Adapting, not adopting: Barriers affecting teaching for critical thinking at two Rwandan universities

A recent study of student learning at three of Rwanda’s most prestigious public universities has suggested that Rwandan students are not improving in their critical thinking ability during their time at university (Schendel, 2015). This paper reports on a series of Faculty-level case studies, which were conducted at two of the participating institutions in order to investigate some of the reasons behind these results. Although educational practices likely to foster critical thinking skills are required elements of the undergraduate curriculum at both institutions, the case study analysis suggests that these practices are being fundamentally altered during implementation, due to a limited understanding of the rationale for pedagogical change and low levels of faculty motivation to implement more labor-intensive teaching methods. The findings suggest that teaching and learning policies are only likely to be effective if accompanied by pedagogical training and support for ongoing faculty development

Beyond translation: Adapting a performance-task-based assessment of critical thinking ability for use in Rwanda

Critical thinking is frequently proposed as one of the most important learning outcomes of a university education. However, to date, it has been difficult to ascertain whether university students in low-income contexts are improving in their critical thinking skills, because the limited studies in this domain have relied on instruments developed in Western contexts, despite the clear dangers of such an approach. Cultural bias in assessment can best be overcome by explicitly developing tests for use in specific contexts. However, resource constraints often prevent this possibility. An alternative strategy is to adapt an existing instrument for use in a particular context. Although adaptation is the norm for high-stakes cross-cultural assessments, it is often not attempted for single country research studies. This may be due to an assumption that adaptation is excessively technical or will add significantly to a study timeline. In this article, which relies on data from a recent study in Rwanda, we present a methodology for adapting a performance-task-based assessment of critical thinking. Our experience with this methodology suggests that small teams can adapt instruments in a relatively short time frame, and that the benefits of doing so far outweigh any cost

Henri Mitterand, Le roman à l’œuvre – genèse et valeurs

Henri Mitterand, Le roman à l’œuvre – genèse et valeurs

Mutual Unbiasedness in Coarse-grained Continuous Variables

The notion of mutual unbiasedness for coarse-grained measurements of quantum continuous variable systems is considered. It is shown that while the procedure of "standard" coarse graining breaks the mutual unbiasedness between conjugate variables, this desired feature can be theoretically established and experimentally observed in periodic coarse graining. We illustrate our results in an optics experiment implementing Fraunhofer diffraction through a periodic diffraction grating, finding excellent agreement with the derived theory. Our results are an important step in developing a formal connection between discrete and continuous variable quantum mechanics.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures + Supplemental Material (1 page) v2: Introduction expanded, minor typos correcte

Albrecht Dürer: changes in his artwork during the Reformation

poster abstractThe research conducted is to explain the stylistic changes that occurred in Albrecht Dürer’s art during the transitioning period from medieval to Renaissance. By acquiring Dürer’s Nachlass [private diary] from the IU Lily Library and reading literature from the top medieval and Renaissance specialists, such as David Price, Andrew Morrall, and Erwin Panofsky, the influence stemmed from Dürer’s new found faith in Lutheranism. No longer did Dürer focus solely on monograms, he introduced the art of triptychs. Studies believe that Dürer only created triptychs while working in Giovanni Bellini’s workshop, but this study allots reasoning to the Reformation

Development of a moderate fidelity neck‐dissection simulator

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98771/1/lary23769.pd

Constructing departmental culture to support student development: Evidence from a case study in Rwanda

In recent years, there have been numerous attempts to improve the quality of higher education in Africa, but there is limited knowledge about the impact of these initiatives on student learning. The results of a study published in 2015 offered some initial data in this regard by identifying a lack of improvement in the critical thinking ability of students enrolled at three of Rwanda's public universities, despite extensive pedagogical reforms across the sector. However, subsequent analysis of the study data suggests that this lack of improvement is not a general phenomenon, as students graduating from the KIST Faculty of Architecture & Environmental Design appear to exhibit deeper approaches to learning and stronger critical thinking skills than graduates with similar backgrounds from other Faculties involved in the study. This paper examines the factors that appear to have contributed to this outlying Faculty's success and argues that departmental culture has played a crucial role, by fostering the conditions necessary for pedagogical innovation