Pre-Primary Education

What will I learn by studying this degree?

• 1.- Deal efficiently with educational situations for early learners from a global perspective, encompassing the cognitive, emotional, motor, linguistic and self-control dimensions. (Global perspective).
• 2.- Create learning environments which are conducive to empathy, social behaviour, autonomy, and the co-existence of many cultures, while systematically observing the social, family and school envirnoment. (contextual and socio-natural perspective).
• 3.- Design, apply and assess teaching activities which are geared towards developing children's physical, cognitive, social/affective, motor and linguistic abilities, bearing in mind the biological, psychological, social and creative elements which condition learning (early learning and fun learning perspective).
• 4.- Design strategies based on co-ordinated work carried out by different professionals in order to guide families in issues related to the development and education of 0- to 6-year-olds. (co-ordination with other professionals and family guidance perspective)
• 5.- Detect possible difficulties which pupils may have and design teaching and curricular adaptation strategies which take into consideration pupil diversity, to enhance children's educational and social inclusion. (diversity awareness perspective)
• 6.-Design teaching practices which help school-goers understand the concepts of space and time. (time-space perspective)
• 7.- Design and draw up educational approaches for communication and expression, with strategies which include gestures and visual-verbal strategies.  (about basic and instrumental learning)
• 8.- Make an appropriate use of the New Technologies as a vehicle for information, communication and an introduction into the world of mass-media (about New Technologies)
• 9.- Use different languages to promote and develop creativity (about creativity)
• 10.- Design experiments to get to know the natural world by means of sensorial perception. (about sensorial and experimental development)
• 11.- Promote and enhance the acquisition of healthy habits in terms of hygene, health and diet (about health and hygene)
• 12.- Know about how primary schools work and get involved in the teaching profession, reflecting on the experience using their own assessment criteria.  (research-action during placement)

Where will I be qualified to work upon graduation?

In high schools and public and private schools from different backgrounds (rural or urban, multicultural or mono-cultural, regional, national or international, etc) with an ability to adapt to rapidly-changing environments. Graduates will also  have the necessary training to work in sectors which are linked to Primary Education, both directly and indirectly, in publishing houses and companies from the technological and educational sectors, etc.

Is this degree official in accordance with the regulations of the European Higher Education Area?

Yes (the final verification report is attached). The implementation of the degree will be carried out progressively, beginning in the first year of the degree in the academic year 2009-10.

Final verification report 

Report favorable first modification

Report favorable second modification

Report favorable third modification

Report favorable fourth modification

What topics will be covered in this Degree?

Summary of the subjects which make up the Degree in Primary Education and their respective credit allocation:

Recommended Profile

To access the Degree in Pre-Primary Education it is necessary to have passed the university entrance exams. There are no special requirements.

The entry profile of the Degree requires a person who shows a great vocation of service to society and the community, especially to families, as the main agent of primary socialisation during these early years. Bearing in mind that it is a regulated and qualifying profession, aspiring teachers should show a special interest in education in general.

    - Be intellectually curious about acquiring new knowledge.

    - Show a vocation for pedagogy and education in general.

   -  Recognise the importance of education in values from the earliest stages of education.

    - Promote a culture of effort to achieve professional competence.

    - Develop sensitivity towards issues concerning families and pupils that affect the educational process.

    - Show interest and involvement in carrying out socio-family educational intervention to improve the learning process of students.

   - To be competent in different languages, especially English, to be able to communicate easily and to favour this cultural approach in education.

    - Promote respect for human rights and equality, in favour of the integration and dignity of people from the educational system.

In addition, they must show good oral and written expression and comprehension, have social skills, be able to deal with diversity in the classroom, etc., and, in short, they must promote the personal, social and educational development of children up to the age of 6.

As far as accessibility is concerned, at the Rey Juan Carlos University, this is a fundamental objective. And access to studies for any student is fundamental, but for those who have a disability it is even more significant, as they require complementary guarantees to varying degrees, in order to live with full rights or to participate on an equal footing with other citizens. In accordance with article 51 of Real Decreto 1892/2008, de 14 de noviembre, which regulates the conditions for access to official university studies, the Rey Juan Carlos University will reserve 5% of the places available in all its degrees, whether they are official undergraduate or postgraduate and, where appropriate, in specific doctoral programmes, both in the June and September call for applications. If these places are not filled, they will be filled by the rest of the students (General regulations: https://www.urjc.es/principal-intranet/uad-discapacidad#normativa-y-documentacion).

