Teachers of the future have their own faculty castle. History lessons at Bečov Ca












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            * Teachers of the future have their own faculty castle. History students take some lessons
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            At the end of May the CU Faculty of Pedagogy signed a cooperation agreement with the Czech

            Heritage Institute, allowing students of history and, eventually, other subjects to spend 
            studies in the authentic environment of Bečov Castle. Cooperation between the two institut
            nothing new, and stretches back to 2008.

            The first contact between representatives of the Department of History and History Didacti
            National Heritage Institute was forged five years ago in Český Krumlov, at a seminar focus
            programmes on UNESCO sites. “We were presenting a project, realised through the European S

            concerning education in relation to the cultural and historical heritage of Europe,” said 
            Havlůjová, Ph.D., specialist assistant to the Department of History and History Didactics.

            A number of national heritage sites, including Telč and Bečov, were also giving presentati
            Krumlov on their activities promoting the development of educational programmes. “When I w
            the presentations for one of my colleagues from Britain, I realised that, for some of the 

            couldn’t think of a parallel in other countries; these really are unique proposals,” said 
            Based on this seminar, representatives of the Department contacted Bečov State Castle and 
            as Plasy Monastery, to prepare a selection seminar. This was held in 2009 and allowed stud

            programmes for school pupils and students for both heritage sites. Students also visited o
            other to get a better idea of what kind of projects would and wouldn’t be workable.
            Parallel to these activities, Dr. Havlůjová also got a group of students to whom she was t

            at the time involved. She used these students to ‘test’ how a national heritage site could
            in their age group and which activities, as drawn up by future teachers, they could manage
            school students, including one blind girl, asked for more exhibits that visitors could tou

            Castle.
            As state-administered heritage sites don’t have the funds for this type of exhibit, the st
            for a grant, announced by the Vodafone Foundation, and, in cooperation with inmates from H

            Prison, created a replica of the reliquary of St. Maurus. This replica is mobile, meaning 
            carried to different parts of the castle and, in winter, taken to talks at schools and old
            “We tried to make a presentation on the reliquary to give listeners a better idea of the m

            such as reliquary, saint or remains. As part of the project the students also created a ha
            Europe, showing places where reliquaries are found,” continued Dr. Havlůjová.
            In 2012 the Pedagogical Faculties of Charles University and Masaryk University joined forc

            National Heritage Institute as part of a Ministry of Culture project entitled The educatio
            National heritage Institute: Education as a Key Tool in the Improved Care of the Cultural 
            the Czech Republic, which will last until 2015 and whose aim it is open heritage sites up 

            educational activities aimed at all generations.
            “As we had already tried selection and didactic seminars, we wanted to think of heritage s
            global sense, as witnesses to the past that we want to understand, so we took students, as

            introductory history courses, to the real-world environment of Bečov, where there is not o
            but also a historic town with a constantly renewing botanic garden, meaning we also had so
            students who were also studying biology,” explained Dr. Hana Havlůjová.

            The outcome of this was a four-day interactive excursion that gave students the opportunit
            out for themselves and see them in context.
            “We are currently evaluating the fulfilment of the goal of the seminar and benefit to stud

            like to continue into next year and we’ll see whether the concept is transferable to other
            realised as part of university education.”
            The aforementioned cooperation agreement between the National Heritage Institute and the C

            Pedagogy was signed on 29 May and gives Bečov State Castle and Chateau the status of Facul
            “I believe that the cooperation that we have initiated will be of interest to not only his
            special pedagogues or other parts of Charles University for pedagogical research,” said Dr

            evaluating the new contract.