Master's Degree in Research and Innovation in Specific Didactics for Early Childhood and Primary Education

This Master is designed for teachers (new and experienced) and is clearly committed to educational innovation. It is oriented towards the improvement and specialization of teacher training in the field of specific didactics, enabling the research skills necessary for educational research, so that students develop the knowledge and skills necessary to apply methodologies and skills in the classroom. innovative strategies and develop research initiatives from classrooms and educational centers. In addition, the master's degree offers the necessary qualification so that nursery and primary school teachers can incorporate scientific research into their professional career and, therefore, can access the official doctoral programs of universities.

The Interuniversity Master's Degree in Research and Innovation in Specific Didactics for Early Childhood and Primary Education is offered at the universities of Coruña (La Coruña campus), Santiago (Santiago de Compostela campus) and Vigo (Pontevedra campus). It lasts one academic year with a load of 60 ECTS credits and the block of compulsory subjects is approached from an interdisciplinary perspective and with a global approach. The structure of the master's degree, which incorporates nine disciplinary areas, requires an integrating effort to present a coherent and cohesive proposal. This effort is notable in three of the compulsory subjects (The environment as an educational resource; Analysis of interdisciplinary experiences; Design of interdisciplinary projects). In these, interdisciplinary projects are addressed trying to respond to this need, offering a conceptual framework of interdisciplinarity, analyzing experiences and good practices carried out under this approach and finally guiding students in the design of a multidisciplinary proposal that brings together their personal concerns, their initial training and the characteristics of the professional practice context.

Linked to this professionalizing aspect, one of the key functions of this master's degree is to promote the creation of new knowledge through research and innovation on educational action in specific didactics. It is indisputable that the new social and professional scenarios call for the need to train teachers who manage to stimulate critical thinking, ethics and creativity through innovation processes and projects in real contexts.

It is also necessary to train teachers in the management of methodological tools and the different research approaches in specific didactics, understanding their specificities and problems, with the intention of transforming education based on innovation and research.

For this reason, special emphasis is placed on the relationship between research and innovation, closely linked concepts, since the theoretical, practical and methodological progress of the current lines of research in each of the specific didactics is projected and defined through the improvement processes implemented in professional contexts.

This Master is clearly committed to educational innovation, and is oriented towards the improvement and specialization of training in the field of specific didactics and contemplating their points of coincidence in an interdisciplinary framework that cannot ignore direct contact with the educational reality. The analysis of innovative didactic approaches, the resolution of specific research problems, etc., constitute a formative task that can only be carried out through external practices in schools or in those directly linked to us, hence these practices have been considered as a compulsory subject in the curriculum.

On the other hand, the Final Master's Project is an opportunity for students to reflect on the learning achieved in the different subjects and apply such knowledge to specific problems. For this reason, the Master's Thesis and the external Practices are linked to each other, in such a way that the students can relate the theory with real educational problems, an aspect that is unavoidable so that the specialized teacher training is of quality and allows the innovation and improvement of real educational quality.

The Master is structured in one academic year and with a load of 60 ECTS credits, which are distributed as follows: 39 credits of compulsory subjects (which include 6 credits of external internships, 9 of final Master's thesis) and 42 credits of elective subjects (of which students must only take 21 credits).

The objective is that graduates who begin their journey in different productive fields can do so with training that is not only more complete but also expands their perspectives and job possibilities.

What makes this title different and attractive is its commitment to a structural organization of an interdisciplinary nature. Thus, the aim is to train students through interdisciplinary projects, so that the different subjects in current regulations form an active part in the academic project of the degree.

Scientific curiosity, taste for studying and reading, capacity for autonomous and collaborative learning, skills for interpersonal communication, capacity for analysis and critical reasoning, awareness of social and educational aspects such as sustainability and equality, ethical and democratic commitment towards different professional fields in line with the society of the 21st century, by definition, increasingly diverse and multicultural.