Objectives

The chief aim of the degree is to train teachers of Primary School Education to be able to carry out their profession in different contexts (rural and urban, multi-culticultural and mono-cultural, regional, national and international, etc.); enabling them to adapt to social, cultural, scientific, technological and educational changes; and to gain expert working knowledge of a variety of subjects and how they interact. They should be able to question practices where necessary and have initiative; to reflect on the practical side of what they teach, and have a commitment to their profession. At the same time, students will be trained to work in other professions which are related – both directly and/or indirectly - to Primary School Education.

The general training will serve to train Primary Education teachers who will be competent to teach at all stages and in all curricular areas of Primary Education.  They should be experts in all aspects of Primary Education and how they interact. As such they will be able to build upon the basic principles of Primary Education to meet its objectives.  The training received on this degree course is geared towards preparing graduates to be skilled teachers of Primary Education. They will be encouraged to question the status quo and enabled to adapt to a rapidly-changing environment.

In keeping with these objectives, the teacher must be able to:

• 1.    Organise ways to encourage each student to acquire knowledge
• 2.    Act as a mediator so that each activity is significant and stimulates the potential for development for students in an interactive group activity.
• 3.    Design and organise activities for each subject area and a combination of them, and interact with the outside world.
• 4.    Analyse the environment in which the activity takes place, designing it in such a way that it meets the needs of a changing society.
• 5.    Manage tutorials in order to guide students and assess their learning progress.
• 6.    Have in-depth knowledge of the eduactional stage in which they are going to work.
• 7.    Know the subjects which they are going to teach and design appropriate activities both for each subject and a combination of several. 
  8.    Use a suitable methodology for the role of teacher/researcher.
• 9.    Acquire knowledge, and discover tools which help students to reflect on education from a psychological/sociological and pedagogical point of view.
• 10.  Learn about and develop the necessary skills to be able to acquire the required personal maturity to be properly qualified to teach.
• 11.Set up teaching-learning situations to help students discover what their future teaching role will be like.
• 12.  Develop their work in the knowledge society.
• 13.Know about the new training processes which the information and communication technologies afford.
• 14.Know themselves, have self-esteem and the ability to create constructive group relations, and to have a supportive and democratic attitude.
• 15.Have the necessary social skills to be able to lead the groups of students for which they are responsibe.
• 16.  Work as a team with the other teaching staff.

Consequently, students of the Degree in Primary Education at the URJC have the following aims:

• 1.    To understand how language develops at the primary education stage and to design teaching strategies which will enrich communicative skills.
• 1.    To know about and enhance the child's cognitive, social and personality development from birth to the age of compulsory education.
• 2.    To use systematic observation as the main tool for an overall, general and continued assessment of students' abilities.
• 3.    To take their lead from the globalisation principle when it comes to programming learning activities and tasks for 0- to 6-year-olds.
• 4.    To know how to use games as the main teaching tool, as well as designing learning activities based on principles of fun.
• 5.    To be able to develop a child's mathematical thinking and awareness of numbers.
• 6.    To promote habits which introduce the child to the worlds of reading and writing.
• 7.    To be expert in any and all official languages of the region and pronounce and understand the languages fluently.
• 8.    To develop in their pupils the habits of self-sufficiency and respect for the norms for studying together.
• 9.    To know the methodology for developing the concept of space, geometry and logical thought.
• 10.  To know about psychomotor development and design activities geared to stimulating it.
• 11.To detect unease on the part of a child which prevents him or her from developing, and to take steps to solve the problem.
• 12.  To know how to create and maintain communication links with children's families and so include them more actively in their child's/children's education
• 13. To know how to encourage children to respect their natural, social and cultural environments.

Skills

The skills which students of the Primary Education Degree will acquire can be divided into two main blocks. On the one hand, we have the general skills of the degree which can, in turn, be divided into:-

1.    General skills which are common to all degree courses and which are regulated by the Royal Decree 1393/2007 of the 29th of October (regulating Official University Teaching).

2.    General skills for the Degree in Teaching Primary Education , which are set out in the Order ECI/3857/2007, of the 27th of December, which establishes the pre-requisites for the verification of official university degrees in the area of Primary Education Teaching.
The ECI/3857/2007 Order, of the 27th of December, sets out the minimum modules required for structuring the study plan and also specifies the minimum skills required upon completion of said modules. Among the general principles which cover the design of new degrees, the study plans should bear in mind that any professional activity must:

• Promote respect for the fundamental rights of equality between men and women.
• Promote respect for Human Rights and the principles of equal access for all as outlined in the final section of Law 51/2003 of the 2nd of December on Equal Opportunities, non-discrimination and equal access for all irrespective of disabilities.
• Promote the values characterised by a culture of peace and democracy.

