Conditions for Developing Students’ Activity in Seminars and Excercises

A quantitative growth of seminars and exercises, qualitatively higher demands on the qualification of university graduates call for a complex solution of a number of questions which influence the educational results in these forms of instruction. The students’ activity and the effectiveness of seminars and exercises are influenced by certain basic conditions, e. g.: the length of time devoted to instruction and preparation for separate forms of instruction, sufficient supply of study materials, university methods of instruction, structure and organisation of seminars and exercises, personality of the teacher, defining the tasks, objectives and the subject-matter of seminars and exercises. The results of the research have shown that an increase in the number of seminars and exercises must be in keeping with the abilities as well as the possibilities of the students and must be judged in connection with individual types of schools, subjects, branches of study, etc. A shortage of study literature appears as a great shortcoming in the students’ individual work. It also affects the teaching methods, which in practice have the same characteristic features as those used at secondary schools. The organisation and the structure of seminars and exercises are too hackneyed, which has an adverse effect on the students’ activity, too. The students have not a correct idea of the role and the objectives of seminars and exercises. The students’ attitude to, and interest in, the seminars and exercises depend to a great extent on the professional and pedagogical skill of the teacher. The development of the students’ activity is held back by the fact that in most cases only their outward activities are being appraised, while the teacher’s knowledge about the processes in the students’ minds is little known. In order to raise the level of seminars and exercises it is therefore necessary to solve all these questions (technical, organisational, material, as well as questions concerning the teaching staff and their professional-educational skill) in their mutual correlation and interdependence.