Katalin Tóth Rakaczkiné: The Establishing of an Organized Teacher Training at the Budapest University of Art and Sciences

Organized teacher training in Hungary was established in the last decades of the 19th century. This is the period when the fundamental institutions of teacher training came into existence, remaining basically the same until 1949, which successfully provided for the professional, pedagogical and methodological training of secondary school teachers. In the second half of the last century the intensive development of secondary school education, the increase in the number of schools and pupils, and the need for adequately trained teachers in schools urgently raised the issue of settling the teacher training. The initial steps towards solving the matter were taken through the changes in the university structure (extending the training time to three, and then later to four years), the introduction of the institution of seminars and the establishment of the Department of Pedagogy. Still, they did not solve the issue of teacher training completely, since they considered scholarly education as their principal aim and they defined their tasks in this sense. Beside the development of the university, the establishment of organized teacher training was accomplished through the creation of a committee for supervising teachers, the institution for teacher training, the training school and the boarding school (Br. Eötvös József Collegium). the first institution to break through was the teacher training college established in 1870, the principal aim of which lay in the practical preparation of teachers. The lectures held there partly supplemented university studies, and partly provided for the methodological preparation necessary for secondary school teachers. This work was completed by the establishment of the teacher training school in 1872, which created an opportunity for the practical preparation of teacher trainees. In spite of their deficiencies the teacher training college and its training school bore utmost importance and they exercised great influence on the pedagogical system. Both institutions and underlined the importance of a successful practical preparation of teachers, and provided it in a home for an intellectual life and community, which served as an inspiring example for teachers and trainees alike.

MAGYAR PEDAGÓGIA 96. Number 2. 157-168. (1996)

Address for correspondence: Rakaczkiné Tóth Katalin, Gödöllői Agrár¬tudo¬mányi Egyetem Tanárképző Intézet, H–2103 Gödöllő, Páter Károly út 1.

 
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