Book of speakers
Overview, Perspectives from the Czech Republic on the project and the Assessment Tool & Teaching Excellence Database
Jan Beseda, PhD, is a senior researcher at the Centre for Higher Education Studies and holds the position of Head of the National Centre for Distance Education. Additionally, Jan serves as the Director of the Czech Association of Professional Tertiary Education. His primary areas of expertise include leveraging ICT in education, ensuring quality in higher education, and fostering competency development. Jan is also renowned for his role as the primary organizer of the international DisCo conference, focusing on the integration of ICT in education. Furthermore, he actively participates in several influential working groups, such as EURASHE Quality Assurance Community of Practice, and has been involved in numerous international projects. Jan is also a lecturer at the Higher Education Institution (HEI) Ambis in Prague.
Solar energy – vegetation – water in the landscape: The new teaching methodology on the air-conditioning function of vegetation for pre-service biology teachers
RNDr. Renata RYPLOVÁ, PhD | professional assistant, Faculty of Education, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Czech Republic
Renata Ryplova is professional assistant at Department of Biology, Faculty of Education, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Czech Republic. Having background in plant ecophysiology and working recently in the field of botany didactics she tries to cope with the phenomenon of „plant blindness “, describing human ignorance of plants. She tries to implement new scientific findings in plant ecophysiology into the school education via modern teaching/learning strategies and the use of digital tools, and by this way to enhance general plant awareness and understanding of plant role in human environment. In her university courses she encourages her students – pre-service science teachers - to make their future teaching practice attractive for pupils. Botany is not boring!
She is an author of numerous scientific papers and leader of national and international projects dealing with sustainable education.
Doc. RNDr. Jan Pokorný, CSc. | science director, ENKI, o.p.s. Třeboň, Czech Republic
Jan Pokorný is the science director of ENKI, o.p.s. Třeboň, Czech Republic. He has devoted himself internationally to the study of the effect of vegetation on solar energy distribution, nutrient retention, water cycle and local climate. He is frequently invited to give lectures on the relationship between solar energy - water - plants and climate for schools and the public.
He graduated from Charles University Prague, Faculty of Natural Sciences. At the Botanical Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, he worked on the development of instruments and measurements of photosynthesis of aquatic plants and wetland ecology. In 1984/85 visiting scientists with the Institute for Irrigation Research of CSIRO Australia. Later involved in lake and wetland restoration projects in Europe, Australia and East Africa.
Jan was a lecturer of plant ecophysiology courses at Charles University for 27 years, Water Quality Management for ERASMUS courses at the University of Turku/Finland for 7 years and UNESCO courses in Applied Limnology in the Czech Republic. Elected member of the STRP of the Ramsar Convention for Central Europe, and a member of the Research Council of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TACR). Co-founder and director of ENKI, o.p.s. Třeboň since 1998 to 2022. He has co-authored 126 scientific publications in numerous international scientific journals, with almost 2,500 citations since 1989.
Degrowth Economy: Teaching Ecological Economics with a Twist in Hungary
Gabriella Kiss is an ecological economist. She is currently an associate professor at the Corvinus University of Budapest, Department of Decision Sciences. She teaches decision-making-related courses and ecological economics at CUB. Her research interests centre on participatory approaches to environmental decision-making and sustainable behaviour, as well as participatory learning processes relating to the subject of sustainability in higher education.
Dendrilion – Branching network of philosophical questions
A former teaching assistant at the Faculty of Philosophy in Nis, Serbia. A PhD student and researcher in philosophy of medicine at the University of Rostock, Germany. Inspired to look into and develop various learning tools, as well as bring philosophy closer to the public.
Sustainability Challenge
Madeleine Pühringer has been working in the field of education for sustainable development (ESD) for almost 10 years. After working for an environmental NGO in the area of environmental education, she is now the project lead of the Sustainability Challenge at RCE Vienna. Madeleine Pühringer studied International Relations at the University of Vienna and did a master's course in Global Citizenship Education. Her work focuses on ESD, global goals and service learning.
