History

The Research Group Stellae (GI-1439 of USC) was formed at the beginning of 1997. It is composed of a group of researchers in the field of education. These researchers are interested in building knowledge that can potentially transform the actions of educational institutions in order to improve the process of teaching, learning, education,and teachers’ professional development.

The group’s basic features are the following: an interest in a wide range of topics; the integration of professionals from other education levels, aninterdisciplinary approach, both internally—members with different specialization profiles—and externally—through cooperation with other groups. This enables collaborative research in education. Stellae is a mixed group designed to deal with a variety of educational concerns. Our recently renewed logo is an attempt to reflect this sense of diversity.

The group has gone through different stages. The first developmental stage, 1997-1999,was characterized by the production of PhD thesis and the achievement of professional stability. In this period we carried outour first research project entitled “The contributions of institutions to the professionalization of teachers: study of their characteristics in Galicia (1996-1999)”. In 1998 the group was selected for the European Commission Alpha Project, which spurred the group’s growth and its projection in other groups, universities and countries.

The achieving of the third research project entitled “The influence of new technologies in the organizational and professional development of schools centers. A study of the situation in Galicia (2001 – 2004)” constituted the group’s consolidation phase. This was also anopportunity to open the group to new members, and to develop the Dime Master’s Degree, which was the first blended-learning master in the USC (2000-2003) and other projects in Research, Development and Innovation, both at a national and regional level.

Since 2007, we have been coordinating several projects that are part of the Interuniversity Cooperation and Scientific Research Programme, promoted by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID). We also collaborate with several Latin American universities from Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. We focus on how to integrate ICT at a university level. In this framework, we have created the UNISIC Network (University for the Knowledge Society).

The latest projects have focused on the incorporation of ICTinto teaching, both at university and other educational levels, the development of teaching and learning environments using ICT, and the analysis of its impact on professional, curricular and organizational development.

AnR+D innovation Project (government announcement 2008-2011) is being carried out in cooperation with the universities of Barcelona and Seville. This project deals with the building of professional knowledge by university lecturers and an institutional development project, funded by MICINN (MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND INNOVATION).

Our projects have made it possible to attain a competitive position with respect to other groups working in similar fields. Thanks to this, in 2007 we achieved recognition as Grupo de Investigación Competitivo del Sistema Gallego de I+D+I (Competitive Research Group in the Galician System), awarded bythe Department of Innovation and Industry. This recognition has been awarded to us in 2008, 2009 and 2010

The group participates in international associations such as CARN (Collaborative Action Research Network), EERA (European Educational Research Association) ), Relfidu (Red Europa-Latinoamerica de Formacion e Investigación en docencia y gestión universitaria), Red Unisic and IARTEM (International Association for Research on Textbooks and Educational Media), and in national networks such as RUTE (University Network of Educational Technology), Portfolios (coordinated by UniversitatOberta de Catalunya), OBIP (Observatorio de la ProfesiónDocente, coordinated by University of Barcelona), TELGalicia, andNova Escola Galega.

Research fields

1- Technology and education: Integration of technology in the educational institutions. Digital Competence. Social networks in teaching, e-learning and auto/socio regulated learning. Digital Repositories of teaching materials. Open Educative Resources (OER). Computational  thinking and learning of programming. Learning analytics. Educational resources and teaching materials in different institutional contexts: schools, municipality,etc. and for various levels: pre-school, primary education, secondary education, university, elder people. Video games in teaching: serious games and gamification. Smart cities and community work. Text books (analytics and digital)

2-Instruction and professional development: training and professional development of teachers of different educational levels. (primary, secondary and university): The starter period and the professional growth of new teachers. Analysis of the needs in formation. Preparation of teachers for multicultural contexts. Educational reforms and training and professional development. Teaching in the university. Professional development of physical education and sports teachers. Beliefs and professional knowledge of teachers.

3-Socio-educative inclusion: Digital inclusion. Integration of romani communities. school-leaving and socio-educative inclusion.