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The authors searched for picture books that are useful for intercultural education and for discovering students’ perceptions about the values and intercultural experiences conveyed through the books. To do so, the authors selected two books by following established criteria and analyzed students’ responses through semistructured interviews. The data were obtained after reading the books aloud to 30 fifth‐grade students in a school located in the south of Spain and reflecting on the books’ contents. As a main conclusion, the authors found that students’ answers revealed the presence of some positive values, such as helpfulness, friendship, and empathy, through questions about the experiences of characters in the books. Thus, prejudices were dismantled and positive intercultural experiences in school were fostered.

El TFM es una tarea difícil para los estudiantes de Máster, que se enfrentan a él con ansiedad, poca autoeficacia y sin las competencias necesarias para su correcta realización. Teniendo esto en cuenta, nuestro trabajo refleja los resultados de un proyecto de innovación docente destinado a lograr un mejor rendimiento en la redacción y defensa oral del TFM. Dicho programa se compone de cinco seminarios teórico-prácticos que cubren las competencias clave escritas y orales que debía adquirir el alumnado para la superación del TFM. Siguiendo un diseño experimental pre-post intervención, se evaluó la percepción de eficacia y el nivel de ansiedad de los alumnos. Además, se examinó el rendimiento del alumnado en un simulacro escrito de TFM y su posterior defensa oral. Los resultados muestran que existen diferencias estadísticamente significativas en todos los aspectos evaluados. Por un lado, se obtuvieron calificaciones más altas en el TFM respecto a las obtenidas por los estudiantes del curso anterior que no habían participado en el proyecto. Por otro lado, los participantes se consideraron más eficaces en la escritura y la defensa oral del TFM al finalizar el programa, al tiempo que se redujeron sus niveles de ansiedad. Master’s Thesis (TFM) is a difficult task for Master students. They face the writing and oral examination with anxiety, low levels of self-efficacy and a general lack of the necessary competencies for its correct execution. Our study reflects the results of a teaching innovation project aimed at reducing students’ anxiety and increasing their self-efficacy to face their TFM. Five theoretical-practical seminars were designed to improve student’s competences related to academic-scientific skills, both oral and writing ones. Through a pre-post experimental procedure, we evaluated students’ self-efficacy and levels of anxiety towards their TFM. In addition, students’ performance has been examined through a simulation of TFM and its subsequent oral defense. Our results show statistically significant differences between pre and post-intervention in all the aspects evaluated in the program. On one hand, participants obtained in their TFM when compared with the students of previous years which did not take part in this project. On the other hand, participants were more successful in completing their TFM and showed lower levels of anxiety after taking the seminars.

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