The organization of the study programme

7.2. The organization of the study programme

In 2005 there was submitted the amendment to the qualification licence, and it was obtained in June 2005: on the right to implement the professional higher education study programme Home Environment and Information Technologies in Education (4214104) for the obtaining of professional Bachelor’s degree in education and the qualification of the teacher of household/home economics and primary school teacher of information technologies. Licence period: June 28, 2005 – December 31, 2007.

Licence No. 04056-12.

At the beginning of 2006 there were prepared and submitted the necessary documentation for the amendments of qualification in conformity with the licence. On the basis of the minutes No.192 of March 15, 2006, of the Accreditation Commission, there is approved the amendment of the qualification: “Latvia University of Agriculture has the right to implement the accredited professional study programme Home Environment and Information Technologies in Education (4214104) and award the professional Bachelor’s degree in education and the qualification of the teacher of household/home economics and the primary school teacher of information technologies.” The expiry date of the programme is December 31, 2006. Accreditation statement No.026-994.

On the basis of the seminar of teaching staff and employers on the conclusions concerning the quality of the programme, which took place in May 2004, as well as the annual discussions with the teaching staff and the heads of the structural units, involved in the implementation of the study programme, on the quality of the content of studies, the programmes of the study courses are improved by integrating communication technologies (ICT) in the courses of household and pedagogy, and psychology, as well as by stressing the integration of the social and science courses.

We have come to an agreement with the Faculty of Information Technologies on the development of the study course Basics of ECDL and its inclusion in the block of elective courses of the study programme starting from the academic year 2005/2006 (Appendices 1 and 2).

In the first term of the academic year 2005/2006 there was the content of the study courses revised by the academic staff, involved in the implementation of the study programme. The content was adjusted towards the wholeness approach in the implementation of the programme. The changes are approved also at the meetings of the leading departments, institutes, the boards of faculties. The members of the teaching staff, delivering the respective study courses, prepare the content of study courses for the submition to the unified informative system of the Latvia University of Agriculture (LAIS), which is important for the preparation of a diploma appendix in conformity with the quality of modern requirements.

On September 21, 2005, there were changes approved at the meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Engineering – to decrease the volume of the study programme from 169 CP to 160 CP. The students, matriculated as the 1^st year students in the academic year 2005/2006, start their studies in complieance with the study plan, the volume of which is 160 CP, in relation to the students of other study years the study plan is implemented without any changes in compliance with the accreditation documentation. The changes have been made to achieve the full conformity with the State Standard of Professional Higher Education in order not to admit the possible overload of students. It was established during the study process that there was such possibility to make the above mentioned changes and at the same time to preserve the original idea of the programme and the supply of study courses, but to decrease the volume of some study courses, as well as to restructure the programme a little. The changes made are shown in Tables 6 and 7.

On April 26, 2006, there were changes approved at the meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Engineering – to increase the volume of the study course Special Needs Pedagogy (from 1CP to 2CP) and to decrease the volume of the study course History of Pedagogy (from 3CP to 2CP). The changes are related to the urgent necessity to integrate the children with special needs and thus also to the necessity to understand by every teacher the needs of such children and the possible problems connected with the teaching/learning process.
Table 6

The changes of study programme Home Environment and Information Technologies in Education

The changes of the volume of the study programme from 169 CP to 160 CP

The compliance with the State Standard of Professional Higher Education

Table 7

One of the main research trends of the Institute of Education and Home Economics is the ecology of an individual’s development. The development of an individual’s personality is studied in pedagogy, taking into consideration the influence of different educational environmental factors. In the household the research is related to the understanding and ensuring of an individual’s living conditions quality. Therefore we can say that the specificity of the study programme Home Environment and Information Technologies in Education is closely related to the research and educational philosophy implemented at the Institute of Education and Home Economics. The all-round study programme, developed at the Institute of Education and Home Economics, is directed towards the education of teachers, who would have a good knowledge of cultural environment, social environment informative environment, aesthetic environment, material-economic environment, nature environment, virtual environment, human-made environment, and would be able to evaluate the relationships in their pedagogical performance: the development of an individual’s personality within the interaction of these different environments, as well as the insight of living conditions quality and its ensuring possibilities within the interaction of an individual and environment.