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Faculty of Education and Psychology

Teaching staff welcome manual

Faculty of Education and Psychology

Dear colleague,

From the Faculty of Education and Psychology (FEP) at the UdG, we would like to extend the warmest welcome to our centre to you. We are delighted that you now form part of our community and we look forward to accompanying you during this initial period and are here to help with anything that you need.  This welcome manual intends on being open and dynamic, providing you with useful and practical information to assist you as you become part of the Teaching and Research Staff (PDI).  It also serves as a document that complements and expands the general welcome plan offered by the UdG in the context of the FEP.   The Faculty is an educational space, offering continuous learning, growth and community life. We hope to share all this with you and hope that your experience with us will be both enriching and rewarding.  

Team in the Office of the Dean

At FEP, the following government bodies are in place, tasked with managing all activity at the Faculty:

(You can find the composition and the powers of these bodies in the UdG By-Laws

Specific unipersonal bodies:  

  • Dean: Montserrat Vilà  
  • Vice-Dean of Academic Policy and Quality: Bea Caparrós  
  • Vice-Dean of International Coordination and Practicum: Anna Planas 
  • Coordinator of the Bachelor's degree in Primary School Education: Juan Gonzalez
  • Coordinator for the Master's degree studies in Early Childhood Education: Francesc Sidera
  • Coordinator of the Bachelor's degree in Psychology: Francesc Sidera 
  • Coordinator of the Bachelor's degree in Social Education: Carolina Puyaltó
  • Coordinator of the Bachelor's degree in Social Work: Xavier Casademont 
  • Coordinator of the Bachelor's degree in Pedagogy: Edgar Iglesias
  • Academic Secretary: Muntsa Calbó  

The email address for the Dean's office is: deg.educacio@udg.edu 

Specific collegiate bodies:

  • Faculty Board (collegiate governing body of the Faculty)
  • Government Commission (Faculty Board's executive collegiate body)
  • Academic boards (collegiate body for the study and discussion of all aspects affecting the delivery of each of the degrees imparted by the Faculty)
  • Department Board (collegiate governing body of the departments)
  • Institute Board (collegiate governing body of the institutes)

The administrative management of the Faculty is entrusted to the different services and administrative units, for which details are provided at the link.

The teaching staff is known as Teaching and Research Staff (PDI) or academic staff. This group consists of the university's teaching staff, both permanent and temporary, in-house or associate researchers and instructors and research grant holders, who are considered trainee academic staff. The PDI can have different educational profiles depending on their situation:

Public Servant PDI:

  • University Professors
  • Associate Professors

Hired PDI (categories specific to the university area):

  • Assistants
  • Teaching staff providing assistance
  • University professors
  • Senior lecturers
  • Associate lecturers
  • Associated teaching staff
  • Visiting lecturers
  • Professors emeritus

The teaching staff forms part of a department and perform their professional activities in the field of the teaching, research and university management. The department to which the professor is affiliated entrusts them with delivering education on the bachelor's or master's degrees taught at the FEP.

The main functions of the teaching staff are:

  • Programming, developing and assessing theoretical and practical performance in the subject areas within their remit.
  • Informing students about the educational programme and assessments.
  • Participating in the establishment of contents and the teaching methodologies as well as the programmes and lines of research, in line with the advances made in their field.
  • Retaining updated knowledge.
  • Programming and participating in research activities and/or the transfer of knowledge.
  • Participating on collegiate governing bodies and performing the roles to which they have been nominated or elected. 

The departments are tasked with organising and carrying out research and with providing and managing teaching in their own areas of knowledge, in coordination with centres and faculties. They also provide support for their academic staff’s teaching and research activities and initiatives.

The three departments at the FEP are as follows:

The teaching staff at these departments mostly impart the FEP's bachelor's and master’s degrees, although they may also have educational roles on other degrees at other centres or faculties at the UdG. Likewise, teaching staff from other departments at the UdG also impart teaching on our bachelor's degrees and masters.

