Education for a Changing World: A Mixed-Methods Study of Cognitive Flexibility in Rwandan Primary Schools

In 2016, Rwanda followed the example of numerous African countries and introduced a competence-based curriculum for all levels of its education system (Mushimijimana, 2016; Ngendahayo & Askell-Williams, 2016). Such curriculum explicitly promotes skills for adaptability like creativity, innovation and problem solving, so as to prepare the Rwandan population for an uncertain future and a changing world (Rwanda Education Board & MINEDUC, 2015). However, little is currently known about how these competencies improve, and especially in low-resource educational settings. This thesis therefore aims to address this gap by examining the measurement and development of Rwandan pupils’ skills for adaptability, their relationship with other learning outcomes and the current practices that may aid their growth in public primary schools. To achieve this, the research adopted a psychological lens to focus on the development of Rwandan children’s cognitive flexibility, which Diamond (2014) describes as “creatively ‘thinking outside the box’, seeing anything from different perspectives, and quickly and flexibly adapting to changed circumstances” (p. 206). The empirical study also drew on theories concerning both educational quality and child development to frame the inquiry, specifically the Implementing Education Quality in Low-Income Countries (EdQual) model (Tikly, 2011) and Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 1986). The mixed-methods research design included fieldwork conducted over 4-5 months during 2018 in four public primary schools serving low-income households in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. The quantitative component of the study comprised capturing data from a cross-section of 306 pupils randomly selected from age-in-grade learners in both Primary 1 and 4 classes. Each child was assessed one-to-one in their mother tongue by a trained Rwandan enumerator using adapted versions of two established psychological tests to measure their cognitive flexibility. Pupils were also assessed for their broader psychological development (executive function), non-verbal reasoning and basic literacy skills. In addition, they were briefly surveyed with age-appropriate tools to ascertain information concerning their home situation and prior schooling experiences. Following conclusion of the pupil assessments, semi-structured interviews and observations were undertaken with head and classroom teachers to address the qualitative aspect of the research. In particular, the interviews aimed to explore teachers’ perceptions and attitudes regarding pupils’ cognitive competencies, while the lesson observations looked to identify existing practices that could enhance learners’ cognitive flexibility. Statistical analyses in Stata revealed that both measures of cognitive flexibility showed good reliability and a significant correlation with medium effect size. Learners in Primary 4 performed significantly better than those in Primary 1 but, given the cross-sectional nature of the research, the cause of this difference and whether it results from formal education or other factors remains unknown. Disaggregating the data by cohort, Primary 4 children from single-parent families scored significantly higher than those from two-parent households and there was some, albeit limited, evidence that could suggest higher cognitive flexibility among children from poorer households. Regarding wider learning outcomes, pupils’ cognitive flexibility significantly predicted their non-verbal reasoning and executive function, and vice versa. Contrary to wider literature, however, there was limited evidence of any significant association between their cognitive flexibility and their reading skills. Qualitative data from the interviews were analysed in NVivo and revealed that teachers perceived skills for adaptability as conferring a mix of individual and collective benefits, to build originality, self-reliance and independence in learners’ everyday lives, and more responsible citizens who can contribute to Rwanda’s national development. Within the classroom, teachers used group-based activities to encourage collaboration and a range of techniques, learning aids and materials, often sourced from their own homes, to impress on children the practical relevance of their education. Frequent switching between English and Kinyarwanda in lessons might also inadvertently nurture pupils’ cognitive flexibility, albeit at a possible cost to their wider learning. The findings of the study provide a valuable contribution to growing global research on children’s psychological development in lower-income settings. Using mixed methods among different stakeholders in several schools also offered multiple perspectives for better understanding the processes through which learners acquire and build important cognitive competencies, not least their creativity, innovation and problem solving. By way of limitations, the use of cross-sectional rather than longitudinal data precluded any claims around causality and future research could examine any possible interactions with the pupils’ numeracy skills. In conclusion, this thesis draws on both quantitative and qualitative data to argue that child psychology provides an important basis to understand, research and foster learners’ 21st century competencies, even in lower-income countries where evidence remains scant. Specifically, it proposes that cognitive flexibility, the capacity to think creatively, adapt quickly and adopt different perspectives, presents a valuable framework for nurturing essential skills that offer wide socio-economic benefits in settings like Rwanda. Implications from the study include increasing pre-primary schooling and expanding the resources, planning and training available to implement the new curriculum effectively and thereby support children’s more diverse educational competencies. Similarly, the thesis identifies the need to maximise learner-teacher continuity and pedagogies like group-based exercises for pupils to leave school equipped with the skills to think ‘outside the box’, understand different points of view and adapt for life in the rapidly changing world.Economic and Social Research Council (award ES/J500033/1) and Trinity College, Cambridg

Manual for the Fish Population Surveys (DOC9 Package) for the District Fisheries Analysis System (FAS)

Update of Aquatic Biology Technical Report 87/11; final report of project F-69-R (1-3), Data Base Management and Analysis of Fisheries in ImpoundmentsReport issued on: issued October 1990INHS Technical Report prepared for Illinois Department of Conservatio

The Fisheries Analysis System (FAS): Creel Survey and Lake Analyses

F-69-R(1-3)Report issued on: October 1990Final report of Project F-69-R(1-3), Data Base Management and Analysis of Fisheries in Impoundments, conducted under of memorandum of understanding between Illinois Department of Conservation and the University of Illinois, supported through Fed(TRUNCATED

What is a Robot?

