From trivium to smart education

[EN] Rethinking the classics for thinking the future. This could be the compendium of the present article, in which we propose a revision of the immediate future of education based on the classic project of the Trivium. We will analyze, first, the transformation of education in the perspective of smart education, determined by the impact of technology and by the reflection on the competences of the 21st century; secondly, we will review the strategic and methodological proposals in accordance with this transformation, based on the theory of generative learning; thirdly, from the point of view of contents, we will analyse the impor- tance of core digital skills as programming and computational thinking. On this basis, the paper offers a proposal from a dual perspective. Firstly, by rethinking the main issues of education in the light of the history of the Trivium and the epistemological principles that shaped it. Secondly, by proposing the recovery of the Trivium disciplines (Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic) having in mind the debate on the competences of the 21st century, as the best instrument to enrich the current educational systems, especially in view of the challenges of digitalization

Plights of learners with Visual Impairments in Rwandan science classes: Evidencing teachers’ practice in HVP Gatagara

The Nine Year Basic Education (9YBE) program in Rwanda is seemingly a national initiative that brings free primary and secondary education services closer to local communities, and renders secondary education and ultimately professional training more accessible to all, including the many disadvantaged children. Having noted with concern that Visually Impaired Students (VIS), like other learners with Special Educational Needs (SEN), are increasingly enabled to access this standard of education, the present study has been prompted to investigate their plights, evidenced by the persistent poor academic performance of this category of students. The gap is most particularly evident in science and mathematics subjects, and becomes more conspicuous as the students progress through higher levels of their schooling. The article is thus an outcome of a study conducted in HVP Gatagara – Rwamagana, the only 9YBE school for the VIS in Rwanda, and the finding underlines the fact that the planning of alternative solutions ought not to focus on the VIS as the source of the problem, rather on their school and whole education system’s incapacity to offer appropriate adaptations and enabling provisions.Key words: Visual Impairments, special educational needs, appropriate school adaptations, alternative provisions

Where causality, conditionals and epistemology meet:A logical inquiry

This dissertation is an intellectual journey along topics at the intersection of the study of conditionals, causality and epistemology. It will focus on a couple of problems at this intersection pointed out in recent research. I will demonstrate how by combining knowledge and tools from all three fields we can make substantial progress on solving these issues. I will also show that this integrated approach provides us with a better understanding of the relation between conditionals, causality and epistemology

What the heck is Logic? Logics-as-formalizations, a nihilistic approach

Logic is about reasoning, or so the story goes. This thesis looks at the concept of logic, what it is, and what claims of correctness of logics amount to. The concept of logic is not a settled matter, and has not been throughout the history of it as a notion. Tools from conceptual analysis aid in this historical venture. Once the unsettledness of logic is established we see the repercussions in current debates in the philosophy of logic. Much of the battle over the ‘one true logic’ is conceptually talking past each other. The theory of logics-as-formalizations is presented as a conceptually open theory of logic which is Carnapian in flavour and grounding. Rudolf Carnap’s notions surrounding ‘external’ and ‘pseudo-questions’ about linguistic frameworks apply to formalizations, thus logics, as well. An account of what formalizations are, a more structured sub-set of modelling, is given to ground the claim that logics are formalizations. Finally, a novel account of correctness, the COFE framework, is developed which allows the notions of logical monism, pluralism and nihilism to be more precisely formulated than they currently are in the discourse