Education and Learning Methodology Section

Call for Papers
38th National Student Research Conference
Education and Learning Methodology Section

1. General Information, Organizers

Organizer of the event:

University of Novi Sad
Hungarian Language Teacher Training Faculty,
Subotica

Address: 11 Strossmayer Str., Subotica, 24000 Serbia
Phone: +381 24 624 444
Website: www.magister.uns.ac.rs

The Section’s website address: otdk2027nt.magister.uns.ac.rs
Section e-mail address: otdk2027nt@magister.uns.ac.rs
Date of the event: 13-15 April 2027

The National Association for Student Research, Education and Learning Methodology Section Committee, together with the host institution, the Hungarian Language Teacher Training Faculty of the University of Novi Sad (Subotica), hereby announces the Education and Learning Methodology Section of the 38th National Student Research Conference.

The conditions for participation and registration in the Section are set out in the General Call of the 38th OTDK and in this Call of the OTDT Education and Learning Methodology Section Committee.

2. Eligibility Criteria

2.1 Who is eligible to participate

In the 38th National Student Research Conference (OTDK), TDK papers and authors (in the case of multi-author TDK papers, all authors) may participate that meet the conditions specified in the General Call for the 38th National Student Research Conference (details are provided in Supplement 2 of the General Call for the 38th OTDK.)

A thesis/diploma work written within a BA/BSc program and presented at an institutional TDK conference within the same BA/BSc program – provided it has not yet been defended at the time of the institutional TDK conference – may be submitted to the 38th OTDK, provided that it meets the requirements set out in the call and its supplement.

Compulsory assignments prescribed in the curriculum during university or college studies, seminar papers, as well as – in the case of students in integrated master’s or MA/MSc programs – theses already defended by the time of the institutional TDK conference, and scientific works prepared and/or presented by doctoral students after obtaining their university degree may not be submitted to the National Student Research Conference, as they do not fall within the scope of student self-directed research in higher education.

ATTENTION! In the Education and Learning Methodology Section, an author may submit a maximum of two TDK papers for the 38th OTDK.

Study circle students from cross-border universities and colleges can participate in the 38th OTDK under the same professional conditions as those in Hungary. Details are available in the General Call of the 38th OTDK.

The conference is also open to secondary school students in Hungary and across borders who present their research results at conferences of higher education institutions or national high school science student conferences (for details see Supplement 4 of the General Call for the 38th OTDK) and are nominated for the 38th OTDK. A detailed description of the participation of secondary school students is available in the General Call of the 38th OTDK.

2.2. Requirements for TDK papers and evaluation

Supplement 1 to the Section Call includes:

• the content and format requirements for TDK papers and abstracts,
• rules for the presentation of TDK papers in foreign languages,
• evaluation criteria of the TDK paper and the presentation.

3. Sessions/topics

3.1. Planned sessons/topics

1. Alternative educational programs and methods
2. Digital opportunities, artificial intelligence in subject pedagogy
3. Drama and theatre in subject pedagogy
4. Education for sustainability, environmental education
5. Methodology for special education and teaching students with special needs
6. Methodology of teaching religion and ethics
7. Subject pedagogy in humanities and social sciences
8. Subject pedagogy of foreign languages (including Hungarian as a foreign language)
9. Subject pedagogy of digital culture
10. Subject-pedagogy of literature
11. Methodology for extracurricular education (museums, libraries, archives, etc.)
12. Methodology for games and leisure activity organization
13. Subject pedagogy of minority/ethnic languages and cultures
14. Early childhood learning and support (nursery and preschool)
15. Methodology for learning and teaching of young children
16. Subject pedagogy of communication and media
17. Subject pedagogy of Hungarian as a mother tongue
18. Methodology for teaching mathematics
19. Subject-pedagogy of the arts
20. Subject pedagogy of vocational education
21. Methodology for sports, recreation, and physical education
22. Theory and practice of curriculum development in subject teaching
23. Subject pedagogy in disadvantaged environments
24. Learning and support in higher education and adult education
25. Subject pedagogy of distance learning and e-learning (blended, hybrid, online, MOOC)
26. Methodology for technology and design
27. Methodology for talent development
28. Subject pedagogy of the natural sciences

During the application process, the student must indicate which session would be the most suitable for presenting their TDK paper, as well as another session that could also be appropriate.

