Subject title |
Master's Dissertation |
Master |
Máster Universitario en Educación Bilingüe |
ECTS Credits |
12 |
Period |
Second four month period |
Course type | Master's Dissertation |
This guide is aimed at providing information about the Master’s Dissertation (MD) to postgraduate students from the Master’s Degree on Bilingual Education at the International University of La Rioja (UNIR). Some guidelines will be provided to develop this relevant final subject of the Master, which is, on the other hand, compulsory to obtain your Master’s degree.
The main purpose of performing your MD is to demonstrate that you have acquired the knowledge and competences related to your Master’s degree. This subject has a total of 12 ECTS. The work has to be carried out individually under the supervision of an advisor, called supervisor, designated by UNIR. Your final mark will be obtained at the end of the course with an oral defence (‘viva’) in the presence of an examining committee.
You can proceed with your MD viva only if you have passed all the subjects of your Master’s degree as well as your Practicum period.
Written dissertation and viva must be in English
Basic Competences
General competences
Specific Competences
Transversal competences
The different tasks and activities programmed during the semester have been developed with the goal of adapting the learning process to the different capabilities, necessities and interests of the students.
The activities included in the subject are:
These activities are combined with the following aspects:
The hours dedicated to each activity are detailed as follows:
Assignments |
Hours |
Master's Dissertation Opening session | 2,0 |
Reading material in the virtual classroom | 5,0 |
Seminars from the Master's Dissertation work | 5,0 |
Individual tutories (MD) | 6,0 |
Group sessions | 3,0 |
Master's Dissertation development | 277,0 |
VIVA process | 2,0 |
Total |
300 |
Your MD must be an academic, genuine, and unpublished work carried out individually under the guidance of a supervisor. You are invited to investigate on any research topic, but it must be related to the content of one of your Master’s modules.
You have to fulfill completely a form with your initial research proposal. In the form, special attention must be paid on the proposal description to simplify your supervisor’s work.
You have to select one of the following options for your MD:
The dissertation can deal with a research related to any subject of your Master’s degree within the three modalities offered for Bilingual Education, for example, intervention proposal or research proposal.
A. State of the art
Description: A thorough review of the existing literature in a particular topic of the research.
B. Intervention proposal
Description: Design of an educative proposal with no implementation in the classroom environment.
C. Experimental research
One of the three sub-modalities of experimental research must be chosen (C1, C2, or C3).
C1: Experimental study
Description: Study in which data are collected and analysed
C2: Intervention proposal and experimental study
Description: Design and implementation of an intervention proposal with data collection and its analysis.
C3: Experimental study and intervention proposal
Description: Design of an intervention proposal (without implementing it) but with a previous detailed analysis of the educational context/ situation, etc.
Suggested table of contents
A dissertation in every master’s degree contains some key aspects written in accordance with a standard structure and with some required content for being defended in front of an examining committee. Even though some parts might differ depending on the modality chosen, your MD structure must be organized, as far as possible.
Bibliography
Dissertations and academic writing research papers, in general, require the use of references. To this respect, it is useful and advisable the use of not only materials and sources seen in your master’s modules, but also other bibliographical lists, suitable for the development of your MD.
Before starting any research, it is crucial to know the contributions proposed by other authors around the topic you are interested in. The literature review, together with the analysis of the state-of-the-art, consists of reading publications and other people’s works to introduce you to the existing academic debate for a given research topic.
Throughout the research process, it is necessary to check other documents that will provide you with direct information and wide knowledge in the area to propose your effective arguments for or against certain positions of a given topic. These documents are commonly known as Bibliography.
Thus, establishing a good literature review section in your MD will:
*Note: Please see APA reference system for further information about Bibliography and References sections in a dissertation.
Types of bibliographic sources
Bibliographic documents required for your MD could be classified as follows:
Not all the sources have the same reliability, and not all of them can be used as an authority argument to support or refute other arguments. Therefore, it is important to take into account the following criteria when selecting the sources you are going to work with.
APA reference system (6th edition) must be followed for a correct citation of publications used for the research in this Master’s degree. APA’s document can be accessed via your virtual classroom.
You will be assigned a supervisor during the first week of Master’s Dissertation module so that you can receive assistance and perform your dissertation to obtain the best results in your final Master’s degree.
1. MD topic proposal
The Master’s Management from your university will determine when to apply for submitting your initial MD proposal. After that, your MD supervisor, assigned by UNIR, will assess your initial proposal. Procedures and form will be duly notified.
You can select any research topic for your MD proposal, but taking into account the purposes of your Master’s degree and the standard structure for MD (see Modalities and MD structure).
For your initial proposal, you have to fulfill completely a form, in which special attention must be paid on the proposal description to simplify your supervisor’s work.
Your initial proposal will not be definitive until your supervisor gives consent for its development.
2. Supervisor’s allocation
The Master’s Management from your university will choose and assign the supervisor for your MD.