As a PDI, you will form part of a department and an area of knowledge. When you first join, the department will provide you a work space, access to a computer and all the support for you to perform your academic tasks.

The FEP delivers bachelor's and master's degree studies. Each degree has a coordinator, responsible for organising and coordinating the teaching with support from administrative staff.

 

On the web page of each one of the degrees, you can find general information and other data of interest in relation to access, professional prospects, continued study, subjects, calendars and timetables, practical work, bachelor's or master’s thesis, mobility, enrolment and other specific aspects.

Other master’s degrees coordinated by other universities in which the Faculty is also involved are as follows:

The University of Girona provides the necessary services to support educational activities, research, educational and professional orientation as well as in cultural, sports and leisure fields.

The services most commonly used by the teaching staff, which may be of your interest, include the following:

  • The library is a learning and research resource centre that provides a series of information resources (magazines and e-books, databases, special archives, institutional storage) and services (document loans and acquisitions, advice and education, research support services, cultural activities). The Barri Vell library (located at Plaça Ferrater Mora, 1) offers services and bibliographical resources related to the studies taught at the FEP. 
  • The Josep Pallach Institute of Education Sciences (ICE) aims to contribute to the lifelong learning of academic staff from all educational levels, technical advice in the field of the educational planning, and pedagogical and research innovation. Actions to support innovation and improve teaching are promoted by the ICE in addition to training activities for teaching and research staff at the University of Girona. Educational Innovation Networks (XID) are created in relation to subject matters associated with the priority lines of education at the University of Girona and in line with the interests of the teaching staff at the UdG. They are made up of members of the PDI interested in undertaking an advanced education process and based on the reflections on educational practice.  Educational Innovation Groups (GID) are groups of teaching staff intent on performing an innovation and educational improvement project in their area of study, department or centre.
  • The Human Resources Service is responsible for managing all procedures relating to those who work at the university, in the academic department, or in administration or services.
  • The Occupational Health Office is a service for all staff of the University of Girona that aims to perform the necessary prevention activities to guarantee that the health and safety of staff is suitably safeguarded, advising and meeting with university management, staff and representatives, as well as specialised representative bodies.
  • The Office of Research and Technology Transfer is a Central Department of the University of Girona whose competences are related to research: management of research grants from the autonomous regions, Spain and Europe; management of technology and knowledge transfer; and management of contracts and agreements with companies to fund specific research projects.
  • The International Office it is the unit tasked with facilitating the implementation of the university's internationalisation strategy.
  • The photocopy service at the Faculty is located on the ground floor, to the right of the main entrance. Here, you can find all information about the UdG's printing service via the web portal or from the copy centres.
  • The Bar service is located on floor -1 and usually opens from 8 am to 7 pm.

You can access the UdG's other services (sports, publishing service, etc. ) on the University’s website.

Here you will find explanations on: Educational activities, La Meva UdG, designing and planning subjects, ECTS, Moodle, Assessments, grades and exam records, Academic calendar and timetables.

Educational activities

Educational activities consist of all actions, tasks and work that involve the dissemination of knowledge and support for students acquiring skills through educational processes. The main educational activities are as follows: - Designing and planning of subjects - Face-to-face teaching in classrooms and laboratories: theory classes, practicals and seminars. - Individual and group tutorials, orientation and assistance for students. - Tutoring, monitoring and assessing external practicals (in institutions and companies). - Preparing teaching materials and guides. - Preparing and holding exams and assessments (continuous and final). - Grades and exam records - Participation in the preparation of subject areas/materials - Participation in educational innovation. - Supervising, monitoring and assessing work - Supervising bachelor's or master’s theses - Supervising doctoral theses - Participation in continuous-education activities. - Participation in the academic coordination of the teaching. - Management and participation in joint international exchange and mobility programmes (Erasmus, Seneca etc.).

