students, of which 1159 were educated for schools with Hungarian language of teaching. After a short period of co-existence of the Faculty of Education with the Agricultural University under the common institution – University of Nitra (1992), University of Education originated in December 1992. One of its three faculties was the Faculty of Education with its own managing and scientific bodies, administrative and organization structure. The effort of creation of a higher education institution of a university type was completed by the last fundamental change which was renaming the University of Pedagogy into the University of Constantine the Philosopher in Nitra in 1996. The Faculty of Education currently resides in modern premises of the independent area with a park in the beautiful part of Nitra under the Zobor Hill.
The whole present University of Constantine the Philosopher has grown from the Faculty of Education, with which the beginnings of teacher education in Nitra are connected. Within the framework of the Faculty of Education all later faculties were formed and were gradually becoming independent during a complex process of transformation: at the beginning it was the Faculty of Human Sciences (the present Faculty of Arts) and the Faculty of Natural Sciences, later on Faculty of Social Sciences (at present Faculty of Social Sciences and Health Care) and not long ago the Faculty of Central-European Studies. In spite of the fact that the Faculty of Education has continuously been loosing its fields of study and along with them also students and pedagogues, it is still a competitive faculty, which occupies a stable position among other pedagogical faculties in Slovakia. Today, the Faculty of Education consists of 8 departments (Dpt. of Pedagogy, Dpt. of School Psychology, Dpt. of Physical Education and Sport, Dpt. of Creative Arts and Education, Dpt. of Music, Dpt. of Technology and Information Technologies, Dpt. of Foreign Languages and Dpt of UNESCO) as well as the Institute of Educational Technology. Faculty of Education currently employs 162 employees, of whom 129 are pedagogues (of whom 16 are professors and 16 assistant professors) and 6 scientific workers.
Even that during the last several years orientation of many teachers´ training faculties has been shifted into new scientific and professional study programmes, Faculty of Education sticks to its original bearing, which is university preparation of teachers for elementary and secondary schools, as well as experts active in school and non-school institutions and facilities. Except for teacher training, the Faculty of Education provides also scientific and professional studies, as well as studies of technology of education, and creates conditions for the realization of a lifelong education of educationalists through expanding post-gradual forms of education.
Within the restructuring of study fields and programmes in the process of accreditation, the Faculty of Education reached rights for the realization of the following study programmes within bachelors, masters as well as doctoral level (started from academic year 2004/2005):
I. Bachelors and masters level:
Teachers´ Training Programmes:
1. Preschool and Elementary Pedagogy,
2. Pedagogy of Academic Subjects
- Pedagogy (in combination); English Language and Literature; English Language and Literature (in combination),
3. Pedagogy of Professional Subjects and Subjects of Vocational Training
- Technical Education (in combination); Technical Education,
4. Pedagogy of Artistic-Educational and Educational Subjects
- Music Education (in combination); Music Pedagogy; Pedagogy of Music-Dramaturgy; Creative Arts (in combination); Physical Education (in combination).
Scientific and Professional programmes:
- Pedagogy and Tutorage; Translatology and Interpretership for Regional Development (English Language); Safety and Health Protection at Work; Technologies in Education.
II. Doctoral level:
- Pedagogy, Didactics of Professional Technical Subjects – Technical Education; Didactics of Music Education. Except for the above mentioned study programmes, the Faculty of Education realizes studies of several study programmes of masters and doctoral studies based on the previously granted accreditation rights. Almost 1500 full-time students in individual study fields of bachelors and masters studies and 1100 students studying in external and extraordinary forms study currently at the Faculty of Education.
Accreditation rights of the Faculty of Education include rigorous proceedings and granting the title „PaedDr.“ in the fields of study of masters level. At the same time, the Faculty of Education obtained new rights for realizing habilitation and inauguration proceedings in the study field of Pedagogy, others are in the state of preparation for accreditation.
Except for educational activity, the Faculty of Education successfully realizes multilateral scientific and research work. The workplaces solve tens of scientific-research projects on the national and international level. Participation in international tasks has recently grown and an expressive growth in approved tasks of grant agencies VEGA, KEGA, as well as development programmes, etc. can be considered a positive trend. Several projects resulted from cooperation with other faculties in Slovakia and the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The university-wide Grant Agency and the Grant Agency for Young Pedagogues provide support to young employees of the Faculty and graduants.
Scientific growth of the Faculty of Education arises both from its organization structure and the professional focus of scientific and pedagogic workers. Priority in essential and applied research is given to the problem of effectivity of pedagogical activity in educational facilities, problems of information and communication technologies, problem of Roma population and socialization of Roma youth, the concept of development of technical education, problems of musical culture and music pedagogy, issues of sports preparation of youth, etc.. The outputs of scientific and research work represent first of all books, scientific studies, professional works, periodicals and occassional collections of books, but also academic textbooks as well as books. The possibility to publish in the pedagogical journal Technology of Education, the Scientific Board of which resides at the Faculty of Education, is an important contribution in the sphere of scientific results presentation. Every year, the Faculty of Education organizes tens of scientific, professional, artistic and sport events.
The crucial workplace of the Faculty of Education is the Department of Pedagogy. Except for providing education of pedagogic disciplines for all teachers fields of study on the whole university, the department is exceptionally active in the sphere of publication and scientific work. On both artistic-education departments (Department of Music, Department of Creative Arts and Education) both pedagogues and students exert themselves in rich artistic activity in the sphere of music (performances on concert events, composing and conducting activities) or creative art (creation and presentation of pieces of creative art) at home and abroad. Some of the members of these departments belong among leading personalities of the present Slovak music and creative arts. The Academic Choir and the Academic Chamber Orchestra expand at the Faculty of Education. The Department of Physical Education and Sport organizes sports activities for students within the University Sport Club in Nitra (track and field events, basketball, football, volleyball). Students of this department have won several honours at Slovak as well as international events. Students of the Department of Foreign Languages publish a journal called pARTisan in English language and are also active in the dramatic group DRAMA CLUB. They introduce their dramatic performances in English language at various events organized by the Faculty and the University.
Social-Psychologic Consulting Centre, which helps students solve individual problems, works at the Department of School Psychology. Progressive growth of the Department of Technology and Information Technologies over the last several years is connected with the development in the sphere of information technologies and an effort to preserve our cultural heritage in the sphere of folk crafts. Application of information and communication technologies into the education process, promotion and innovation of didactic means and teaching aids are just a few of the main tasks of activity of the Institute of Technology of Education, a unique workplace in Slovakia. The workplace UNESCO-IRIE has been active as one of five workplaces of its kind in Slovakia since 1995. It was established in the effort to help cooperation between universities in the sphere of information and educational technologies.
Within the framework of international relations the cooperation focuses on educational institutions in Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Ukrajina and Russia. Probably the longest and most intensive cooperation exists between the Faculty of Education and the University of Pedagogy in Freiburg, Catholic School of Pedagogy in Leuven, but also Faculties of Education in Prague, Hradec Kralove, Ceske Budejovice and Ostrava. An intensive cooperation exists also with the Faculty of Education of the Silesian University in Katowice. The Faculty gradually opens also to foreign students (from Ukrajina, Lybia, Poland, Hungaria, Serbia) and there is a real assumption that through the implementation of the credit system ECTS their number will rapidly grow. |