The roles of your MD supervisor consist of:
3. Supervisor’s consent for initial proposal
Your supervisor will revise your proposal once the deadline for sending initial proposals has expired —approximately one week after this deadline.
Once the proposal has been read, your supervisor, apart from introducing him/herself, can suggest convenient comments to guide appropriately your MD. Your supervisor’s consent on your proposal will be given when he/she considers conditions are adequate, in accordance with the due time and form established for this type of research works under his/her supervision and your own work.
Your research process on your MD will start when the Master’s Managament is informed about its consent.
4. MD development period
The main purpose of any MD is to delve into the teaching reality from the point of view of bilingual education and its application in the classroom. To perform your work properly, you have at your disposal a scheduled programme and some useful resources and tools.
4.1. MD virtual classroom
The virtual classroom of this subject offers you some resources in order to perform your dissertation. On the other hand, you also have some additional documentation in which some other aspects, relevant for your dissertation, are dealt in detail.
4.2. Communication with your supervisor and draft deliveries
During your MD development, and your supervisor’s assistance, you will be modifying the document of your research until having the definitive version of your dissertation.
Your supervisor will witness your MD evolution, and will review three drafts of your manuscript, delivered via the platform. Every time you send a draft of your manuscript, you will have to contact your supervisor to arrange a date for an individual meeting by means of the platform which licence is available at this university (Adobe Connect). During this period, written communication with your supervisor will be carried out via email of your platform.
You are required to be punctual for sending partial drafts as well as to follow strictly the indications and recommendations suggested by your supervisor in the next draft.
Your supervisor will propose the dates for sending your drafts, together with the suggested dates for individual meetings for a more personalised guidance.
4.3. Group virtual sessions
Along the period of life of your MD, your supervisor will be also responsible of maintaining contact with the rest of students of the same group. Therefore, your university has agreed to establish two group virtual sessions. These sessions will be devoted to giving basic advice about the methodology to perform your MD, about the procedure of oral defence in the presence of the examining committee, and about other convenient indications and recommendations.
Group virtual sessions will take place in the virtual classroom through the tool called «Clases presenciales virtuales» (virtual sessions). Some sessions affecting all the Master’s students will be scheduled with enough time in advance. You will be informed about them via: calendar of virtual sessions, and last minute of your platform.
4.4. Content
The content can be on any research topic; however, it has to meet some requirements in terms of content and structure.
Content requirements for a MD are the following:
5. Final MD manuscript
Before submitting your final version of your manuscript, your supervisor must provide his/her consent. This consent will be carried out on the definitive version of your MD. You will be informed about this positive consent so that you can submit it properly.
Deadline for submitting your dissertation, either for ordinary or extraordinary examination, is determined by the calendar proposed for your master’s degree. After this deadline, dissertations will not be accepted and they will be defended in another examination period.
It is advisable to schedule with enough time the delivery date of your final version so that your supervisor can carry out a last revision on your manuscript, and you can submit correctly in the corresponding examination period. Moreover, we recommend you not to wait until the day of the deadline, since some unexpected events can arise, and subsequently you will be past the deadline and will not be allowed to submit your MD.
.
Once your MD has been submitted, you will be informed of the dates and places in which oral defences will take place, as well as the exact time when you have to defend your MD in the presence of an Examining Committee. The period between your MD submission and the viva can range between thirty and ninety days.
Requirements for your MD viva
Viva event
UNIR will publish the calendar and the cities in which MD oral presentations will take place at least 10 calendar days in advance with regard to the agreed defence date.
You will have to defend your MD in the presence of the examining committee by exposing your main research lines and respecting the time scheduled for your viva.
You will have at your disposal a maximum of thirty minutes for presenting the essential elements of your dissertation. Additionaly, you will have other 15 minutes to answer some questions posted by the committee members and to clarify some aspects related to your MD.
Your MD viva must be performed in English.
The final mark of your MD depends on the Evaluation report submitted by the Examining Committee. For this evaluation, this committee will assess the format, the structure and organization, the content, and the oral presentation or ‘viva’. This final mark will be submitted by a committee integrated by three PhD members; therefore, you cannot appeal additional review of your dissertation final mark. It is also convenient to take into account that appraisals for a given dissertation made by a supervisor might differ from final evaluation of the Examining Committee.
The final mark will be calculated on the basis of a numeric scale from 0 to 10, using an additional decimal, with its corresponding qualitative mark:
0 - 4. 9 |
D |
(SS) |
5.0 - 6.9 |
C |
(AP) |
7.0 - 8.9 |
B |
(NT) |
9.0 - 10 |
A |
(SB) |
In case the dissertation is proposed for “A with honours” by the committee, the Academic Commission of the master’s degree will have the final decision, in accordance with current regulations. The total amount of special mention marks cannot exceed 2.5% of students enrolled in MD module.
The committee will publish your final mark highlighting the evaluation of the three main parts:
Assessment method |
Min. Score |
Max. Score |
MD structure |
20% |
20% |
VIVA process |
30% |
30% |
MD content |
50% |
50% |