On April 23, 2025, the second professional meeting of the two-year project titled “Preparation of Future Teachers of Slovak Language and Slovak Literature for Educational Practice in Schools with Hungarian as the Language of Instruction” took place. The project, implemented by the Faculty of Central European Studies in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth of the Slovak Republic aims to develop the methodological training of future teachers for teaching Slovak language in lower grades of primary schools with Hungarian as the language of instruction. (We have previously reported on the details of the project here, and the first professional meeting here.)

The event was a worthy conclusion to the first research phase of the project. Our invited guests were teachers from Hungarian-medium primary schools who actively participated in our statewide research in the past half year. During this period, our project staff visited 13 Hungarian-medium schools, where they conducted a questionnaire survey among primary students, participated in classroom observations, and held discussions with primary school teachers.

The meeting took place in the form of an interactive workshop. First, we presented the results of the survey to the participants, and then we jointly discussed the experiences from the classroom observations, focusing on methodological issues. The discussion provided an excellent opportunity to explore the intersection of theory and practice. The professional insight, comments, and shared problems of the participating teachers were addressed together.

Following the professional part, we invited our colleagues to a joint lunch, which took place in a more informal atmosphere, fostering further discussion. We were especially pleased that the participants used this opportunity for professional networking and establishing collaboration between their schools.

We would like to thank all the participants for their active contribution to the success of the project and for enriching the meeting by sharing their valuable experiences. The event was a great opportunity to jointly evaluate the achieved results and to prepare for the next phase of the project.

 

Text: Mgr. Anna Oros Bugár, FSS – PhD. studies
Photo: Mgr. Zoltán Decsi, FSS – Dean's Office

 

Published: May 6, 2025