INSTITUTE OF EDUCATIONAL STUDIES
Institute of Educational Studies as part of the Faculty of Education, Comenius University in Bratislava was established on September 1, 2011. It is educational, scientific research and advisory workplace. Its organizational sections are the Centre for Educational Research and the Department of Education and Social Pedagogy.
The institute is headed by a director Assoc. prof. PaedDr. Dušan Kostrub, PhD. The Institute is one of the primary workplaces of the Faculty of Education what stems from the fact that the subject of the faculty is pedagogical science in all its relationships and consequences. The concept of the scientific research activities of the Institute of Educational Studies is designed to define the overall project focus and determination of its priorities. The concept of the institute is based on its statute. The counselling centre at the Institute of Educational Studies delivers services for teachers in supporting the needs of pedagogues in practice. The role of the institute is to conduct a free and independent educational research, which focuses mainly on the field of educational research and teaching of children, pupils, students, youth, teachers and other pedagogical staff. Under investigation are mainly educational phenomena and educational situations in school and outside the school environment as well as other phenomena and situations connected with education in the context of current socio-cultural knowledge of society in correspondence with the knowledge of other sciences. The content of the Institute of Social Studies is to support and develop research in educational sciences with a predominance of a qualitative methodology and thus participate in the development of pedagogical discourse.
Scientific research in close relation to the Department of Education and Social Pedagogy is first of all aimed at 1) development of theoretical basis of teaching and pedagogy, 2) application of its results in the teaching process and further socio-cultural framework of pedagogical and didactic practice. The faculties and researchers of the Institute of Educational Studies also provide the scientific education of PhD. students.
Centre for Educational Research (CER). Priorities of CER are research, development and evaluation in the field of education, local, national and international cooperation in research, transfer of theoretical knowledge into the educational practice, improvement of the research conditions, constitution of human resources with regard to their renewal, home and foreign recognition and improvement of the position of educational science and scientists in society. The important task of CER is to declare and define clear, scientifically sound methodology (including qualitative methodology), to participate in research which is in scientific field unique on its own, to search for and point at the new perspectives that benefit pedagogical community and society.
Department of Education and Social Pedagogy (DESP). DESP is one of the oldest departments of the Faculty of Education. The accredited study programs offered are: I. Training for teachers of pedagogy in combination in bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Study program can be combined with other study programs for academic subjects and arts education subjects (like Slovak language, foreign languages, Psychology, History, Biology, Civics, Visual Arts, Music Arts, etc.) Graduates can work as qualified teachers, professionals in the area of school system and school facilities, in state administration departments, in schools as coordinators of free and leisure time activities, etc. II. Social pedagogy and tutorship in bachelor’s degree. The study program is training pedagogues as non-teachers professionals. Graduates can work as social pedagogues in elementary schools, as educators in school clubs, leisure centers and rehabilitation clinics, re-educational facilities.
The department also offers obligatory courses in the area of general educational-psychological and social sciences knowledge and skills which are necessary specifically in study programs focused on highly qualified training for teachers. The department also participates in the teaching in the study programs in the areas of pre-primary and primary education, special education, speech therapy, curative education and social work. Within the framework of lifelong learning education it also provides additional pedagogical study in the form of external study. The department was granted a right to implement rigorous procedures in the study subject Training for teachers of pedagogy in combination.
The members of the department are also coordinators or partners in the research projects, authors or co-authors of scientific publications, studies, proceedings from conferences, active participants in the conferences, seminars and other professional events. The department cooperates with universities and institutions abroad, e.g. Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, in Hungary; Florida University in Gainesville, USA; and in the Czech Republic, University of Hradec Králové, Charles University in Prague, University of Pardubice, University in Ústí nad Labem; Universität Wien in Austria.