3.2. Rules for the establishment of the final session assignment

The fundamental rules for the establishment of the final session assignment are included in the General Call of the 38th OTDK. The OTDT Education and Learning Methodology Section Committee may, based on the number of TDK papers received and their topic, merge some of the planned sessions/topics or create additional ones, so that the TDK paper may be assigned to a different session than the one indicated by the author(s) during registration. When establishing sessions, multiple professional criteria are considered to ensure that sessions can be formed in accordance with the regulations. The condition for starting an independent session is the receipt of at least 6 TDK papers in the given topic, on the condition that at least 5 of the 6 to 15 papers will be presented at the 38th OTDK. If the number of TDK papers to be presented in a given session is fewer than 5, that session may be merged with another session at the discretion of the Chair of the Education and Learning Methodology Section Committee. The organizing institution, with the agreement of the Education and Learning Methodology Section Committee, reserves the right to redirect TDK papers with content that does not align with the Education and Learning Methodology Section’s field of study, thanking the applicants and transferring the paper to the appropriate section of the 38th National Student Research Conference.

The final decision on the sessions and the classification of the TDK papers will be made by the OTDK Education and Learning Methodology Section. Students will be informed of this decision via the OTDT online system by March 31, 2027, at the latest.

4. Application procedure

4.1. Steps of registration for applicants

1. Pre-registration of TDK papers

Following the institutional TDK conference, the upload of the TDK paper and selection of the section must be completed within 30 days of the email specified in point 4 of Supplement No. 2 of the General Call for the 38th OTDK. Participants who will be eligible to submit a TDK paper at an institutional/faculty student research conference held within 30 days before the application deadline for the Education and Learning Methodology Section of the OTDK must upload their TDK paper to the OTDT online system by January 27, 2027 (Wednesday) 16:00 at the latest.

ATTENTION! Please note that uploading a TDK paper does not constitute an automatic entry to the 38th OTDK. Applications must be submitted during the registration period, following the steps described in the next section.

2. The application

Registration period: 16 November 202 – 27 January 2027 (Wednesday), 16:00 (CET)

Students’ tasks during this period are:

• Filling in the data.
• Uploading the Hungarian-language abstract.
• On the abstract upload page, providing five keywords that do not appear in the title of the paper.
• After completing the data entry and uploading the abstract, finalising the registration in the OTDT online system.

After the registration deadline for students – 27 January 2027, 16:00 (CET) – it will no longer be possible for students to upload application documents in the OTDT online system.

4.2. Additional registration tasks for students obtaining/having obtained a pre-degree certificate

Students who obtained a pre-degree certificate between the qualifying institutional TDK conference and the 38th OTDK must declare the date of obtaining their pre-degree certificate in the OTDT online system during the application process (those who are expected to obtain their pre-degree certificate in the semester of application, after the application deadline, must indicate that they are expected to obtain it in the semester of application). In the case of students who qualified at ETDK, FTDK, KTDK, or VMTDK conferences, the expected date of finalizing the application to the 38th OTDK must be indicated as the date of the pre-degree certificate, as this has already been verified upon their acceptance at the qualifying conference.

5. Tasks of the TDT Chair in relation to the 38th OTDK

5.1. Following the student research conference:

Uploading the documents of the student research conference and sending them to the OTDT Office according to point 3 of Supplement 2 of the General Call for the 38th OTDK.

5.2. Following the participants’ registration deadline

A) Approval of participant registrations in the OTDT online system (all registrations are automatically approved in the system, so action is only required if the institution/faculty does not wish to delegate a submitted TDK paper to the OTDK).

