A validation workshop’ on the drafted and piloted self-assessment tools were held among the project members from the URCE and UH from 18.01–22.0, 2026 in Kigali. The main themes included research as tool for contextualizing self-assessment tools for pedagogic development, enhancing professional learning of faculty in practice, and invigorating improvement-oriented dialogue among college communities. Synergizing initiated and ongoing research initiatives and empowering the functioning of relevant research clusters at URCE and RP were the salient takeaways from the constructive workshops.
Up to six self-assessment tools were developed that targeted students, lecturers, and leaders for feedback in enhancing teaching, learning and leadership practices at the URCE. The workshop process involved co-refining self-assessment items based on the preliminary analysis of latest data piloted from students and faculty. Participants worked on both refining individual items within the tools and revisiting data obtained through google forms on previous versions. Comments of the URCE’s directorate of teaching and learning enhancement on the tools was similarly addressed. Workshop participants reiterated the relevance of the tools in getting credible feedback/data in enhancing pedagogic and leadership practices at the college.
The importance of strongly communicating and connecting the tools within the college’s institutionalized practices and related development initiatives, e.g., digital integration, was highlighted. Critical considerations of faculty’s and students’ timing and workloads in regularly utilising the self-assessment tools were remarked. In order to ensure the contextual relevance and continuous refinement of the tools, institutionalization of these and related quality-oriented tools were suggested to be incorporated within an appropriate research cluster(s). Similarly, systematizing and documenting the process of developing, refining, and communicating the tools were highlighted in consolidating relevant experiences for further improvements.
The planned June 2026 Education Conference at the URCE was suggested as one suitable platform for communicating the process of developing the self-assessment tools. Hence, the self-assessment workshop discussions and deliberations were taken as part of documenting the process of navigating pedagogical developments within the project timeline. Concurrently, the UH visiting team held research workshops at RP on 21.01 and 26.01. The workshops were part of the project initiative for introducing practice-based research and qualitative approaches aimed at site-based and continued improvements. During the workshops, three inter-linked themes proposed by three research groups from RP and URCE were discussed and refined. These themes included pedagogical skills of technical teachers and market demands, professional learning in practice, and self-assessment tools and lecturers’ professional development. The latter was proposed by the lead coordinator of the ‘teacher professional development and transformative practices’ research cluster at URCE. This was significant in connecting the pedagogic development initiatives with research and one concrete way for potential institutional collaborations. With the other two themes at RP, a conceptual framework and construction of items as research tools were identified as concrete ways in working forward within the project timeline. Additionally, connecting the relevance of such research with the recently accredited pedagogical program at RP were highlighted.
Focus group interviews on the self-assessment tools at URCE were held as part of a thesis project supported by the HEP-TED. The conduct and experiences with the interviews showed practical possibilities on the construction and communication of the student self-assessment tools. The interviews among colleagues and students created a reflective space in which a genuinely critical distance was observed in complementing and critiquing the tools. URCE colleagues have affirmed that the interviews ‘opened new windows to improve the tools. Students underlined the criticality of open discussions with them in relation to improving module management practices and the quality of teaching and learning. In the latter, the need for introducing flexible and qualitatively fitting modalities, including dialogue with students, of self-assessment were found to be both practical and highly relevant in capturing complex and nuanced experiences and perspectives of the college community. Another concrete implication of this experience was acknowledging the role of graduate students’ research on matters of higher education quality and professional development at URCE. The research and co-supervision experiences among the Rwandan and Finnish universities are therefore both co-influencing institutional capacity, e.g. sharing of supervision and research experiences, and developing research-informed insights in improving project implementation.
Connecting the project-related experiences using the existing rich communications, tools, and materials retrieved as formal data could be one practical and relevant research theme. Since a pertinent conference in Rwanda is coinciding with the final stages of the project, communicating, deepening, and documenting these experiences would invaluably inform institutional practices and indeed future partnerships. Developing synergies across the research-related and project supported initiatives, e.g. thesis projects and initiated practice-based research, would create professional collaborative opportunities and possible future partnerships through and in research. Finally, empowering the research clusters at the Rwandan institutions, e.g. through development of concept notes, guidelines, action plans etc., based on the ongoing experience would contribute to the institutionalization and sustainability of the pedagogic development initiatives.
Text by Khalid Idris, University of Helsinki key expert.