Degree in Teacher Training for Primary Education

FINAL DEGREE PROJECT (FDP)

1. Presentation

The -FDP- has the aim of assessing the integration of basic competences acquired throughout the course. It mainly consists in developing a study or project of a cross-curricular, descriptive or analytic nature, generally associated to different modules, which allows the student to show the integration of competences particular to their studies.
General competences:

• To develop autonomous learning strategies.
• To produce innovating and competitive proposals in research and/or their professional activity.

Cross-curricular competences:

• To organize and plan with the aim of establishing a plan to be developed in a certain period of time.
• To search, assess, organize, and keep information systems.
• To express oneself in a fluent, coherent, and proper manner, according to established rules, both orally and in written.
• To design and manage projects.
• To ethically commit to the quality of their performance.

2. Orientation and types

Bearing in mind the peculiarities of FDP in the different studies, there can be two types of project in general:
PROFESSIONALIZING:

Design and/or implementation of a project in a professional area: Implementation and assessment of a current project; the point would be to set it up and then analyze results and specific conclusions. Usually, when this kind of FDP is linked to the Practicum and optional subjects, it could be the Degree Mention of the corresponding studies.

ACADEMIC:

• Literature review about topics of interest: Review study of international literature about a specific topic related to the Degree.
• Research projects including literature review, hypothesis, empirical part, results, discussion, and conclusions.
• Updating a topic: Review of clinical, speech therapy and/or educational intervention guidelines based on scientific evidence.

Topics can refer to or be related to any field in their profession.

3. Definition of format.

Projects will be preferably individual. They will be written in Catalan, Spanish or English. In any case, they have to include an abstract in English, Catalan and Spanish.
The maximum length will be 16,000 words. By way of guidance, this corresponds to about 40 pages of text. References and annexes will be considered as separate. In case of group projects (2 people), the maximum length of the paper’s body (not including references and annexes) shall be 30,000 words.

4. Follow-up.

The FDP will be developed in two semesters, and will be monitored by a teacher/tutor, both individually and in seminar sessions. Therefore, there will be a weekly 2-hour space where the teacher/tutor will carry out group seminar sessions to talk about the student’s current process (sequencing and organizing the activity, choosing the topic, collecting information, planning activities...). These seminar sessions will combine with individualized follow-up/tutorials (where every tutor will carry out personalised follow-up of the student’s work).
Every seminar group will consist of 10 students and a tutor, with attendance being compulsory for all the group members.
In one of the semesters, preferably in the first, there will be two new learning settings: Classroom work in big group (2h/week) and small group (2h/week), in order to develop topics related to research and/or applied statistical methods so students can have a greater technological support to develop their FDP.
If students are participating in an international mobility programme, then their FDP could be totally or partially monitored on-line.
The main role of the teacher/tutor is to provide methodological and topic-related guidance throughout the entire FDP process. The following references can be taken into account for the project’s timing:
Professionalizing Final Degree Project

1. Introduction and definition of demand: October
2. Development of the conceptual theoretical background (in relation to the demand): December
3. Submission of the student’s first report.
4. Development of an intervention framework, including the description of the organization or centre (particularly, with those elements that may have more connection with the intervention): February, March.
5. Proposal of intervention taking into account the theoretical background and context (with objectives, content and activities, material and assessment criteria, if appropriate): April.
6. Submission of the student’s second report.
7. Submission of final project: First week in May.
8. Public defence of project: Last two weeks in May.

Academic Final Degree Project
(a) Topic and working title: October.
(b) Bibliographical review, approach (hypothesis, if appropriate, and objectives) and the method section, confirmation of access to the sample or item subject to study: December.
Submission of the student’s first report.
When it is a research project:
(c) Submission of the protocol for the research project, following scientific method sections according to APA style: January.
(d) Data collection: February and March
(e) Data analysis: April.
Submission of the student’s second report.
(f) Writing: April.
(g) Submission of final project: First week in May.
(h) Public defence of project: Last two weeks in May.
When it is a literature review or updating study of a topic:
(c) Bibliographical research: January and February.
(d) Analysis and critical review of bibliographical guidelines or materials: March and April.
Submission of the student’s second report.
(e) Writing: April.
(f) Submission of final project: First week in May.
(g) Public defence of project: Last two weeks in May.

5. Assessment.

There will be three assessment systems and moments:
1. The tutor will carry out continuous assessment of every assignment throughout the academic year. During this period, students will have to hand in 2 progress reports (December and April), not longer than 2 pages each. Taking into consideration the student’s work in the seminars and tutorials, progress, etc., the tutor will propose a mark. The following specific aspects will be assessed:
o Initiative, feasibility, and originality of the proposal or topic
o Design, organization and management of work
o Use of appropriate research resources and tools
o Ability to overcome difficulties
o Student’s degree of autonomy and rigour
o Meeting deadlines and guidelines established by the tutor
2. Presentation and public defence in front of an assessment commission, made up by two teachers of the corresponding area, with the possibility of the tutor being one of them. To defend their project, the seminar tutor has to show conformity with the project, in the sense that it complies with minimal standards of requirement. The final qualification will be awarded by general consent; if there is no general agreement, then every commission member will award a mark and the final qualification will be their average. The following specific aspects will be assessed:
o Clarity and precision of presentation
o Linguistic correctness
o Originality, organization, and quality of content
o Results and development of conclusions
o Suitability of answers to questions posed by the assessment commission members
o Suitability of presentation to the written project’s content
In this sense, the official examination calendar has to include two days for the presentation of projects. The student’s oral presentation cannot last more than 15 minutes.
3. Written report. There will be two complementary modalities of written report. A report about the work carried out, or a scientific article including a reflection on the student’s learning process. The written report will be marked by the teacher/tutor. The following specific aspects will be assessed:
o Linguistic correctness and good structure of the different parts
o Originality of ideas, contribution to the creation of knowledge, and personal contributions
o Method correctness
o Appropriateness of result interpretation and conclusions
o Clarity of expression
o Appropriate use of references
In front of formal errors, whether in the written report or in the oral presentation, and if the teacher/tutor considers that they can be solved in a short period of time, the FDP could be assessed again in June.
Every assessment system will have the following repercussion on the final mark:

Process assessment (teacher/tutor)35%Assessment of presentation and public defence 25%Assessment of written report/scientific article (teacher/tutor)40%

Copyright for the FDP will be held by the student/s author/s of the project. Nevertheless, as we understand that the teacher/tutor has also contributed to its development, should the project be disseminated or modified, consent from authors and tutor will be needed, with the name of the teacher/tutor being put as co-author in second place.