Pedagocial training from Czech colleagues at HSE St.Petersburg

The course “Teaching Development Program: Teaching Principles and Practice” has been delivered to the HSE-St. Petersburg teachers for several years in a row, and each time it attracts many attendees.

The course is organized by the Centre for Economic Research and Graduate Education – Economic Institution (CERGE-EI, Prague) and HSE Staff Development and Training Department (HR-Office).   This year was not an exception, and a dozen of Foreign Languages Department teachers enrolled on the course to foster their teaching skills. For five days we were gathering at Kantemirovskaya to listen, discuss, write, and develop. It was an enjoyable and informative event that we are very grateful for. 

This crash pedagogical course was a good and positive warm-up before the start of the academic year. Apart from learning many tricks and lifehacks, it was a surprise to find out that not only HSE professors of mathematics, sociology, political studies, and oriental studies, but also our colleagues from a different country with a different culture frequently face the same problems as we do here: poor attendance, especially in the early morning, plagiarism, personality clashes, work overload, many standards, difficult classes and difficult students. When you realise that, it is easier to find solutions, and learn effective methods of adapting to the new reality full of gadgets, distractors, and opportunities to cheat. 

Another motivating factor was that our instructors, Gray and Georgy, demonstrated that it is possible to engage some dozens of busy adults with a lot of commitments - who hardly know each other - into an animated discussion and enthusiastic poster-drawing. Everybody was so eager to share and discuss that our teachers had to be very strict to stop us. It showed that good logistics, class management, alternation of activities - in other words, perfect planning - makes wonders!

We are looking forward to participating in the next of round of the course, which, hopefully, will take place next August!