Research team

J. E. Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem

Address:
Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, J. E. Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem,
České mládeže 8, CZ-400 96, Ústí nad Labem
(www)

M.A. M.Sc. Jan D. Bláha, Ph.D. (researcher)

He graduated from the Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Science, in Geography and Cartography, with specialization in cartography and geoinformatics, and also from the same university, Faculty of Arts, Department of Culture, in Cultural Studies with specialization in cultural anthropology. He is a member of the Czech Geographical Society, the Czech Educational Research Association, and the European Society for Oceanists. He completed several internships in Germany and Austria.

As regards research, he is engaged in aesthetic and cultural and anthropological aspects of cartographic production and the assessment of cartographic works from the user perspective. He is engaged especially in relations between utility functions of maps and their aesthetic function and studies how they influence each other. He recently pays his attention also to comprehensive research on so-called mental maps in the case of various groups of individuals and also to research in the field of geographic education (school atlas creation, analysis of textbooks, and mental mapping of pupils).

 

M.Sc. Silvie R. Kučerová, Ph.D. (team member)

She is Lecturer in the Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, and in the Department of Social Geography and Regional Development, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague. She specializes in issues of education geography, geography education, rural geography, and cultural geography. She has participated in the creation of tests for entrance examinations in geography, Bachelor studies, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague.

 

M.Sc. Petr Meyer (team member)
M.Sc. Petr Trahorsch (team member)

 

Masaryk University, Brno

Address:
Institut for Research in School Education, Faculty of Education, Masaryk University,
Poříčí 31, CZ-603 00, Brno
(www)

Assoc. Prof. Petr Knecht, Ph.D. (co-researcher)

He graduated from Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, in Primary School Teacher Training in Geography and Civics, and also completed doctoral studies in Education at the same university (2008, supervised by doc. PaedDr. Eduard Hofmann, CSc.). His professional specialization is mainly in research on curricula (curricular studies), school teaching and learning (transdisciplinary didactics) and selected issues of didactics of geography. In 2009-2011 he collaborated on the general Kvalitní škola (High-Quality School) research, the aim of which was to evaluate the success rate of the curricular reform at grammar schools. Along with T. Janik and J. Maňák, he is a co-author of the Cíle a obsahy školního vzdělávání
a metodologie jejich utváření
publication (2009). In 2014 he published the research monograph named Příležitosti k rozvíjení kompetence k řešení problémů v učebnicích a ve výuce zeměpisu.

In terms of methodology, he specializes in research based on a content analysis of curriculum documents. He works as Senior Editor and the Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Pedagogická orientace journal and in the Editorial Boards of the Review of International Geographical Education Online and Universitas journals. He is teaching geography at primary school as a part-time job.

 

M.Sc. Tomáš Janko, Ph.D. (team member)

He is a graduate in Primary School Teacher Training in Geography and Civics, Faculty of Education, Masaryk University. He has also completed Education, doctoral programme, at the same university. Now he works as Lecturer at the Institute for Research in School Education, Faculty of Education, Masaryk University. In terms of research, he specializes in issues of the evaluation of school textbooks (in terms of non-verbal elements) and currently also in issues of quality in education. In terms of methodology, he specializes in research based on a content analysis.

 

M.Sc. Karolína Pešková, Ph.D. (team member)