St. Nicolas event for students
Let's celebrate the traditional Czech winter holiday together!
The MU Vice-Rector's Award for excellent results was presented to Christopher Williams, M.A., Ph.D., and Mgr. Martin Fico, Ph.D.
Christopher Williams, M.A., Ph.D. and his supervisor prof. Mgr. Olga Dontcheva-Navrátilová, Ph.D.
– field: Foreign Language Didactics, final thesis: A Study of Syntactic and Lexical Complexity Features in L2 (Czech) English-medium Argumentative Essays
In his work, Christopher Williams analyzed the complexity of language use in argumentative essays written by Czech high school students in English as a second language. He uses a wide range of measures to assess syntactic and lexical complexity in order to determine how complexity reflects students' language skills. The results showed that students with higher levels of proficiency have higher levels of linguistic complexity, which has a significant impact on foreign language teaching and language proficiency assessment. Reviewers evaluate the work as an important contribution to foreign language teaching, with practical applications at both the high school and university levels.
Mgr. Martin Fico, Ph.D. and his supervisor doc. PaedDr. Hana Horká, CSc.
– field: School pedagogy, final thesis: Additional Pedagogical Education as a Prerequisite for Entering the Profession: Prestige of the Teaching Profession and Self-Efficacy
Martin Fico focused on participants in lifelong learning programs in educational sciences, their teaching self-efficacy (perception of their own effectiveness), and the prestige of the teaching profession. He adapted the international NTSES tools to the Czech environment for measuring self-efficacy and created his own tool for examining the prestige of the teaching profession, which he verified in his research. His results show a low level of self-efficacy, especially in the area of managing discipline and student motivation, and different perceptions of prestige depending on the motivational attitudes of graduates. The work makes an original and practical contribution to educational theory and policy, which is also appreciated by opponents as a significant contribution to the development of the teaching profession and education.
