Opening Spaces for the Development of Human Agency with Problem Based Learning in Palestinian Higher Education

This paper appraises the impact of Problem Based Learning (PBL) implementations within the (2016-19) Erasmus Plus "Methods" Project (Modernization of Teaching Methodologies in Higher Education: EU experience for Jordan and Palestinian territory) which introduced a range of learning modalities into formal learning contexts in higher education settings in Jordan (4 Universities) and Palestine (4 Universities). The project was jointly led by the Universities of Jordan and Birzeit, Palestine and there were six European partner universities. The paper focuses on the impact of PBL approaches on learners and university teachers through an analysis of semi-structured group interviews with students and individual staff interviews across a range of courses in the arts and sciences within the Palestinian context. The results of this small-scale research study are presented within a thematic framework focusing on participation, collaboration, agency, knowledge creation, problem solving and identity modification. It explores how far the adoption of student-centred PBL designs can open spaces for the development of human agency and capabilities within an existing orthodoxy of practice in Higher Education Settings in Palestine. It locates these student-centred practices within the context of higher education under occupation and examines what contribution they make to developing individuals’ capacity to act effectively for change within the power dynamics and limits of their context

Identifying transmission cycles at the human-animal interface: the role of animal reservoirs in maintaining gambiense human african trypanosomiasis.

Many infections can be transmitted between animals and humans. The epidemiological roles of different species can vary from important reservoirs to dead-end hosts. Here, we present a method to identify transmission cycles in different combinations of species from field data. We used this method to synthesise epidemiological and ecological data from Bipindi, Cameroon, a historical focus of gambiense Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT, sleeping sickness), a disease that has often been considered to be maintained mainly by humans. We estimated the basic reproduction number [Formula: see text] of gambiense HAT in Bipindi and evaluated the potential for transmission in the absence of human cases. We found that under the assumption of random mixing between vectors and hosts, gambiense HAT could not be maintained in this focus without the contribution of animals. This result remains robust under extensive sensitivity analysis. When using the distributions of species among habitats to estimate the amount of mixing between those species, we found indications for an independent transmission cycle in wild animals. Stochastic simulation of the system confirmed that unless vectors moved between species very rarely, reintroduction would usually occur shortly after elimination of the infection from human populations. This suggests that elimination strategies may have to be reconsidered as targeting human cases alone would be insufficient for control, and reintroduction from animal reservoirs would remain a threat. Our approach is broadly applicable and could reveal animal reservoirs critical to the control of other infectious diseases