B) Approval in the OTDT online system of the consolidated list containing the approved applications of TDK papers and their authors submitted to the Education and Learning Methodology Section, and/or its generation from the online system and signature with a qualified electronic signature, or printing and signing, followed by electronic upload to the OTDT online system. By approving/signing the consolidated list, the TDT Chairs also declare that all TDK papers and their authors included therein meet the requirements set out in Supplement 2 to the General Call of the 38th OTDK.

Deadline for institutional and faculty TDT Chairs to upload documents to the OTDT online system: February 1, 2027 (Monday) 16:00 (CET). After the deadline it will no longer be possible to upload application documents in the OTDT online system.

We are unable to accept TDK papers that do not meet the requirements outlined in the Education and Learning Methodology Section Call; such applications will be rejected.

Applications submitted individually are invalid.

6. Registration fee

The registration fees for the 38th OTDK will be determined at a later stage, subject to the availability of resources.

7. The awards that can be granted at the OTDK and the Special Prize of the Session Panel

A certificate of participation in the OTDK will be awarded to all authors and supervisors of each paper presented. In addition, a maximum of one third of the papers presented may be awarded one of the first, second and third places per section, taking into account that a maximum of one entry per session may be awarded first place. The Section Panel may award a special prize to those papers that do not achieve ranking but are judged by the Session Panel to be worthy of recognition on the basis of their professional merit, and which are judged to be immediately behind the winning applications. The authors of the winning papers and those of the papers receiving the Special Prize of the Session Panel will each receive a certificate for the ranking or the Special Prize of the Session Panel.

The total number of winning papers and papers awarded the Special Prize of the Session Panel may not exceed 50% of the total number of papers presented in a section. Further rules on prizes are set out in Supplement 3 to the General Call.

8. Submission of Pro Scientia Gold Medal application

The authors of TDK papers that have been awarded first place at the national conference may apply for the Pro Scientia Gold Medal, provided they meet the additional criteria set out in the call. Details are given in Supplement 5 of the 38th OTDK General Call.

We invite and welcome all interested students and their masters!

Budapest, 21 April 2026.

SUPPLEMENT 1
TO THE CALL FOR PAPERS, 38TH OTDK
EDUCATION AND LEARNING METHODOLOGY SECTION

1. The language of the TDK paper and the presentation:

The language of the OTDK is Hungarian. The application must be submitted in Hungarian. An exception to this rule applies to sessions in foreign language pedagogy and the pedagogy of minority languages and cultures, in which students may submit their TDK papers in the foreign language they study as their major in higher education. For these submissions, a Hungarian abstract of 3-5 pages covering the content of each main section must accompany the TDK paper. At the 38th OTDK, such TDK papers may also be presented in a foreign language; however, following the 15-minute presentation in the foreign language, the presenter must give a 5-minute summary in Hungarian, which will be followed by a 5-minute discussion.

2. Content requirements for the TDK paper:

2.1 Plagiarism

All TDK papers submitted to the 37th OTDK are subject to a plagiarism check, which is evaluated by a three-member special committee set up by the Section Committee, which reviews the results of the plagiarism check one by one. Applicants are reminded that plagiarism in any form is not allowed, and that their own works may not be quoted without a reference (prohibition of self-plagiarism). In the case of revising a previous institutional TDK paper, it is mandatory to reference the prior work in the introduction. TDK papers that are proven to infringe copyright will be excluded from the 38th OTDK by the OTDT, with simultaneous notification to the nominating institution.

2.2 Artificial intelligence

The rules governing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) are set forth in Supplement 6 of the General Call of the 38th OTDK. The author(s) must declare the use of AI in the OTDT online system during the application of the TDK paper to the 38th OTDK.

3. Formal requirements for the TDK paper:

General requirements:

The TDK paper must be uploaded to the OTDT online system within 30 days of its acceptance at the institutional TDK conference, as specified in point 4 of Supplement 2 of the General Call for the 38th OTDK. Participants who obtain eligibility with their TDK paper at an institutional TDK conference held within 30 days prior to the application deadline of the Education and Learning Methodology Section of the 38th OTDK must upload their paper to the OTDT online system no later than the application deadline.

