About the Centre

Activities of the Centre for Permanent Development and Lifelong Learning are aimed at facilitating and implementing different forms of training and professional development through lifelong learning. The “right of the citizen” to education in a society that is learning, as well as the right of the citizen to be allowed to “influence education as a public good” lie at the core of the Centre’s activities. The Centre therefore respects both approaches, one using formal and predefined forms of lifelong learning as a starting point and the other using the needs of potential candidates as a starting point and allowing them through its flexible approaches and programmes to satisfy their needs for lifelong learning. The Centre organises activities on the education of experts from different fields and the development of necessary competencies for the successful and quality pedagogical-psychological and didactic-methodological work in teaching. The Centre focusses on working with pedagogues, teachers from primary and secondary schools, university assistants and teachers, staff of SOS villages, non-governmental organisations, etc.

Projects

A number of projects, in most cases led by members of the Department of Pedagogy, in cooperation with colleagues from other departments, have been implemented within the Centre so far. These projects include:

UNICEF Intercultural education on didactics and teaching methods in higher education, MDG Culture for Development. The project has been completed. 10 assistants from non-teaching faculties have been trained and issued certificates following the completion of pedagogical training.

PON – Pedagogical Education of Teachers. 109 secondary school teachers from all fields, including engineers, physicians, economists, psychologists and others attended education over two academic years (2011/2012 academic year and 2012/2013 academic year) and 106 of them completed the training. During this period the project was funded by the Open Society Foundations Soros and candidates’ contributions. The PON project is implemented every year and now it is solely funded from payments by programme participants.

GLOBED – Master on Education Policies for Global Development. A number of universities worked on the development of this programme, including the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the University of Amsterdam, the University of Oslo, the University of Malta and the University of Sarajevo, which aims to become an international reference programme for future master’s degree holders in globalisation, education and development. The project is funded by the EU as part of Erasmus Mundus Programme.

SCHOOL LIBRARIES – School Libraries as a Means to Develop a Democratic Society through Strengthening Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning is a project implemented together by members of two departments: the Department of Pedagogy and the Department of Comparative Literature and Librarianship. The project is financed by the American Office of Public Affairs.

The training of teaching staff at the University in Sarajevo for the delivery of the Bologna process with a view to improving the quality of the education process (curricula, syllabi…) is a project developed and implemented primarily by members of the Department of Pedagogy. Work on this Project created opportunities for the exchange of experiences, it improved the understanding of basic terms concerning the teaching process, it provided information on ways to improve the development and application of syllabi and it encouraged teachers to make a step forward and improve their personal teaching process, consequently raising the level of quality of education at the tertiary level. This Project aimed at strengthening individuals in the area of teacher competencies and ensuring the quality of the teaching process for which every teacher/assistant has the primary responsibility. The FBiH Ministry of Education and Science financed the project together with the Faculty.