La meva UdG

All UdG teaching staff have a user account (user code and password) which constitutes your digital identity and enables you to access the La meva UdG Intranet and the University's other online services. 11 La meva UdG is the University of Girona’s Intranet. From La meva UdG you will be able to access your subjects’ Moodles, find information about your degree and your teaching centre, carry out online procedures, find out the latest news that affects you and receive electronic warnings and notifications. To access the Intranet from the UdG website you only need to follow these two simple steps:

Click on "La meva UDG" in the upper menu of any of UdG webpage.

Enter your user code and your digital identity password in the identification screen.

As you enter La meva UdG you will find news on the left and direct links to your subjects, your centre, the Library etc., on the right. You can personalise this page as you like.

You will find the following menus above:

Home (the house icon): for going to the La meva UdG home page or to the pages for your Faculty, centres or studies.

Teaching: for going to the page for your subjects and the study or studies you teach, as well as in your courses (if you are doing any course taught at the UdG, ICE or teaching-innovation group).

Research: for go to the documents on management, research, Ethics Committee, biosecurity, etc.

Staff: Here you will be able to consult important information for teaching and research staff, enter in La + Meva where you will find work data, data on education, professional career, remunerations and particular-area management.

Serveis: Here you will find the information the different University services offer members of the university community.

Govern: From the government menu you will be able to take part in the governing of the University by accessing the electronic ballot boxes and the information that the different government organs provide for the university community.

Shortcuts: The Shortcuts menu gives you direct access to search-engine apps, password-changing, your email (if you use an account provided by the UdG), the work groups you take part in and the technical-, computer- and communication-support portal, and the Occupational Health Office's support portal.

Designing and planning subjects

All subjects taught in the Faculty of Education and Psychology must have to be planned and formally designed. You can find a resource here that can help you when planning your subject. All subjects have to have their design completed before enrolment process for new students starts. The Faculty always provides advance information on the completion date for subjects (normally during the first week of July).

To finishing designing your subjects, enter via the la Meva UdG, using the teaching>subjects tab (or clicking directly on the subjects drawer), after which your teaching plan’s subjects will appear. If you click on the + sign for each subject on the left, the drop-down menus will open with the planning, teaching, evaluation and exam record drawers, which you can then edit.

 

Planning provides for a subject’s general data (descriptor, credits, vehicular language, curriculum and teaching staff teaching it), skills, contents and activities (and their links), assessments and grading (assessment activities, assessment criteria, whether or not activities are recoverable, the percentage on the overall grade, which the one-off assessment consists of, the grading criteria, the minimum requirements for passing and the specific criteria for “not presented” grade), tutorials and communication with students, observations and recommendations and basic bibliography. There are two further tabs, for monitoring and amending the design that were incorporated during the pandemic but which no longer need to be filled in at the Faculty of Education and Psychology. 

As a member of the teaching staff you may be included at any time during which the subject has already been designed and completed, in which case you will have to adapt your teaching to the established plan; or you may be included for a period during which you will be able to make a change with regard, for example, to activities and assessments, updating bibliographies, contents etc. (there are aspects of the subjects that cannot be changed, such as descriptors and skills). If you teach a new optional subject that has never been designed before, it will have to be designed from scratch. Designing and planning any subject will always have to take account of the regulations, guidelines and agreements for the studies where it is taught. In any case, if you have any queries you can contact the coordinating committee for bachelor's or master’s degree where you do your teaching.

ECTS

All subjects have a European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) quantity assigned. The ECTS credits system is based on the students’ work load necessary for achieving a training programme’s goals (learning and skills results). Such student dedication consists of the time invested in attending face-to-face classes, personal study, work, preparation and assessment activities etc. An ECTS corresponds to 25 hours of work from students, of which around a third is dedicated to face-to-face classes. When subjects are designed, the credits assigned to each subject are specified and teaching staff are required to describe the activities that will be carried out, how many hours students will have to dedicate themselves to and whether they will be with or without a teacher.

Moodle

Moodle is the platform we use for managing teaching at the UdG and as a member of the teaching staff you will use it for interacting with students, offering educational materials, resources, creating student groups, designing tasks, giving feedback, publishing notes, for student lists, for publication and completing exam records etc. To enter a subject from your teaching plan in Moodle all you need to is click directly above on the subject, once you have entered La Meva UdG. Moodle has very extensive possibilities, here you can find more than 5o tutorial videos for using it that are very illustrative and educational on how to do various actions through this platform.

