Science Education Support Centre celebrates 5 years of its existence
The Centre for the Promotion of Science Education (CPPV) of the Faculty of Science of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí celebrates its fifth anniversary. Since its establishment on 1 March 2020, it has played a key role in the development of science education in the region and promotes interdisciplinary cooperation in the field of science didactics.
The CPPV was established in response to the need for more effective communication between the university environment and primary and secondary schools in the Ústí nad Labem region. Its main goal is to connect didacticians, to prepare future science teachers, to support educational activities in the region, to popularize science disciplines and to strengthen the development and research in the field of science didactics.
The academic staff of the CPPV is involved in teaching didactic subjects, implementation of teaching practices, training of accompanying teachers and reform of the education system of the Czech Republic, submits development and research projects and publishes professional and popularizing texts, textbooks, methodologies and videos.
During 2024, CPPV successfully completed three projects and started four new development projects aimed at improving the quality of science teaching and teacher training. During the past five years, CPPV has organized hundreds of subject seminars, visit programs, summer schools and camps for students and trained more than fifty accompanying teachers, which has positive impacts on the quality of teaching practices.
The Centre contributes significantly to the cooperation with faculty schools and other actors in education policy, thus promoting the quality of science education in the region.
“On the occasion of this wonderful anniversary, I would like to thank the Dean, Assoc. Michal Varady, Ph.D., who founded the Science Education Support Centre in response to the desperate shortage of endorsed science teachers in the region, and who has supported it ‘like his own child’ for the past five years. I would also like to thank all my colleagues, both internal and external to the Centre, who have been involved with amazing and unflagging enthusiasm. The Centre has proven to be an important catalyst for the discussion of didacticians not only at the faculty but at the whole university, a mediator of the community of active teachers in the region and an actor in the ongoing reform of Czech education,” said Assoc. Kateřina Jančaříková, who has been leading the CPPV since September 2021.
The Centre will continue its activities with the aim of strengthening the connection between academia and school practice and contributing to the development of quality science education in the Ústí nad Labem region.