Abstract
This article is focused on the concept of self-strenghtening in young teachers, students of pedagogical majors, who took part in the project "Learning (teaching) together" (reflected pedagogical practice), which was focused on the innovation of pedagogical practice at the Faculty of Education at University of Hradec Králové. An extensive qualitative research was held during the course of the project focusing on the students involved.
This article aims only at that part of the research which looked at the experience of the reflected practice itself as well as at the perceived effectiveness of the individual support offered in the process of self-strenghtening. The offered support included faculty teacher, didactician, mentor, and group reflected sessions.
The research question sought to understand if and how exactly the offered support and the reflected practice as a whole supports the process of self-strenghtening. The research was conducted in the form of semi-structured interviews that were done with the students in three rounds throughout the duration of the project.
The results of the research show four categories of perceived support from faculty teachers: demanding teacher, respectful and respected teacher, unambitious and non-reflecting teacher, and union of souls. It terms of the perceived support form mentors, two categories emerged: mentor as a guide, and mentor as a psychotherapist and a parent in one.
The reflected seminars went through typical group development stages. In the beginning they nurtured the students' need of safe experience sharing, towards the end the students' needs shifted towards discussing specific topics related to educational situations done often in smaller groups.
The didacticians' role was spontaneously taken over by faculty teacher and/or mentors.