Comment Extension 16

I am a teacher and I have been working in Primary Education in various schools in Greece for the last four years. I have specialized in Special Education, so for the last three years I have been working in the parallel support of students who have difficulties in learning or in creating social relationships.

I am now a student of the IPP "Social Neuroscience, Social Pedagogy and Education ". I chose this postgraduate course because it connects the scientific branches of Social Pedagogy with Social Neuroscience. I think that the knowledge we get in the field of Social Neuroscience makes us evaluate better but also to develop the pedagogical programs that we implement, both inside and outside the classroom. Although many of us have not been involved with Social Neuroscience in our undergraduate studies, we are gradually learning and understanding in depth the importance of interdisciplinary interfaces, but also of the new knowledge that is created on a theoretical and practical level by this interconnection.

The postgraduate professors are scientists, pedagogues, biologists, doctors, all with a pedagogical view, coordinators and mentors. They connect their scientific objects with the knowledge of today, they are completely consistent in their tasks and they guide us in the scientific approach of knowledge and its utilization.

In this postgraduate course, knowledge is not "transmitted", but "discovered". Everything that is studied in the course, has been given as a topic or question or stimulus previously to the students and we have done bibliographic research on various scientific issues that concern the research and the scientific community, which we present in each course and on that, the teaching process is organised accordingly. We also work as a team and experientially. Thus, we are given the opportunity to communicate our ideas through dialogue and shared experience, to get to know each other on a scientific and human level, to build knowledge and to learn from each other. Finally, not every process is evaluated quantifiably, but there is feedback to correct any weaknesses and ambiguities that have been observed.

Also, regarding the course of Social Pedagogy, in addition to the fact that we are trained to systematically evaluate socio-pedagogical problems, we learn to organize in practice social pedagogical programs that have goals and are based on the epistemological and methodological dimensions of Social Pedagogy, create programs for implementation and we reflect on the results. Essentially, theory relates to practice.

Finally, there is interest, appetite and passion from the professors to prepare us to stand with dignity in the research community, to present our research questions, to create research proposals and to build our work that will leave a small mark on the research and scientific community. I look forward to organizing our first conference and making our first publication. For me, a master's degree is not a title, it is a journey into learning and research.

K. M.