This article analyses some observed qualitative changes in the research proposals of master degree students during the development of the discipline Research Seminars in the fi eld of Teaching and Learning (SPEA). In an effort to foment problem awareness, the teaching experience was based on the following principles: a) the centrality of knowledge production and the development of new researchers; b) the need for research production to meet theoretical, epistemological, morphological and technical requirements; c) an understanding that research involves intense and creative learning; and d) the production of research in a collective manner. The study’s conclusion is that the complexity of research in the fi eld of education requires a debate about the scientifi c meaning of educational processes and suggests the need for studies about the modes of cognitive learning that underlie the production of scientifi c knowledge.