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This paper shows the design and validation of a questionnaire aimed at college students to assess their satisfaction level with mathematics study materials. Starting from the theoretical framework presented, we proposed three dimensions: overall quality of mathematics study materials, didactic adequacy and motivation capacity. To that effect, we hereby explain the analysis and validation procedure of the psychometric properties of the assessment instrument. The study sample comprised 1,666 university students. Sample was chosen using a random sampling technique. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) performed on two consecutive samples of freshmen studying Computer Science Engineering confirmed that the Questionnaire to assess student satisfaction with mathematics study materials measures satisfaction conditions in five scales: Didactic Adequacy, Relevance, Engagement, Interaction and Technological Quality. The results revealed the existence of significant psychometric features of the constructed questionnaire.

This paper applies a critical lens to a Master's degree program in education in one University in Norway and its stated aim of promoting critical skills in students from the global south in particular. Two groups of students, one an international mix in Oslo, and the other, South Sudanese students studying in Hawassa, Ethiopia, were compared. The study employed tenets of action research, with the aim of boosting the continuing professional development of both students and course instructors. The findings reveal varying levels of challenges related to, among others, uncritical deference towards course instructors and literature and varying levels of language proficiency which, it is argued, undermines critical thinking. Despite the above, it is argued that the degree programme furnishes an important platform for culturally diverse students to interact and foster the kind of critical thinking skills valorized in the course aims.

Inquiry in Global Studies: Music and Politics is a regular course offering in which first-year honors students examine the social and cultural import of music in a global context. This qualitative study examines the practical and pedagogical implications of teaching music and politics during the coronavirus crisis. In a thematic, five-part series analyzing non-Western music both in service to the government and as protest against it, the author describes how students perceived the commonalities and diversities in global culture, history, politics, and society through music while at the same time demonstrating growth in music-making processes and confronting a remote learning paradigm. In a curriculum spanning North Korea, China, Russia, Cuba, and Iran, the author considers the impact of music instruction in cultivating an understanding of transnational community. The paper concludes with selections from the final student showcase and a review of learning outcomes, prompting honors practitioners to consider how high-impact practices in the arts can empower students, cultivate community, and give rise to new multicultural competencies. Changes driven by COVID-19 (course content, delivery, and assessment measures) are presented.

This paper considers education abroad (EA) and its relationship to global citizenship and colonialism by describing and analyzing the agitated interactions of one EA course through a post-colonial lens. Rather than claim the EA experience as emancipatory or colonialist, the paper illustrates the ways that colonialist tendencies can manifest in particular moments and through specific dynamics of an EA course. This paper illustrates the ways that colonialist tendencies related to a reifying of consumerist ideologies, a westernizing of the EA experience, and an ongoing employment of an objectifying tourist gaze became manifest in an education abroad context. The paper concludes with a discussion of the findings that includes some ideas for how education abroad programs can address its colonialist tendencies.

The potentialities of the educational units as medium of university extension, as material vehicle of promotion of culture, in their more wide meaning, it is the referring that defends this work. It includes a summaries of the main epistemological conceptions about the extension as university process, as well as those that it maintain to the educational units as fundamental vehicle for the investigative labor formation and it reflects about the possibilities of these to be a canal that possesses the university to extend their culture to community. Appear also a proposal of methodology for the development of the process of university extension in the educational units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the results of a diagnostic study carried out with second year students of the computational sciences majors at University of Oriente, Cuba, to determine the limitations that they present in computational algorithmization. An exploratory research was developed using quantitative and qualitative methods. The results allowed verifying insufficiencies that have their base in the processes of interpretation and understanding of the problematic situations and in the insufficient design of algorithms, using pseudocodes, before implementing the solutions in a programming language.

This paper pursues to define the pillars for designing the specific (SC) and optional curricula (OC) of Unit Operations and Processes (UOP) Discipline in the Chemical Engineering Program. To achieve this objective a methodology was developed, which was characterized by the participation of every member in the educational process: professors, experts of industrial sector and students. The joint work made it possible to carry out a variety of tasks: the characterization of regional industries according to the academic requests of the UOP discipline, the identification of deficiencies in the basic curriculum (BC), the needs of industries in environmental matters and the students´ preferences in their optional professional formation. The result of this qualitative study expressed a high convergence of all the variables under study. The importance of arranging SC and OC was validated, among other important alternatives, towards environmental technologies. These subjects combine important contents in the academic order with significant contributions to solve imperative problems of the territory. The significance of taking into account the strategic matters associated with Biotechnology, Petroleum Technology, and Food Technologies, key subjects for indispensable development of our regional context, was also recognized.