 
On the other hand, the general skills which students should acquire over the course of their degree and which, in turn, are necessary for the student to obtain the qualification are the following:

• To obtain and understand the necessary knowledge for each study area of the degree in order to be prepared to work in the Primary School Teaching profession.
• To know how to apply this knowledge to their job in a professional manner, showing that they have acquired the relevant knowledge by thinking through and resolving problems in each of the study areas.
• To know how to gather and interpret data which is relevant to the different study areas and make a reasoned decision which shows that they have thought through the relevant socio-eductional, scientific and ethical issues. 
• To be able to communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to the skilled and qualified personnel whom students are directly accountable to for their university studies, as well as people who are indirectly related to the university degree.
• To acquire the learning skills which are necessary for them to develop their studies under their own initiative.

More specifically, several General and Specific skills have been established.  
General (cross-disciplinary) Skills for the Teaching Degree (general ones which are common to all profiles of teacher) which a Education graduate should have are:

 a) General Instrumental Skills:

-      ability to analyse and summarise

• ability to organise and plan
• good at communicating, both in writing and orally, in their mother tongue
• knowledge of a foreign language study-related IT skills

-   ability to manage information 
-   problem-solving skills 
-   decision-making abilities

b) General Personal Skills:

-   Teamwork 
-   Working in an international environment 
-   skills with interpersonal relations
-   Awareness of diversity and multicultural phenomena  
-   Thinking through ideas
-   commitment to ethics

c) General systematic skills:

-    Autonomous learning
-    Knowledge of other cultures and customs 
-    Initiative and an entrepreneurial spirit 
-    Quality-driven 
-    sensitivity towards environmental issues
-    adapting to new situations 
-    Creativity 
-    Leadership 
 
As regards Specific Skills which are common to all teacher profiles, the following must be highlighted:

-      Ability to understand the complexity of educational processes in general and the teacher-student process in particular.
-      knowledge of the subjects to be taught, and their uniqueness in terms of epistemology and delivery.
-      a solid foundation in science, culture and technology.
-      ability to anaylse and think through the data related to education which comes from research as well as the curricular proposals which come from Public

Administration.

-      Respect for the cultural and personal differences between students and other members of the education sector.
-      Design and development of educational projects and programmes which help adapt the curriculum to the sociocultural environment. .
-      Ability to hold tutorials, advising students and parents and co-ordinating the teaching content for their particular student group.
-      A commitment to enhancing students' academic performance and educational progress, considering all aspects of university life.
-      Ability to work with the different sectors of the educational community and its environments.
-      Analyse and understand the educational processes both inside and outside the classroom for 0- to 6-year-olds.

Consequently, the skills which students should acquire in the Primary Education Teacher Degree are the following:

• 1.    To know the objectives, curricular content and assessment criteria for Primary Education.
• 2.    To promote and facilitate the training of early learners from a global perspective which involves the cognitive, emotional, psychomotor and volitive dimensiones.
• 3.    To design and regulate learning spaces for highly diverse situations in order to accomodate students' educational needs as well as fomenting gender equality, equal opportunities and respect for human rights.
• 4.    To promote student life together inside and outside the classroom and seek to resolve conflicts peacefully. To be able to observe different learning and co-existence scenarios and reflect upon them.
• 5.    To reflect as a group on the acceptance of rules and respect for others. To promote the individuality and unique learning capacity of each student as a means of educating the emotions, feelings and values of early learners.
• 6.    To know about how language develops in early learners, and to be able to identify possible disfunctions and seek to correct them. To face language-learning situations in multicultural and multilingual circumstances. To express themselves orally and in writing and be skilled in the use of different communication techniques.
• 7.    To be aware of the implications for education of the Information and Communication Technologies.
• 8.    To know the fundamentals of infant diet and hygene.
• 9.    To know the fundamentals of looking after early learners and all that goes towards understanding their psychological processes in learning and how their personality develops.
• 10.To know how Primary Schools are organised and the different ways in which they work.
• 11.To assume that the teaching profession must be in a continual state of improvement and always seeking to adapt to the life-long scientific, pedagogical and social changes which are taking place
• 12.To advise parents with regard to the education of 0- to 6-year-old children and to be highly skilled in dealing with the family of each pupil and the group of families.
• 13.To reflect upon how to work in the classroom to innovate and improve the teaching profession. To acquire skills for individual and group learning and to pass these on to pupils.
• 14.  To understand how Education works in today's society and also its  possibilities and limitations. Also, the basic responsibilities which affect Primary Education and the professionals who work there.
• 15.To know the quality improvement models and how they are applied to education centres.