The TDK paper must be uploaded in PDF format. The maximum file size is 10 MB. TDK papers that exceed the maximum length specified by the Education and Learning Methodology Section cannot be uploaded to the OTDT online system. The file size and page count are checked by the OTDT system.

All TDK papers must include the closing date (month, year).

General formal requirements:

The following font and page setup parameters are only recommendations; deviations are allowed if justified by the specific requirements of the scientific field.

Font: Times New Roman (other fonts specific to the field may be used, e.g., for mathematical formulas)

All figures and tables in the TDK paper must be numbered with Arabic numerals, and they should be referenced accordingly within the text. The precise source of figures and tables from other authors should always be indicated directly beneath the title of the figure or table.

Font size: 12 pt
Line spacing: 1.5
Margin: 2.5 cm

Section-specific requirements:

The TDK paper must be a minimum of 30 pages, excluding supplements. The total length, including bibliography, supplements, photographs, references and appendices, should not exceed 100 pages.

The maximum number of pages of the TDK papers are checked by the OTDT online system when they are uploaded.

Uploading supplementary documents is permitted. This document must be a single file with a maximum size of 10 MB.

Method of referencing:

APA 7.0
link: https://sti.ppk.elte.hu/dstore/document/4459/APA%207.pdf

Title page:

the title page must include the author(s)’ name, field of study, level of study, the title of the TDK paper, the name of the sending institution, and the year of completion.
The TDK paper should contain a table of contents that outlines the main structure of the paper, including page numbers.

Titles, subtitles:

Subheadings and chapter headings should be indicated by decimal numbers as follows:
Primary; 1.2 Secondary; 1.2.3 Tertiary.

Text highlights:

In the text, linguistic data and examples should be in italics, while emphasis should be in bold. Do not use underlining or any other means of highlighting!

4. Printed TDK paper required: no

5. Rules for the abstract:

The body text of the abstract must be uploaded to the OTDT online system, other data (names of the co-authors, name of the institution, name of the supervisor(s), position, etc.) are generated by the OTDT online system.

The language of the abstract is Hungarian. For applications in a foreign language, the abstract must be uploaded in the language of the application.

The abstract should be at least 500 and no more than 2500 characters.

The structure of the abstract: background and objectives, methodology, results, conclusions.

The abstract should include a brief overview (maximum 500 characters) of the student’s own attributed results.

6. Evaluation rules for the TDK paper:

The submitted TDK paper will be evaluated in writing by two reviewers, based on the following criteria: 

• the definition of individual tasks and distinction of independent work from that of the research group;
• originality of individual results, and the quality of justification and evaluation of those results;
• quality, presentation, and creativity in the application of independently performed methods, as well as their correct application;
• the introduction of the topic, the researcher’s motivation, and familiarity with relevant literature (depending on the research topic);
• the paper’s structure, style, and adherence to formal requirements.

A maximum of 40 points in total can be awarded in the written evaluation.

The score awarded for the TDK paper is the average of the scores given by the two reviewers. If the difference between the two reviewers’ evaluations is 15 points or more, a third reviewer will be appointed. In cases where there is a third reviewer, the final written score is the average of the two highest scores among the three.

The written evaluations will be published by the organizers of the Education and Learning Methodology Section in the OTDT online system and made available to students no later than one week before the conference.

At the conference, participants will have 10-12 minutes to present their TDK paper (presentation), followed by an 8–10-minute discussion. The presentation will be evaluated by a Session Panel of recognized members of the field. Presentations in foreign languages are allocated 15-17 minutes (10-12 minutes in foreign language, 5 minutes summary in Hungarian), followed by an 8–10-minute discussion.

TDK papers may not be presented online.

In the case of multiple-author TDK papers, all authors must participate in the oral presentation.

Evaluation criteria for the oral presentation:

Presentation:

• use of visual aids, humane demonstration: 0-15 points
• presentation of research findings; 0-15 points

Discussion:

• professional competence and style: 0-20 points
• debating skills 0-10 points

Maximum score for the presentation: 60 points.

• 38th OTDK Education and Learning Methodology Section Call
• Supplement 1