63211 - Master's Dissertation (Geography and History)
Master Final Project
2.1. Competences
BASIC AND GENERAL
CG01 - To integrate into the teaching profession, understanding its legal and institutional framework, its situation and challenges in today's society and the social and family contexts that surround and condition teaching performance, and to integrate and participate in the organisation of educational centres and contribute to their projects and activities.
CG02 - Fostering a formative and stimulating coexistence in the classroom, contributing to the development of students at all levels and guiding them academically and professionally, based on their psychological, social and family characteristics.
GC03 - Promote and tutor the learning process of students, in a reflective and critical manner, based on the most relevant principles and theories on the learning process of students and how to enhance it.
GC04 - Plan, design, organise and develop the programme and the learning and assessment activities in the specialities and subjects of their competence.
CG05 - Evaluate, innovate and research on their own teaching processes with the aim of continuous improvement of their teaching performance and the educational task of the centre.
CB6 - Possess and understand knowledge that provides a basis or opportunity for originality in the development and/or application of ideas, often in a research context.
CB7 - That students know how to apply their acquired knowledge and problem-solving skills in new or unfamiliar environments within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to their area of study.
study area.
CB8 - That students are able to integrate knowledge and deal with the complexity of making judgements based on incomplete or limited information, including reflections on the social and ethical responsibilities linked to the application of their knowledge and judgements.
CB9 - Students are able to communicate their conclusions and the knowledge and rationale underpinning them to specialist and non-specialist audiences in a clear and unambiguous way.
CB10 - That students possess the learning skills that will enable them to continue studying in a largely self-directed or autonomous manner.
3.1. Assessment tasks (description of tasks, marking system and assessment criteria)
The dissertation will be carried out individually. It will be presented and defended before an examining board made up of three lecturers from the area. For the assessment of the TFM and its defence, the Quality Assurance Committee will appoint an assessment panel composed of three lecturers and three substitutes, in accordance with the general regulations of the University of Zaragoza.
The task of directing the dissertation will involve continuous monitoring (with regular meetings) of the work carried out for the preparation, written presentation and oral defence before the dissertation examining board. The director(s) will provide the student with general guidelines on the nature and requirements of the type of work proposed to be carried out. It is the responsibility of the director(s) to validate and supervise the process of carrying out the work. The director(s) may, if he/she wishes, submit a report on the work to the examining board.
The written TFM will be uploaded to Deposita in PDF format and will be delivered to the secretary's office of the Faculty of Education through the Electronic Register https://regtel.unizar.es/: where it must be attached (1) the confirmation email of having uploaded the document to Deposita and (2) the defence application where the authorisation of the director(s) is included, with the deadline for deposit being the date announced in each call for applications.
The TFM will be presented on the day and at the time indicated by the secretary's office of the Faculty before the examining board that will be indicated. This presentation will take place in a session lasting half an hour, during which the student will have 15 minutes to defend their work.
The other 15 minutes will be available for the examining board to ask questions or make any observations it deems appropriate. The director(s) may be present during the defence and may speak when the student has finished the defence.
The director(s) may be present during the defence and may take the floor when the student has finished his/her intervention and before the panel's turn for questions and observations.
There are different modalities of TFM and the student may choose any of them within the period that will be indicated in due course:
Modality A.
Type A1.
Analysis of the main challenges and keys to teaching Social Sciences in Secondary Education.
This is a project in which the main challenges to be faced as a future teacher of Social Sciences in Secondary Education are identified and analysed and lines of action are proposed in response to them. The work, as a whole, should thus respond to the following questions:
1. What are the fundamental problems, difficulties and challenges that a Social Studies teacher faces in the classroom: curricular or methodological challenges specific to our disciplines, of dynamisation and leadership of the classroom, of motivation and guidance of their work, of assessment of student learning, etc.
2. What ideas (theories, models, concepts, etc.) provided by the different authors are valuable for analysing and tackling each of these challenges/difficulties?
3. What is, broadly speaking, my personal project to face these challenges/difficulties specific to teaching in the social sciences: based on the critical analysis of the ideas of the different authors, a personal project is proposed on how to face the challenges that have been identified.
It is particularly important that all critical reflection is based on reference authors and researchers. The analysis of one's own experiences, including that of the practice centre, may also be incorporated.
An extensive planning document and criteria for the preparation of the work will be submitted to the students at the time of the presentation of this line of work.
Type A2.
