Exchange report - incoming teachers
Home university: Makerere University
Study programme: Occupational Therapy
Exchange programme: Linnaeus-Palme
Semester: Spring semester 2009/2010
Duration: 30
Name: Julius Kamwesiga
Email address: jtkamwes@gmail.com

Accommendation

The Accommodation at Jagagartan 20 (UAC) was the usual one and fine. It had easy access to the train going to KI Huddinge and Bus number 3 to KI Solna. Every thing with the accommodation was good including access to internet, clean and has a good view if Stockholm.  The  only problem was out of order  bulbs in the reading lamps and may be my colleague who did not find her room key in the box she was told and being a Sunday, the house keeper could not be easily contacted.

Language and Culture

Our students at KI use English language so I did not have problems in communicating with both students and teachers. However,  Swedish is commonly used dialect at KI. 

Leisure time

There were not many social activities this time because I was very busy but also my Swedish professional colleagues had gone to Santiago Chile for World Federation of Occupational Therapists congress. However, I was invited for some Dinners at some colleagues homes. I also had  some of my free time visiting places in Stockholm like Kultuhuset, Skerholmen, and few other shopping centres.

Miscellaneous

I experienced meeting people of different cultures, learned some few Swedish words. My overall opinion of the teacher Exchange is that its a very inspiring activity and gives teachers different cultural exposure and opportunities for future personal and institutional networking.

Other activities

Other activities carried out during my stay at KI was preparation for PhD registration, meeting clinical supervisors of exchange students from Uganda. This time I did not have any study visit but I had some in the past.

Preparation

Since it is not my first time to participate in the teacher exchange, preparation was easy. However, my colleagues and I faced problems in securing Swedish Visa in Uganda. It so happened that Visa application procedures changed after we had picked from the Embassy. By the time we returned the filled in forms, we were told of the new procedures and one of them was duration of processing the visa. Another one was extension of health insurance for extra 15 days from the date of return to the home country.  These factors mentioned above  caused me to miss my flight (Ethiopian Airlines) and I went three days later. 

Reflections

The linnaeus-Palma teacher exchange has given me the opportunity to experience a lot of things and among them are the following.
  • I have experienced use of various teaching methods such as seminars for students as good method to inculcate student's independence in learning.
  • I have got the opportunity to register at KI as a PhD student
  • I have established cordial relationships with important KI professors
  • I got links for future collaboration
  • I have got some few Vital text books for students at my School in Uganda

  • On the other hand we had to work extra had to compensate for time when out of our work place. 

Teaching

The teaching on  was fine and a co-coordinator of  the Community and Home Based Rehabilitation course, I had a lot of responsibilities to carry out. My Swedish colleague was not around the first week of the Course.  I arranged and coordinated teaching and participated in the class discussions with students and facilitators. I attended various meetings concerning the future of the course and collaboration. I had a couple of sessions my self with the students but also I was responsible for organizing classrooms with teaching Aids ready to be used by others mostly visiting Lecturers and would be present in other Lecturers' sessions to see how things were moving. I was also incharge of students seminars and Examination part I, since my Swedish colleague was not around.

I Also participated in preparing and presentation of my PhD registration seminar.

 

The main difference between mode teaching in Sweden and in my country is that in Sweden there are more enabling factors for learning such as the easy access to Internet, all students assignments are presented in class seminars on power point, teachers use computers for teaching and easy access to other reading materials. 


some challenges are also encountered when students have problems with English language but the good thing this time was that all students were fluent in both spoken and written English.  

Teaching hours

Total teaching hours  40%, Students seminar hours 20%, Students examination hours 10%, students tutorial hours 10%, my PhD preparation  20%.