There persists an intense debate on whether or not the traditional reference desk should be in academic libraries. Yet, despite many anti-desk studies, the place of the reference desk still remains. This paper aims to review the current significance of the reference desk for some libraries, as well as the importance of choosing the proper reference model that fits each institution. Furthermore, it points out that eliminating or reforming the reference desk requires careful analysis by both librarians and administrators. The paper also characterizes reference service at the National Medical Library of Cuba.

The first years of the twenty-first century saw the introduction of a new mode of higher education in Cuba. Local university centres were set up across the country offering part time study to a range of students previously marginalised from higher education. As well as massively increasing access, this programme created a new kind of teacher -- local professionals teaching part-time alongside their regular employment. Using the personal testimony of students and teachers in rural Granma, this paper examines the role of these teachers, with a particular emphasis on the value of their capacity to offer a pedagogy situated in the workplaces, communities and daily lives of their students.

The aim of this article is to explore similarities and differences in teacher candidates' perceptions of their opportunities to enact practice in university courses in five teacher education programmes, located in Norway, Finland, USA, Cuba, and Chile. Paper and pencil surveys were distributed among candidates (N = 488) to measure their perception of their opportunities to enact practice in campus courses. Across programmes, the students report the least opportunity to examine transcripts of classroom talk or student discussions. They report the most opportunity to talk about their field placement and to plan for their teaching. Using Analysis of Variance, differences between the programmes were studied. Students in a programme which has explicitly made efforts to connect theory and practice over a period of 15 years do report more opportunities to enact practice. Students from a programme that has been constantly working on improvements but not a major redesign conceptualised around coherence, report experiencing fewer opportunities to enact practice. We conclude that teaching practices closely linked to pupils' understanding might be in need of additional attention in teacher education programmes.

Reflecting on our efforts to provide Canadian university students with a transformative learning experience in Cuba, we were surprised to find that dominant forms of liberal thinking were more difficult to challenge than was anticipated. This paper explores this phenomenon and offers deliberation as a means toward lessening the stronghold of such beliefs. It begins with a sketch of our group participants and an explanation of our methodology, alongside the theory of cultural liberalism that frames the study. This is followed by a two-part description of our findings, suggesting that the liberal ideologies accompanying such innocuous practices as facilitating group harmony filter into understandings of democratic citizenship well beyond such parameters. We end with a tentative conclusion about the possibilities for democratic education in the increasingly complicated space of global interdependence and Cuban transformation in that space.

The academic programs at the graduate level are increasingly interested about the enrollment management challenges in terms of international student mobility. Understanding fundamental enrollment concepts to attract international students provides the essential key to consider the competitive environment concerning university resources, academic program potential, complex cultural dynamics, and workplaces among others. Based on a six-year quantitative and descriptive statistical study, this paper addresses the trends of first-time graduate enrollment and patterns of international student mobility by faculty at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. Results revealed the sustained trend of graduate enrollment of international students mainly from South America, Central America, and the Caribbean among others. Moreover, the presence of international graduate students adds a dimension of diversity to UPRM between teaching and research undertakings that enhance the Colleges of Engineering, Arts and Sciences, Agricultural Sciences, and Business Administration. The international student mobility has a consistent tendency mainly in the Colleges of Engineering, Arts and Sciences, and Agricultural Sciences. This consistency resembles the quality and reputation recognized by educational institutions and organizational world rankings. In-depth, understanding the trends related to international graduate enrollment and mobility should be considered by institutional leaders and administrators at UPRM to make knowledgeable decisions and to effectively set priorities to recruit highly qualified international students.