State of the question on a topic or problem related to the didactics of Social Sciences
The work consists of writing a state of the question on a specific topic or problem related to the teaching and learning of History, Geography or Art History, based on a review of the available research and specialised publications. It is not so much a question of an exhaustive review of the bibliography, but rather the construction of a coherent and structured argument in which the different Problems What is valued in the work, therefore, is that, from the reading of the most relevant publications, the author is able to elaborate a synthesis and coherent organisation of the proposals, conclusions and debates contained in these publications, to the point of to form a significant panoramic view of the issue. The recommended bibliography for the project will be in Spanish and English.
An extensive planning document and criteria for the preparation of the work will be handed out to the students at the time of the presentation of this line of work.
Type A3.
Critical portfolio of learning experiences on a topic from the Secondary and/or Baccalaureate curriculum.
The work consists of the presentation of between 4 and 7 different learning experiences on the same topic or issue present and relevant to the Geography, History or History of Art curriculum. The experiences will be presented in a common format and will be accompanied by a comparative analysis and overall assessment. The different activities can deal with different approaches to a topic (e.g. causes, historical significance, polarisation, etc. around the Civil War) or propose different activities around the same approach.
The key point of the work, in addition to the presentation of the activities, is the extent to which the proposals as a whole
involve an investigation into possible solutions to a given problem or curricular or methodological proposal.
The experiences presented may be original or have been taken from experiences proposed or experimented with by other teachers or scholars (with the corresponding citation, of course), with a greater or lesser degree of modification. The important thing is that the portfolio offers a diverse panorama in which different options or solutions to the same problem or question can be analysed and assessed.
An extensive planning document and criteria for the elaboration of the work will be handed out to the students at the time of the presentation of this line of work.
Modality B.
Research project
The project will consist of an original work of educational research or innovation integrated into one of the lines proposed by the Master's teaching staff for the different specialisations and approved by the Master's Quality Assurance Committee. In November, the proposals of research lines approved for that academic year by the Quality Assurance Committee will be announced.
Students who opt for this modality must follow the instructions and dates given by the secretary's office of the centre (Faculty of Education).
The research projects will necessarily include, as a minimum, an educational design put into practice in the classroom, the qualitative analysis of the data collected in the classroom and an interpretation or discussion of the results of the analysis of these data from the perspective of the hypotheses formulated or the results of previous authors. The tutors, within their proposed lines, will give the relevant and detailed specifications on the structure and realisation of these works.
The following aspects will be particularly valued in these modality B research projects:
- Design of the experience and research
- Rigour and quality of presentation in the analysis of the data.
- Depth of interpretation of the results
General assessment criteria
In addition to the specific criteria specific to each modality, in general the assessment will be based on the following criteria:
- Quality of the structure and formal presentation of the work, including from the logical structuring of the whole in sections, the clarity of the verbal exposition, the quality of the graphs and tables, the presentation of the document and the correct use of the system of citations and references in APA 7th ed. format.
- Correct and meaningful use of the fundamental educational concepts that are relevant to the work.
- Quality of the presentation and defence of the project before the examining board. This section will particularly value the clarity with which the work as a whole, in its fundamental aspects, is presented to the examining board orally and with the support of appropriate resources, highlighting the key elements of the design, its theoretical assumptions and hypotheses and the fundamental conclusions that can be inferred from the data. Following the indications of the verification report, the presentation and defence may represent between 20% and 30% of the final mark for the dissertation. In both parts, paper and defence, the student must achieve a minimum of 5 in order to be graded.
The examining board will make an overall assessment of the work, its presentation and defence, reaching a single grade through consensus by means of the procedure it deems appropriate.
It will be graded from 0 to 10, with the possibility of awarding an honours degree in accordance with the regulations of the University of Zaragoza.
The secretary of the examining board will fill in the minutes of the TFM of the speciality, and after the signature of all the members of the examining board, will deliver them to the Secretary's Office of the Faculty at the end of the reading and will display a copy on the notice board indicating the date of the established review.
In accordance with the evaluation regulations of the University of Zaragoza, after the review, the student may claim the revision of the grade obtained by means of a written reasoned claim. The claim will be processed in accordance with the provisions of the aforementioned regulations.
In the event that the mark is lower than five, the examining board, at the request of the interested party, will point out the defects detected, indicating the modifications that will need to be made to the work or to the new defence of the same.
According to the evaluation regulations of the University of Zaragoza: Total or partial fraud or plagiarism in any of the evaluation tests will result in the failure of the subject with the minimum grade, in addition to the disciplinary sanctions that the guarantee committee adopts for these cases. For more detailed information on plagiarism and its consequences, please consult: https://biblioteca.unizar.es/propiedad-intelectual/propiedad-intelectual-plagio#Que