Abstract
Research on higher education in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is virtually absent (Zavale & Schneijderberg, 2020). Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs are being encouraged by the global community without assessments of the learning outcomes of the students enrolled (Blom, Lan & Adil, 2015). This project compared two STEM programs within the same university in the North Kivu province of the DRC. One program institutes non-semesterized, intensive courses with little resource availability and no homework assignments (pre-reformed program). In contrast, the reformed version of the same program follows a semesterized course calendar and uses inquiry-based pedagogy in line with current models of internationalized education. This study assessed differences in science literacy, science reasoning, rates of plagiarism and general numeracy between the two groups. It was found that students in the reformed program had improved numeracy scores after one year in the program while pre-reformed students’ levels of numeracy were as low as incoming high school students. In addition, students in the reformed program had higher levels of science literacy than their peers in the pre-reformed program. Science reasoning was more in line with first-year students across other internationalized HEI’s in the reformed program than it was in the less developed science reasoning test outcomes of the pre- reformed students. Lastly, it was discovered that plagiarism in the pre-reformed program was prolific while students in the pre-reformed program exhibited fewer examples of plagiarism. This research presents data that is currently absent within the field of higher education in the DRC.
Author Information
Heather Douglas, Point Loma Nazarene University, United States
Dianne Anderson, Point Loma Nazarene University, United States
Paper Information
Conference: BCE2022
Stream: Higher education
This paper is part of the BCE2022 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Douglas H., & Anderson D. (2022) Reformed STEM Education and Its Effects on Student Learning Outcomes and Plagiarism Rates: A Look at a Higher Education Institution in the Northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo ISSN: 2435-9467 – The Barcelona Conference on Education 2022: Official Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2435-9467.2022.37
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2435-9467.2022.37
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