This article presents an interview with Gilberto Garcia Batista, who is professor at the University of Pedagogical Sciences. The interview is conducted by Annette Hestres García, a doctoral student at The Pennsylvania State University in the Dual-Title Lifelong Learning and Adult Education/Comparative & International Education and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies programs. The interview presents Gilberto Garcia Batista's background, participation, and experience with distance education and its evolution in Cuba. Gilberto Garcia Batista discusses the National Distance Learning Project for Faculty Staff in Cuba, including challenges and success.

During the Cold War over half a million Asians, Africans and Latin Americans studied and graduated in the Soviet Union's universities and technical schools as part of this country's educational aid policies. Cuba was an intermediary player in the Cold War geopolitical contest between the United States and the Soviet Union, fuelled by the imposition of the US embargo on Cuba in 1961 and its subsequent alignment with the socialist bloc. Cuba was a recipient of educational aid from 1961 until 1990. Current studies about Soviet educational aid to less-developed countries generally, and the Cuban case in particular, are mainly based on the analysis of state policies and intercountry agreements. There is a lack of personal student recollections among this research. In this paper, the author uses an autoethnographic approach to reflect on her schooling in Cuba and university studies in 1980s socialist Uzbekistan. The reflections and analysis focus on three themes: universal access to education, comprehensive or integral education, and socialist political formation through education. The article critiques the rhetoric and practice of socialist education in these contexts, and shows how traditional pedagogy both supported and undermined official and broader educational objectives. It argues that the main aims of Soviet and Cuban educational programmes to train the new socialist technical elite for the Third World achieved mixed results, producing well-educated graduates with uneven ideological outcomes. (Contains 9 notes.)

This paper introduces and details an innovative mode of fieldcourse assessment in which students take on the role of tour guides to offer their lecturer and peers a themed, theoretically informed journey through the urban landscape of Havana, Cuba. Informed by notions of student-centered learning and mobile methods, the tour offers an enjoyable, challenging, rigorous yet flexible form of assessment that can be effectively transferred to a wide range of contexts. Feedback suggests that students are very positive about the tours in relation to other potential modes of assessment both in terms of what they learn and as an experience. Ongoing efforts to develop the tours since they were first used in 2003 are described. (Contains 2 tables and 3 notes.)

One of the ongoing debates in Canadian higher education is the dilemma of the brain drain and the seemingly conflicting goals between the strategies and intentions of various government departments. While Citizenship and Immigration Canada aims to recruit the brightest students from across the globe to study in Canada and to enable their long-term stay as permanent residents and ultimately as citizens, the Canadian International Development Agency is mandated to strengthen human capacity in developing countries. This paper provides a critical analysis of the brain drain problem by juxtaposing Canadian policies with Cuban policies as manifested in the two countries' divergent approaches to international students and tertiary education scholarships for students from poorer countries. Following an overview of the existing scholarship programmes in both countries, ethical and philosophical considerations are examined that appear to underlie the two countries' individual-rights-based and collective-rights-based justifications for making decisions about the terms on which students from other countries are permitted to study in Canada and Cuba. (Contains 2 figures.)

This article presents an overview of the Eastern Cuba Baptist Theological Seminary. The seminary was founded in the city of Santiago de Cuba, on October 10, 1949, by the Eastern Baptist Convention. The seminary exists to provide training for pastors in the Eastern Baptist Convention. The school offers a four-year program leading to a bachelor in theology degree. Economic resources are the primary need of the Eastern Cuba Baptist Theological Seminary. The seminary has been through many difficulties. Nevertheless, these days represent the best time in the seminary's history. This paper concludes the series about Christian Higher Education in Cuba with a summary of the research findings and recommendations. [For part 3, see EJ815512.]

This article provides an overview of the main Protestant theological seminaries in Cuba: Western Cuba Baptist Seminary, Cedars of Lebanon Seminary, The New Pines Evangelical Seminary, Evangelical Theological Seminary, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center, Nazarene Theological Seminary and International School of Theology. The history and institutional analysis of the Eastern Cuba Baptist Theological Seminary will be discussed in a later paper. Also, there is a discussion of Christianity before the Cuban Revolution and of the Cuban educational system.

