3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Educational leadership and the management of change in higher education : implication of module-based teaching and learning at National University of Rwanda.(2012-02-10) Nkurikiyumukiza, PhocasOn the assumption that leadership involves individuals with distinct qualities who take much ingenuity, energy and skills to trigger greater capacity in the organization for moving people towards organizational vision and goal achievement, the aim of this study is to identify and describe the leadership shown by managers and lecturers for the successful implementation of academic programme change at National University of Rwanda. That includes investigating the improvement of academic practice in the higher education institution while implementing change, i.e. introduction of the Module-Based Teaching and Learning (MBTL) methodology which is a new approach to schooling, as well as defining an appropriate leadership style needed for the management of this implementation. The research was carried out at National University of Rwanda as a case study and supported by the aid of interviews with faculty managers and lecturers as they are the main developers and users of teaching and learning programmes. Next, data collected were complemented by means of textual analysis. The findings revealed that the MBTL introduced at NUR as an innovation in academic practice was a top-down decision made by the policy makers without consultation with academic staffs and implemented without adequate preparation whereas they are the main actors in the implementation. Coupled with the change in the language of instruction from French to English and the lack of educational material required by the MBTL approach, the situation had an unenthusiastic impact on the engagement of NUR academics for accurate successful implementation. The overall conclusion is that inadequate management of the introduction of an educational change programme leads to misadoption and reluctance at best and resistance by the implementers at worst.Item Credit accumulation and modular scheme in higher education in Rwanda : a case study of lecturers' perceptions of implications for lecturers' work.(2012-01-09) Ndagijimana, Jean ClaudeInternational literature suggests that curriculum changes that have occurred in higher education globally over the last two decades, more specifically the shift from subject-based curriculum to integrated curriculum have been perceived by many academics as having affected their work with regard to course designing, teaching and assessment. Studies of academics’ response to such changes have argued that the way academics perceived these changes and the meanings they made of them influenced the implementation of these curriculum changes. This case study investigates lecturers’ perceptions of how one curriculum reform, the introduction of the Credit Accumulation and Modular Scheme (CAMS) in higher education in Rwanda, has affected lecturers’ work. One of the aims of the study was to analyse how lecturers understand CAMS and the changes it has introduced in their work. A second aim was to analyse how these perceptions and changes are negotiated in their teaching practices. Sixteen lecturers from Kigali Institute of Education were interviewed. Analyses of lecturers’ accounts of their teaching experiences revealed that lecturers espoused the intended changes that CAMS introduced in their work. However, although they claimed that the changes have affected their teaching and teaching arrangements- course designing, teaching and assessment- in actual practices many of them have not always managed to shift their thinking. CAMS requires lecturers to function in teams. However, although they have been trying to do so many of them have not managed to work out how to make more substantive changes to the way they think about the knowledge to be taught, their actual teaching and assessment practices. They have tried to keep boundaries of their disciplines while CAMS requires them to integrate their teaching.