A robot is a mechanical hand and arm, controlled by a computer. It is nothing more than another type of machine. Its ancestry combines two different, but related, technologies: mechanisation and control. The history of the computer has been essential to both. The history of mechanisation began with Oliver Evans' automated mill (1784), continued with Joseph Jacquard's loom (1801), and reached a high state of perfection at the end of the nineteenth century with Steward Babbitt's designs for a motorised crane which had a mechanical gripper to remove ingots from furnaces (1892). In the 1820s the technology of mechanisation cross-fertilised with the emerging science of information and control technology when the English mathematician, Charles Babbage, sometimes known as 'the father of the computer', developed an automatic calculator which he called his 'Difference Engine' (1823). Joseph Jacquard's loom proved to be the plateau from which all subsequent innovations in mechanisation and control took off. His invention was software, the novel idea that you could program a weaver's loom with punched cards that carried a coded 'model' of the patterns being woven. The Jacquard loom appeared in 1801, the last and most significant of a series of innovations in silk weaving which came out of Lyons from the early nineteenth century. It was so successful that by 1812 there were more than 11,000 in France alone. The punched card was a breakthrough in information technology: a Jacquard loom could carry as much as three megabytes of information on perforated paper. This technique of information storage became one of the fundamental components of the automatic memory calculators which gave birth to computers

Stochastic Sensing of Nanomolar Inositol 1,4,5-Trisphosphate with an Engineered Pore

AbstractThe introduction of a ring of arginine residues near the constriction in the transmembrane β barrel of the staphylococcal α-hemolysin heptamer yielded a pore that could be almost completely blocked by phosphate anions at pH 7.5. Block did not occur with other oxyanions, including nitrate, sulfate, perchlorate, and citrate. Based on this finding, additional pores were engineered with high affinities for important cell signaling molecules, such as the Ca2+-mobilizing second messenger inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3), that contain phosphate groups. One of these engineered pores, PRR-2, provides a ring of fourteen arginines that project into the lumen of the transmembrane barrel. Remarkably, PRR-2 bound IP3 with low nanomolar affinity while failing to bind another second messenger, adenosine 3′, 5′-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP). The engineered α-hemolysin pores may be useful as components of stochastic sensors for cell signaling molecules

High temperature ion channels and pores

The present invention includes an apparatus, system and method for stochastic sensing of an analyte to a protein pore. The protein pore may be an engineer protein pore, such as an ion channel at temperatures above 55.degree. C. and even as high as near 100.degree. C. The analyte may be any reactive analyte, including chemical weapons, environmental toxins and pharmaceuticals. The analyte covalently bonds to the sensor element to produce a detectable electrical current signal. Possible signals include change in electrical current. Detection of the signal allows identification of the analyte and determination of its concentration in a sample solution. Multiple analytes present in the same solution may also be detected

Metabolomics in the Analysis of Inflammatory Diseases

Most infections and traumatic injuries are cleared or repaired relatively rapidly and metabolic homoeostasis is soon restored. However, there is a broad range of inflammatory diseases which involve chronic activation of the immune system and, as a result, chronic persistent inflammation. We have been studying the metabolic consequences of chronic inflammatory diseases with the aim of identifying metabolic fingerprints which may provide clues about why the localised tissue disease persists

Prolonged Residence Time of a Noncovalent Molecular Adapter, β-Cyclodextrin, within the Lumen of Mutant α-Hemolysin Pores

Noncovalent molecular adapters, such as cyclodextrins, act as binding sites for channel blockers when lodged in the lumen of the α-hemolysin (αHL) pore, thereby offering a basis for the detection of a variety of organic molecules with αHL as a sensor element. β-Cyclodextrin (βCD) resides in the wild-type αHL pore for several hundred microseconds. The residence time can be extended to several milliseconds by the manipulation of pH and transmembrane potential. Here, we describe mutant homoheptameric αHL pores that are capable of accommodating βCD for tens of seconds. The mutants were obtained by site-directed mutagenesis at position 113, which is a residue that lies near a constriction in the lumen of the transmembrane β barrel, and fall into two classes. Members of the tight-binding class, M113D, M113N, M113V, M113H, M113F and M113Y, bind βCD ∼10(4)-fold more avidly than the remaining αHL pores, including WT-αHL. The lower K (d) values of these mutants are dominated by reduced values of k(off). The major effect of the mutations is most likely a remodeling of the binding site for βCD in the vicinity of position 113. In addition, there is a smaller voltage-sensitive component of the binding, which is also affected by the residue at 113 and may result from transport of the neutral βCD molecule by electroosmotic flow. The mutant pores for which the dwell time of βCD is prolonged can serve as improved components for stochastic sensors