On Friday, high school teachers gathered at the Prague University of Economics and Business for the ÚČEKON conference, organized by INEV

On Friday, January 5, 2024, more than two hundred high school teachers of professional economic subjects gathered at the Prague University of Economics and Business to participate in the second annual ÚČEKON conference, organized by INEV, with the VŠE as this year’s main partner.

“The partnership and support of UČEKON is a natural part of the cooperation between the VŠE and high schools, because one of the activities in the educational role of our school is the preparation of qualified teachers of economic subjects in the accredited unique Master’s degree programme Teaching of Economic Subjects for High Schools, as well as in the minor specialisation Education in Finance and Accounting and in the implemented lifelong learning programmes as additional pedagogical studies for obtaining the endorsement for teaching economic subjects. As educators of teachers of economic subjects, we welcome such communication, as it allows us to better identify the educational needs of teaching practice, to provide teaching practice for education students in a broader network of high schools, not only in our faculty training schools, to spread awareness of the offer of teacher education at our university, to get feedback for further improvement of teacher training and to modernize the offer of courses of further education of teaching staff for teachers from practical training.” commented on the conference doc. Katarína Krpálková Krelová, Head of the Department of Didactics of Economic Subjects.

The participants of the conference were welcomed at the Prague University of Economics and Business by the Rector doc. Petr Dvořák, Ph. D., then the participants had the opportunity to participate in networking, lectures on various topics such as the current economic situation from the perspective of the CNB, Cryptocurrencies, Artificial Intelligence in teaching.

In the second part of the conference there was also a panel discussion on AI in teaching, which was attended by doc. Ota Novotný, Ph. D., Vice-Rector for Development and Corporate Relations.

Last but not least, during the conference, 3 teachers were awarded the Economic Ámos Award, which was presented by Prof. Pavel Krpálek from the Department of Didactics of Economic Subjects. About the award he says:

“Part of the UČEKON conference is the Economic Ámos award for excellent teachers of economic subjects in high schools, which is a combination of a professional evaluation of the pedagogical qualities of teachers with positive feedback from the students with whom these teachers work. Also in this second edition of UČEKON, three inspiring personalities were selected and awarded, who are united by their high professional credentials as successful educators, popularity and respect of pupils, innovation and creativity in teaching. There are certainly many more teachers whose work can be described as outstanding, the purpose of this event is to highlight and acknowledge them, and over time there will certainly be opportunities to identify, reward and motivate those teachers whose approach to pedagogy and their pupils is deserving. The resounding applause of the audience in the hall during the presentation of the awards testifies to this.”

The entire program on Friday concluded with a raffle drawing and thanking all participants for their efforts to become active educators and further their education.