Vice-Rector for Education
Doc. PaedDr. Dana Kollárová, PhD., graduated from the Faculty of Education of the University of Education in Nitra in 1993, completing a degree programme in Primary Education. From 1998, she collaborated with the Faculty of Education of the University of Trnava, where she was involved in teaching and in the development and accreditation of the Creative Drama study programme. She completed her rigorosum examination at the Faculty of Education of the University of Trnava in 2004 and successfully completed her doctoral studies at the Faculty of Education of Comenius University in Bratislava in 2010. In 2008, she joined the Department of Education at the Faculty of Education, UKF in Nitra, where she received her habilitation and was appointed Associate Professor in Education in 2014. In 2026, she successfully completed the professorial appointment procedure before the Scientific Board of UKF in Nitra.
Assoc. Prof. Kollárová has gained teaching experience at almost all levels of education. She contributed to the integration of creative drama into university-level teacher education. In her teaching, she applies active learning methods with an emphasis on play, as well as creative drama methods and techniques, reflecting current developments and changes in education.
Assoc. Prof. Kollárová’s publication record, comprising 170 outputs, including publications indexed in Web of Science and Scopus, reflects her continuous and active research. Her contributions include research into the development of literary literacy and the education of young readers; the implementation of a structured approach to vocal warm-up exercises in teaching phonemes and graphemes; and research demonstrating that literary texts featuring nature-related themes can serve as an effective teaching tool for supporting the comprehension of specialised educational texts in subjects introducing children to the world around them.
Among her notable contributions are the first university textbook on education through creative drama and the textbook Creative Drama for Secondary Schools. These publications have become not only core study materials in the training of pre-primary teachers but also recommended resources for the development of school educational programmes. Applied outcomes of the research projects for which she served as principal investigator include, for example, textbooks on regional and national studies for Year 3 of primary school (KEGA). The project Forest Pedagogy and Education for Sustainable Development in Pre-primary and Primary Education (APVV) initiated pedagogical training for forest educators to facilitate their cooperation with schools.
She has participated as a researcher in both international and national research and development projects. She is one of the academics responsible for the delivery and quality assurance of the Pre-primary and Elementary Education (Bachelor’s), Primary Education Teaching (Master’s), and Teaching of Music and Music and Drama (doctoral) study programmes. She has supervised a total of 286 Bachelor’s and Master’s theses and has successfully supervised five doctoral students to completion.
She actively cooperates with the National Institute of Education and Youth (NIVaM) and chairs attestation committees for the following categories of education professionals: pre-primary teachers, primary and lower-secondary teachers, educators and teaching assistants. She is a member of the NIVaM Editorial Board and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Pedagogické rozhľady. She has extensive experience as a reviewer and expert evaluator of various types of publications and projects, including KEGA and VEGA projects. She also regularly participates in international study and teaching visits through Erasmus mobility programmes. She has received awards from the Slovak Committee of the World Organisation for Early Childhood Education (OMEP) and the National Forest Centre and has twice received the Rector’s Award.
Until June 2026, she served as Chair of the Academic Senate of the Faculty of Education, UKF in Nitra. She is a member of doctoral programme committees at the Faculty of Education, UKF in Nitra, as well as of the programme committee for Reading and Media Education at the Faculty of Education, Palacký University Olomouc. She is also a member of the Scientific Board of the Faculty of Education, UKF in Nitra.
She has served as Vice-Rector for Education since 15 July 2026.
