The role of self-regulation and perceived self-efficacy in adaptation to home-office work during the pandemic

As a consequence of the unprecedented labor market circumstances that the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic brought about, organizations have faced challenges never seen before. One such challenge was the sudden ubiquity of working from home, which resulted in an intensive learning experience for employees and employers alike. While there is an increasing body of research on working from home in general, the perceived effectiveness of this mode of working is still under-researched. This niche provided the inspiration for us to investigate what factors might influence employees' self-efficacy in working from home arrangements. We conducted a mixed-methods case study by collecting both qualitative and quantitative data from 24 employees of a division of the Hungarian subsidiary of a chemical and consumer goods multinational. The purpose of our investigation was to gain a deeper understanding of perceived self-efficacy and self-regulation during the learning processes that the participants experienced under the new circumstances. Results suggest that the perceived high level of work-efficiency among the employees of the examined division was based on the firmly controlled work-division, trusting managers, as well as supportive and clear communication, which created space for autonomy in the adaptation process. The findings also revealed that self-reflection acted as a predictor of perceived work self-efficacy.

Teacher educators’ understanding of integrating lesson study into pre-service teacher education

In Myanmar, according to the National Education Strategic Plan (NESP) 2016–2021, the four-year Education College curriculum has been developed and implemented, in line with the pre-service teacher education reform. In the new curriculum, the Lesson Study (LS) model is integrated into the practicum. LS is an effective teacher professional development practice that originated in Japan and is becoming popular all over the world today, suited to both pre-service and in-service teacher education. The LS concept has been introduced to the Myanmar context since 2011 through international training projects and there are two LS research projects which focus on the impacts of the training. However, there is no follow-up research which explores teacher educators’ understanding of LS and their LS practices after the training projects and there is no research related to the integration of LS into pre-service teacher education. This study explores the LS experiences and perspectives of teacher educators who have to take the responsibility of integrating LS into pre-service teacher education with the aim of assessing their readiness for that. Eight teacher educators from six Education Colleges in Myanmar participated in this qualitative research project. Semi-structured interviews were conducted for data collection. The results reveal that teacher educators are already familiar with the term “LS” through the former LS projects. Moreover, the findings show two dimensions of teacher educators’ lesson study experiences; namely, lesson study experiences as a tool of professional development and as a tool of teacher training. They have positive perceptions about the integration of LS into the practicum but it is still challenging for them.

Adult learning facilitators' professional identity: An exploratory review based on a selection of empirical studies

This paper is an exploratory review of selected literature that focused on adult learning facilitators' professional identity. We employed the snow-ball technique for selection and followed the review protocol by Beijaard, Meijer, and Verloop (2004) to explore empirical studies that discussed how professional identity is defined, what constructs encompass professional identity, which methodologies are relevant when studying professional identity and what are adult learning facilitators' common characteristics as professionals. Our review shows that the studies included have a common understanding of professional identity: it is conceived of as a dynamic construct which encompasses job motivation and future vision as well. Narrative interview with biographical perspectives was used as the main research method in all the reviewed studies. This exploratory review offers a set of perspectives which could be considered as entry points into an in-depth (empirical) study of adult learning facilitators' identity formation in various regional and national contexts.

Who is innovating and how in the education sector? Combining subject and object approaches

The choice between the subject and the object approaches and their combination is one of the challenges designers of innovation surveys face. Although it is encouraged by the Oslo manual, the combined use of these two approaches is rare. The paper presents a large scale education sector innovation survey using these approaches simultaneously in a matched employer/employee data collection with a special focus on small innovations initiated at grassroots level.

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) literacy of Hungarian English majors: A validation study

Information and communications technology (ICT) inclusion has long been at the forefront of professional language pedagogy discourse. It has been argued that ICT implementation is globally advocated but depends on local variables. ICT literacy nowadays does not only include owning and operating devices, but also the ability to create content, solve problems and minding digital safety. The aims of this study were to validate a questionnaire mapping the ICT literacy of one particular group of adult learners: Hungarian English majors (N = 45) and to offer some preliminary results. After two rounds of reliability analysis, all nine constructs of the questionnaire proved to be reliable, each above a minimum Cronbach's alpha value of 0.60. Based on the questionnaire results, it can be said that Hungarian English majors have good digital competences, ICT devices are generally available for them, but their ICT acceptance is lower than hypothesised, and devices emerge as learning tools for students rather than substitutes for face-to-face interaction. Since the questionnaire was piloted on a small sample size (N = 45), results are only preliminary; therefore, this article outlines plans for future administration of the questionnaire.

Factors influencing senior learners’ language learning motivation. A Hungarian perspective

The paper aims to investigate Hungarian senior language learners’ motivational profile with a special attention to factors influencing their motivational intensity. We focused on the significant features of Hungarian senior language learners’ motivational behaviour and conducted a survey with thirty senior Hungarian students learning English as a Foreign Language (FL). This instrument was constructed based on Gardner’s socio-educational model and Tremblay and Gardner’s model of second language (SL) motivation. We performed a series of statistical analyses on the data. The results of multiple regression analyses show that the most influential factors regarding motivational behaviour of older language learners in this context are attitude towards leaning the SL and goal specificity.

Investigating language aptitude in the success of adult second language acquisition

The present study was conducted by using mixed methods design to investigate the role of language aptitude in second language acquisition (SLA). The quantitative method involved Hungarian adults (N = 27) of two kinds of schools: a technical school and three different universities. These adults participated in completing the aptitude test called Hungarian Language Aptitude Test (HUNLAT). The qualitative part included an in-depth interview, which was conducted with six participants mainly focussing on their learning habits in order to examine if there is any correspondence between aptitude and language learning habits in this sample. Within this sample, males achieved significantly higher scores on the Grammar analysis task and older students scored significantly higher on three tasks; additionally, they scored significantly higher on the total score of the HUNLAT. Furthermore, those students who scored high on the aptitude test regard themselves to be successful and those who scored low regard themselves less successful language learners. The major pedagogical implication that can be drawn from this particular research is that there are many constructs that may influence language aptitude including language learning habits, motivation, and language learning strategies; thus, EFL teachers may reconsider the role of this construct in SLA.