A further seven new semester modules are under development in the EWC project Preparing Future Teachers in the Western Balkans.
The Western Balkans project is busy this spring with new semester modules being developed and implemented at 7 faculties/teacher education institutions across the region. The Bosnian universities of Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Mostar are testing semester modules at BA and MA level. The Montenegro Faculty of Philosophy and Faculty of Philology are also testing new modules. A team from the University of Pristina will integrate democratic competences into their modules and the University of Skopje is working on a new module targeting democracy through methodic of biology.
“We had been aiming for 5 new modules, but 7 teams applied to develop and implement new semester modules”, says Bojana Dujkovic Blagojevic, EWC’s Regional project coordinator.
University of Montenegro, Faculty of Philology has developed a new, yet elective semester course Media literacy. This module is meant to encourage students to consider their responsibilities as users and authors of media messages.
“Being aware of the importance of media literacy and familiar with the state in our education institutions concerning this issue, we saw this activity as the opportunity to promote media literacy and offer it to our students as a free-choice elective”, said professor Dusanka Popovic, one of the authors of this module.
Drawing from the Council of Europe Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture, this module reminds students of the key concepts of media literacy, and the particularity of media text as a construct, of ways in which media messages are constructed and deconstructed, and of the notion of censorship from the perspectives of both editor and reader. And also to teach them how to identify stereotypes and prejudices following the media messages shaped to serve their goal, and to encourage them to consider the responsibilities they assume as either users or authors.
“An important part of this module is the methodological approach to media content in primary and secondary schools, i.e. how to prepare for teaching on media literacy and how to implement that in a classroom setting. How to implement practice in schools, i.e. organize classes on media literacy, is also covered in this part. said Popovic.