Below are the skills which the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos has set out as fundamental for students of the Primary Education Degree. Upon completing their studies, students should, according to the document, be able to:

• 1.- Deal efficiently with educational situations for early learners from a global perspective, encompassing the cognitive, emotional, motor, linguistic and self-control dimensions. (Global perspective).
• 2.- Create learning environments which are conducive to empathy, social behaviour, autonomy, and the co-existence of many cultures, while systematically observing the social, family and school envirnoment. (contextual and socio-natural perspective)
• 3.- Design, apply and assess teaching activities which are geared towards developing children's physical, cognitive, social/affective, motor and linguistic abilities, bearing in mind the biological, psychological, social and creative elements which condition learning (early learning and fun learning perspective).
• 4.- Design strategies based on co-ordinated work carried out by different professionals in order to guide families in issues related to the development and education of 0- to 6-year-olds. (co-ordination with other professionals and family guidance perspective)
• 5.- Detect possible difficulties which pupils may have and design teaching and curricular adaptation strategies which take into consideration pupil diversity, to enhance children's educational and social inclusion. (diversity awareness perspective)
• 6.-Design teaching practices which help school-goers understand the concepts of space and time. (time-space perspective)
• 7.- Design and draw up educational approaches for communication and expression, with strategies which include gestures and visual-verbal strategies.  (about basic and instrumental learning)
• 8.- Make an appropriate use of the New Technologies as a vehicle for information, communication and an introduction into the world of mass-media (about New Technologies)
• 9.- Use different languages to promote and develop creativity (about creativity)
• 10.- Design experiments to get to know the natural world by means of sensorial perception. (about sensorial and experimental development)
• 11.- Promote and enhance the acquisition of healthy habits in terms of hygene, health and diet (about health and hygene)
• 12.- Know about how primary schools work and get involved in the teaching profession, reflecting on the experience using their own assessment criteria.(research-action during placement)

Minimum requeriments for stay

• For full-time students doing an undergraduate degree, the maximum period of time allowed to complete the degree is eight years. Part-time students can request an extension of up to two years from the Rector.
• In the degrees that have more than to 240 credits (4 years), the maximum stated in the previous section will be increased by one year for each 60 ECTS that are added to the 240 ECTS.
• Students have to pass a minimum of two subjects in the first year. Students who are studying part-time have to pass at least one subject in the first academic year.
• Students who are studying an official degree at Rey Juan Carlos University have a maximum of four enrollments in each one of the subjects in the study program, without counting previous cancellations of said subjects.

For further information see: Normativa de permanencia

Minimum number of  ECTS credits per type of registration and academic year

Full-time students:

Part-time students:

Internal System of Quality Guarantee

Internal System of Quality Guarantee

Composition of the commission

Composition of the commission

Report on Results

Once the follow-up on the Degree is carried out, the quantitative information concerning the results of the follow-up for each academic year is shown.

Report on Results

• 2022/2023
• 2021/2022
• 2020/2021
• 2019/2020
• 2018/2019
• 2017/2018
• 2016/2017
• 2015/2016
• 2014/2015
• 2013/2014
• 2012/2013
• 2011/2012 

General information collection plan

• Indicators 2013/14
• Indicators 2014/15
• Indicators 2015/16
• Indicators 2016/17
• Indicators 2017/18
• Indicators 2018/19
• Indicators 2019/20
• Indicators 2020/21
• Indicators 2021/22
• Indicators 2022/23

Steps toward Improvement

• Improvement actions 2021/2022
• Improvement actions 2020/2021
• Improvement actions 2019/2020
• Improvement actions 2018/2019
• Improvement actions 2017/2018
• Improvement actions 2016/2017
• Improvement actions 2015/2016
• Improvement actions 2014/2015
• Improvement actions 2013/2014
• Improvement actions 2012/2013
• Improvement actions 2011/2012

Accreditation renewal

Accreditation renewal supposes the culmination of the implementation of the official undergraduate and Master’s degrees registered in the University, Center, and Degree Register. The accreditation renewal of official undergraduate and Master’s degrees is organized in three phases: self-assessment report, external visit, and final assessment.

In the first phase, the university describes and assesses the situation of the degree with respect to the established criteria and guidelines. The result is the Self-Assessment report that is presented. The second and third phases are carried out by a group of assessors who are external to the degree in question.

Renewal Final Report of accreditation  2023

Recognition of quality

Tracing