The accommodation was arranged through the International teacher exchange coordinator at KI. I was accommodated at University Accommodation Centre AB (UAC)  at Jagargatan 20.  The Administrator of the UAC got in touch with me and sent the information concerning the available accommodation. I wrote back confirming the dates of my arrival and departure and also wrote accepting to stay in the identified accommodation.

 I arrive on Sunday 4th March 2012 at 12:15 unfortunately, the door code that was emailed to me had one digit wrong so I could not access the building. I waited for people coming out of the building in order for me to gain access. I asked them about the correct main entrance door code and showed them what was sent to me so that they don't think I was a stranger. They helped me and I discovered that  the last digit was a five and not a six. When I entered, I checked in the box where keys for students are kept, the key box code was correct but  I did not find the key to the corridor where my room was neither did I find the key to my room.  Fortunately after a couple of minutes a saw a cleaner and I requested him to help me. He was so good and he got me a key to the corridor and my room. 

A part from that, the accommodation was well organized and I did not have any problems with it. 

All my teaching sessions were conducted in English language because I do not know Swedish. The students and teachers in Sweden I think feel more comfortable expressing themselves in Swedish language.

Although I was busy most of the time including weekends, I managed to move around Stockholm city. No matter how many times I have been in Stockholm, I always enjoy most places around the city. I got the opportunity to move outside Stockholm and this time I spent a weekend in Dorana. I also got the opportunity to ski for the first time while in Darana.  However, my leisure was adversely hampered by too much cold and once in a while snowing. I attended two important get together parties one of them organised by Linneaus Palme International office where we met with with international coordinators, teachers and students from different countries. The other get together party was organized by KI division of Occupational therapy Huddinge where I interacted with the staff in the Division.

The exchange programme gave me the opportunity to share a lot  of experiences that includes culture, knowledge and skills which in turn is used to provide services to our population. The exchange programme gives the teaching staff and students confidence in the profession which is seen by the public here in Uganda as less competitive compared to some other traditional Allied Health Professions. The exchange programme gives teachers and students important cultural exposure and prepare them to serve better in a dynamic cultural environment.

I Attended a course "the Introduction to test theory and survey methodoly (1817)" at the division of occupational therapy Huddinge campus. The course involved attending to lectures, group assignments, individual written assignments and seminars. I also participated in PHD seminars (Kreativas) where some of them I was a reader. I presented my research plan as well in of the seminars.

I attended supervision sessions with my supervisors and also did various assignment by my supervisors.

I did transcription of 2 interviews for the evaluation of LP exchange programmes.

Attended two workshops one on Realist Synthesis where we were given skills of analyzing publications  and Photo voice workshop; where participants were given skills of getting meaning out of pictures/photographs  

I held an open lecture for staff in the division of Occupational therapy about "the challenges of collaborative teacher and students exchange".

I was interviewed by KI newspaper editor for KI magazine/news paper.

I visited a small town outside Stockholm called Dorana and attended the  association of stroke meeting for Dorana stroke association. 

 

 

Unlike the previous LP teacher exchange I conducted during spring, this time around I went to Stockholm in March and spent more days than before. Since I have been to Stockholm before, I did not require any new information about Sweden such as travel, culture or language.  I had two roles to play therefore; my reparations heavily depended on those roles.  The first role was 'teaching' and the second one was 'learning'.

As a teacher, I prepared almost half of my lessons here in Uganda where it required examples and materials from Uganda. And those that did not require materials from Uganda were prepared in Stockholm. 

As a student, I read a lot of literature around my research area and also made sure that the laptop was in good condition to work.  Generally,  I prepared early enough by booking the flight early in time and making sure that I get in touch with the International coordinator at KI. In Uganda we have to submit Visa application not less than two weeks before the scheduled safari.

 

 Participating as an exchange teacher gave me a good reflection of my style of teaching and I learned that students learn better through group discussions. I got positive feedback from the teaching and the presentations that I made during the exchange which is a good feedback to my performance as a trainer and academician. From then, I have developed a habit to think of a group discussion each time I prepare to teach any group of students. The group discussion assists students to reflect on the lesson but also think around the subject hence  getting a wider view of what has been taught. 

As a teacher, teaching was fun because there were nothing new in the lessons that I conducted. Unlike the previous teaching where I observed that students did not like being taught in English, this time around the students were enthusiastic and were active in class. They were inquisitive to learn and they participated in the class activities that I was doing with them. Because I went to Stockholm in March, I did not participate in teaching of Community and Home Based Rehabilitation course which runs in May. The reasons for carrying out my teacher exchange in March was mainly to attend my PhD course in Rasch Analysis which runs in March.

While conducting my lessons I found out that Swedish students learn better when put in discussion groups and I think they do not like listening to some one talk or lecture. Most of my lessons involved group activities in between and I realized full class participation.  The differences between students in Sweden and Uganda is that Swedish students like searching for information themselves unlike the students in Uganda where most of them depend on information given by the teacher.  The advantage with the Swedish education is that the students can easily access the information through the internet, periodicals and well equipped library  as opposed to students in Uganda who mainly rely on very old text books. Teaching in Uganda is therefore more teacher centered since the teacher can have more access to information than students. However, that situation is gradually changing with more students gaining access to internet. 

 

I was given 4 teaching sessions each week and the sessions were properly scheduled so that I could as well attend to the Rasch analysis course. Some classes had big numbers of students like newest group so it was divided into two groups and each group was handles separately .