Assessments, grades and exam records

 

As a member of the academic staff you are a responsible for assessing and grading of the educational activity of the students taking your subjects. The assessment and grading system for the learning process for bachelor’s- and master's-degree students at the Faculty of Education and Psychology is governed by the UdG's general assessment regulations, which are themselves supplemented by the general assessment criteria and models for subjects in the Faculty’s bachelor’s- and master’s-degree studies.

Some very important aspects relating to assessments and which are clearly specified in the regulations have to do with:

  • Continuous assessment: the Faculty’s assessment system is continuous, that is an ongoing, comprehensive assessment throughout the process of education-learning using significant evidence on the students’ development and progress in attaining the skills set out in the subject’s design.
  • This continuous-assessment process must include more than one assessment activityand of different types, none of which it can represent more of 60% of the final grade.
  • One-off assessment: this is an alternative assessment established in subject's design to the one which, for exceptional reasons, some students, who are unable to follow the continuous assessment, can resort to provided they have requested it within the established deadlines.

Other important aspects in the assessment regulations have to do with specifying all the assessments activities in the design, the grades’ scaling, A with honours, penalisation for fraud or plagiarism, communication of the grades, recoverable activities, description of the one-off assessment's method and its recovery etc.

Once students have been assessed, their final grades have to be entered in their subject exam records within the deadlines set out in the academic calendar.

Academic calendar and timetables

The Faculty of Education and Psychology’s academic calendar establishes the start and end of first- and second-semester classes, the start of bachelor's- and master’s-degree classes, reception sessions, non-teaching days, holidays, assessment days, other activity days and the closing date of the exam records of the first and second semester. You can consult the academic calendar, class timetables and the exam calendar for each bachelor's and master’s degree here.

Groups of research

Research in the University of Girona is mainly conducted in research groups.A Research group is a set of people, connected to the UdG, who carry out research activities within common or thematically or methodologically similar lines of research.        

Research institutes

Research institutes are units dedicated to scientific and technical research or artistic creation.

We have two research institutes in the Faculty:

The Institute of Educational Research (IRE), brings together the work of various research groups at the UdG relating to analysing, transforming and improving educational practice in formal, non-formal and informal contexts. It is committed to contributing to educational research based on shared principles such as inclusion, sustainability, the gender perspective, equality and social cohesion.

The Quality of Life Research Institute (IRQV) integrates several research groups aiming to contribute knowledge and tools for helping to meet some of the main quality-of-life needs in today’s society.

School of Doctoral Studies

The School of Doctoral Studies is a unit created by UdG in collaboration with all the other officers from the university’s research, development and innovation activities (Research groups, Departments, university research Institutes and other research centres belonging to or involving the UdG) and external research centres (Catalan research institutes, hospitals, and so on), whose basic aim is the academic and administrative organisation of that environmental activities that the doctoral studies are configured around.

Doctoral programmes linked to the Faculty of Education and Psychology are: Doctoral Degree in Education, Doctoral degree in Psychology, Health and Quality of Life, Joint Doctoral Degree in Arts and Education, Joint Doctoral Degree in Gender Studies: Cultures, Societies and Policies, and Joint Doctoral Degree in Psychology of Education.

Chairs

Chairs are units that promote study and research, through the organisation of activities inviting reflection, debate and dissemination, in their area of knowledge. Some of the chairs most closely linked to the Faculty are as follows: Chair of Autism Spectrum Education, M. Antònia Canals Chair of Mathematics, Can Trona Chair of Educational Renewal- , Chair of Movements and Languages, Chair of Social Responsibility and Sustainability.

Sectoral Campuses

Campuses are a platform that aimed at proactively facilitating the relationship between companies/institutions from the socio-economic sector and the University of Girona.  Sectoral campuses linked to the Faculty include: Cohesion and Social Commitment Campus and the Health Campus.

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