During the second week of November, the Faculty of Physical Culture (FPC) celebrated the 20th anniversary of its annual event – International Teaching Week (ITW). It is exactly 10 years since the International Relations Office first decided to organize a week full of lectures done by international guests. Even the Covid-19 pandemic could not throw this successful event into disarray and the lectures were merely moved to the online world for two semesters.
The 20th ITW was fortunately spared similar global disasters, and all students and staff were able to meet in person with lecturers from Poland, the UK, Israel, the USA, Colombia, Iran and the Philippines. The only exceptions were two participants who presented their lessons via live online streaming from Kenya and the USA. One of the goals of ITW is to offer a wide range of topics, so that students from all study programmes at our faculty can find something to suit them. This year, we managed to arrange
lectures from fields such as physiotherapy, biomechanics, public health, P.E. teaching, extreme sports, psychology and also areas that are a bit unusual for FPC, such as music and business. A favourite part of most ITWs are the practical workshops, which took place in the AC BALUO testing hall this year, and students tried out various jump rope exercises and engaged their creativity in devising their own movement activities, among other things.
A great benefit that ITW brings to students and staff is that most of the invited lecturers come from partner universities of our faculty and those interested in going abroad can create professional contacts and find out more about the teaching styles adopted at different institutions abroad. For those who cannot or do not want to apply for the Erasmus stay, the ITW enables at least a short experience with teaching outside the Czech Republic.
Dr. Michal Kudláček, the Vice-Dean for International Relations also says: “ITW is a kind of incubator for networking of all its participants, which is one of the many benefits of this event. Several participants of previous ITW managed to connect with people from different countries, even from different continents, and thus started their long-lasting cooperation.” Last but not least, this international event offers the opportunity to broaden one’s knowledge and, of course, to practice English.
More information, including programmes and photos from this year's and previous ITWs, is available on the FPC website.
Finally, we hope that there is at least 10 more years of International Teaching Week ahead of us and we are already looking forward to the 21st ITW, which will take place on 17-21 April 2023.