A pedagogy of experience can be cultivated by using a critically responsive approach based on experience, critical thinking, reflection, and action. A service-learning field trip to Cuba illustrates how experiential learning can bring classroom and community together in a way that invites students to engage in meaningful, active forms of learning about diversity and social justice. (Contains 43 references.) (TD)

The field of Chicano studies is constantly expanding. Some question whether the ethnic groups termed Latino should constitute one large national group or should be classified as individual regional groups. This paper examines: what Chicano studies critics believe; how Chicano studies can connect with the Latino diaspora; how to encourage comparative studies; Cuban studies; and geographic challenges in Chicano studies. (SM)

Professional culture is a complex and important concept in Cuba as result of the special attention the State and Government give to the integral education as essential complement of academic quality in Higher Educational programs. The aim of this paper is to make an up-to-date reflection about the concept of professional culture and its operationalization in the higher medical education in the country. Key programmatic and normative documents as well as the main papers and authors treating the concept were reviewed. The paper invite to discuss about the concept. Theorical and conceptual breaches were identified and discussed in order to contribute to entrenche professional and behavioural values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Ciencias Médicas de Pinar del Río is the property of Editorial Ciencias Medicas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Introduces the concept of state-forbidden research terrains and examines one such terrain in detail: post-revolutionary Cuba. Examines how U.S. decision makers create and maintain forbidden research terrain and explores the consequences of Cuba's closure to social science investigation. Suggests actions that social scientists might take to open up forbidden terrains for research purposes. (GEA)

Copyright of Mendive - Revista de Educacion is the property of Universidad de Pinar del Rio and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Maintenance, that by definition, it is directed to "the realization of a group of operations and technical activities that assure the conservation, preservation and correction of AFT during a period of certain time against the deterioration that can cause the use and continuous exploitation as well as the noxious effects of the environment, and taken it to end at a reasonable cost and with the necessary security for people" With this article it is sought to base this unquestionable necessity and the importance of learning on the adequate use of this science; and the paper that the "Maintenance" and its impact have in the economic results of industrial enterprises. Maintenance, also gives answer to establishments of our days, such as the increment of the energy efficiency, the reduction of import of spare parts and the profitability of the companies, all of great importance for Cuban economy. Will be analyzed the insufficient use that industrial enterprises do of all the learning capacity that high education has. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Iberoamericana de Ciencia, Tecnologia y Sociedad is the property of Centro de Estudios sobre Ciencia, Desarrollo y Educacion Superior and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The main objective of the present paper is to systematize the contributions of more than 15 15 years teamwork around the understanding of communication as a field of complex inter and transdisciplinary reflections, built on the research practice of the Center for Cuban and Caribbean Social Studies “Dr. José A. Portuondo ”, from the Universidad de Oriente (Cuba). To systematize the results, a large volume of data contained in 49 undergraduated and postgraduated investigations, 60 scientific articles, 8 books, 15 book chapters, as well as the empirical experience accumulated in dozens of communities, cultural projects, social institutions was analyzed., local governments, unions, companies, scientific events among others, where research results have been socialized and introduced. A complex conception of communication of a socio-anthropological and micro-cultural nature is proposed, which is already located in the analysis of the media, cultural management, socio-cultural relations, politics and local development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The so-called hegemonic model of masculinity constitutes a risk factor. It is a multiconditioned phenomenon, but every time it's highlighted the role of personality's socialization. In this way, the higher educational levels are called to perform a primordial function through its substantive process. The purpose of this paper is: Characterize the treatment of this subject in the experiences of some Cuban universities. An integrated analysis was made of the concepts: masculinities and substantive process of high education, expressed in a group of indicators distributed per each one of these concepts. As theoretical methods of research were used: the analytical synthetic, the transit from the abstract to the concrete, the inductive-deductive and the historicallogical. In an empirical level, the study of documents. The conclusions make reference to the developments and challenges within Cuban high education about the treatment of the researched topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new social context leads to a new model for professional learning. In the curricular designs, that supposes the move from professional solving-problems, to a competenceslearning description. In fact, this movement has begun with the curricula D, due to the participation of some presidents of the national commissions of careers in the project Tuning-América Latina. These changes are tuned with the state of art of professional learning in the world. Also, attending a demand of the universities to accept more flexibility, according the development of each institution. In this paper, a definition of the concept of competence is showed, that may be applied to Higher Education Pedagogy in Cuba, the main changes that must be introduced in curricula, and the challenges the universities must face in order to a successful application. It is discussed the resistances to this approach and the need to move on comprehension and acceptance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of the paper is to show the educational novelty of a new subject of the architect's formation curriculum at the "Marta Abreu" de Las Villas Central University (UCLV), aimed at updating and promoting a critical vision among the students about contemporary urbanization processes and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Taking into account the reality and trends of world urbanization processes, the hypothesis is formulated that an education in sustainability needs to develop a social awareness focused on the SDGs 2030. The Sustainable Urbanization and 2030 Agenda subject is explained, as well as the results of its application and the lessons learned of this novel experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physics teaching in the basic formation of engineers in Cuba has evolved through different stages since the 1960's until the present. Each stage has been marked by changes in the plans of study, which have been modified substantially both in terms of contents and of teaching hours. This paper presents a brief summary of these changes, the current state of the Physics programs, and warns about the challenges to be faced nowadays in order to guarantee a solid basic formation of the future engineers in connection with the physical foundations of present and future technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presented describes a linguodidactic strategy to enhance teachers' skills in scientific communication, since the relationship science-technology-society-education requires that scientific results are communicated effectively and efficiently to the scientific community and society. The strategy was the result of an institutional project of the Central University «Marta Abreu» of Las Villas, which ran from 2011-2013 and obtained Prize Provincial Academy of Sciences Award Rector Cuba and the result already implemented most useful to Education superior. Among the actions executed diagnoses were highlighted; the description of the linguistic peculiarities of scientific language; indicators for evaluation; digital resources; conferences, courses, and training; which were developed in different centers of higher education and institutions. The strategy is characterized by integrating the linguistic and the didactic; see action in Spanish and English; by the work of teachers and students; by the joint efforts of teachers of Spanish, English and computing from research. The strategy helps teachers produce better quality scientific papers, watching the ethical principles of the scientist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a brief look at the evolution of university libraries and a change to a new library model named "Learning and Research Resource Center - CRAI (in Spanish, Centro de Recursos para el Aprendizaje y la Investigación"). Here, the paper shows the results obtained on a diagnosis conducted in Universidad de la Havana's library network ( in Spanish, Red de Bibliotecas de la Universidad de La Habana); we propose a series of strategic lines to work and actions to transform this network into a CRAI, and finally, the paper proposes a CRAI model for Universidad de La Habana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This research aims to contribute to History of Education Studies as well as to New Cold War Studies, by examining a Reactor Technology Specialist Engineer program, launched in Hungary three times in the 1980s for Cuban nuclear engineers, graduates of the University of Havana. Design/methodology/approach: The institutional setting, the content of the program, the teaching staff, the students, and the outcomes are studied. The factors that motivated the birth of this special program are examined, including the following areas; in what ways it was different from the courses in which foreign students participated in Hungary; what its strengths and weaknesses were; how we can learn from this past experience and what relevance it has for the present. Findings: The analysis – carried out within the context of Cuban–Hungarian relations in the Cold War – demonstrates that these two satellite countries used the fields of science and education to widen their international possibilities and at the same time to reinforce their national interests by cooperating with each other. Originality/value: The investigation is based on archival sources, university yearbooks and journals as well as contemporary Hungarian press. Written sources were complemented by interviews with Cuban students and Hungarian teaching staff, thus providing a personal perspective, balancing official views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presented by the authors aims at making a reflection about the teaching of learning strategies as a pedagogic perspective for the transformations of tertiary education in Cuba. The paper is based on the transformations that are taking place in the world today and particularly in the Cuban tertiary educative system. The authors also assume the rationale of developing teaching-learning process. Some questions briefly answered are precisely related to the important role that the teaching of learning strategies play in the process of educative changes. ¿What are learning strategies?, ¿which role is given to the teaching of learning strategies in the process of changes?, ¿How to sustain the teaching of learning strategies in the process of transformation in tertiary education? and ¿What methodological lines should orient any pedagogical performance that has as its objective to teach learning strategies in tertiary education? Some instruments for a diagnosis used in the pedagogic research by the authors can contribute to know the students' learning process better. It is reflected when teaching learning strategies. It is concluded that learning strategies can be taught and learned in an instructional context in the Cuban tertiary education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]