DAY 2 sessions were held on April 20th and 21st. The topics were as follows:
・Instructional design and the ADDIE model
・Class design (How to design a class of 90 or 105 minutes)
・Active learning strategies (Asking questions, Think-Pair-Share, and Peer Instruction)
・Effects and limits of active learning
・Motivation (Expectancy-value theory)
・Exercise in class design
・Today’s class design
This was the second class following the previous one held a week before.
We revised the part on learning about motivation in this 8th semester.
The participants were provided with handouts on a case where an instructor failed to motivate students, an excerpt from “How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching” (Ambrose, et al., 2010), and worked on developing advice on what the instructor should do to motivate them. We used to ask the participants to develop advice about classes that they found boring respectively instead.
Relating the topic to their own experience is important for incorporating what they learn into their own context, but it is also important to deepen their learning by sharing the issue with others. Particularly when the time is limited, it is more efficient to discuss the common issue from multiple perspectives instead of taking time for sharing different topics by explaining and grasping their background, and that is why we changed the activity in this way.
It seemed to work as expected. However, we received several pieces of feedback saying, “The time for the activity was not enough,” so we are thinking of revising the class design or adding an online discussion.
The 9th semester of “The University of Tokyo Future Faculty Program” (UTokyo FFP) started on April 13th (@Hongo) and 14th (@Komaba). It will be held for two consecutive periods every other week, in principle, over S1 and S2 Terms.
The first class focused on creating a collaborative learning environment. The topics were as follows:
Every semester begins with almost all the participants meeting each other for the first time, so this time, again, the classes started with a tense atmosphere. We designed the class to make them feel relaxed by starting with asking easy-to-answer questions, then gradually moving on to group activities. Two consecutive periods equal three hours and 10 minutes, but they seemed to be actively involved in the classes. We believe that we were successful in setting a good environment for them.
The research presentation is positioned as part of a self-introduction when conducting a class in the future, which is for conveying the value and charms of one’s research to students within one minute. It is a wonderful session where you can come into contact with various kinds of research briefly. All the presentations are filmed, and the audience fills in a feedback sheet for every presentation. While the participants are preparing their feedback sheets, the instructor gives feedback to the lecturer directly. Their next assignment is to organize and hand in what was good about the presentation, what points need improvement, and what they learned from others.
Since the participants are mixed with graduate students, postdocs, and faculty/staff members, we believe it is important to remove the barriers between them in the first place. To create an environment where participants can learn from each other, we asked them to call each other by “(name)-san” and follow the ground rule of 3Ks: be respectful (敬意 Keii) to others, speak without reserve (忌憚なく Kitan naku), and be constructive (建設的 Kensetsuteki).
We are glad that our new semester started successfully.
The 9th semester of “The University of Tokyo Future Faculty Program” starts on April 13th (Thu) and 14th (Fri).
(There are no classes on April 6th (Thu) and 7th (Fri).)
The application is open until Sunday, April 9th. We look forward to your application.
We co-organized an intensive lesson “Let’s Learn Japanese Implicit Customs and Way of Thinking” (10:30–15:00) with the Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology on March 27th, 2017. There were 21 participants in total.
The schedule was as follows:
・Greetings
・Let’s get to know each other: Introduction
・Let’s examine a case: Role-playing
・Share your experiences: “The communication gap I experienced before”
・(Lunch)
・Find the solutions and share them: Poster tour on the tendency and measures
・Reflection: Wrap-up
Participants seemed to enjoy the event in a very good atmosphere, particularly during the role-playing session, which was intended to help them share their experiences in the following activity. They nodded or laughed unconsciously, looking at the UTokyo alumni acting in a situation on “how to reply to the greetings given by a Japanese colleague who is older than you.”
The result of the questionnaire, asking the participants about the event on a five-point scale (5: Strongly Agree, 1: Strongly Disagree), is as follows (N=21):
・The event was informative. AVG: 4.3, SD: 0.74
・I want to join similar events in the future. AVG: 4.14, SD: 0.97
・I want to recommend this event to my friends. AVG: 4.09, SD: 0.91
The average point of overall satisfaction on a 10-point scale (10: Extremely Satisfied, 1: Extremely Dissatisfied) was 8.25 (SD: 1.74). We received the following feedback in the comment section. Most participants seem to be satisfied with the event.
・I was able to ease my concerns by listening to the opinions of oversea students and Japanese people.
・I would like these kinds of events to be continuously held.
The instructor, who is one of the UTokyo FFP alumni, joined the group of overseas students, and all the participants seemed to enjoy the event in a relaxed atmosphere. We feel that we should have delved into the Japanese way of thinking more deeply, so we would like to improve that point in the next event. The event seemed to be successful overall!
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Prof. Mukai at the Japanese Classroom, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, for such a precious opportunity!
The 8th Certificate Award Ceremony of “The University of Tokyo Future Faculty Program (UTokyo FFP)” was held in Fukutake Learning Studio, Fukutake hall, on Wednesday, March 8th, 2017.
Forty-eight participants completed the 8th program, each receiving a certificate from Prof. Osamu Sudo, Director of the Center for Research and Development of Higher Education, The University of Tokyo. They also received a congratulatory address from Prof. Yojiro Ishii, Executive Vice President (in charge of education and assessment), The University of Tokyo.
Alumni also appeared and introduced their alumni network. Participants exchanged information over snacks after the ceremony.
The UTokyo FFP marked its fourth anniversary with eight semesters, producing a total of 383 people who completed the program from every graduate school at The University of Tokyo. We are eager to develop the program more and more.
The 9th UTokyo FFP is scheduled to start in April 2017. The application form is available on the following web page.
“The 8th Mini-lecture Program by UTokyo Graduate Students” (17:00–19:00) was held at the Seminar Room, 3F, General Library, on Friday, January 27th, 2017.
Kengo Nagasaki and Kenji Shigeno, the instructors gave mini-lectures which were improved through two pre-workshops.
They both incorporated active learning strategies into the lectures to accomplish their learning goals effectively.
There were 15 participants. The total number of participants in the event and pre-workshops is 36.
They had a wide variety of backgrounds from undergraduates to graduates to faculty/staff members to the general public. Thank you for joining our program.
The 2nd pre-workshop of the 8th Mini-lecture Program by UTokyo Graduate Students (14:00–16:00) was held at the Seminar Room, 3F, General Library, on Friday, January 20th, 2017.
Kengo Nagasaki and Kenji Shigeno, the instructors gave mini-lectures that were improved from the previous workshop.
There were seven participants. They lively discussed what the instructors should improve for the coming Mini-lecture Program.
The program will be held at the Seminar Room, 3F, General Library, from 17:00–19:00 on Friday, January 27th, 2017.
It is open to anyone regardless of whether they are affiliated with the University of Tokyo or not.
However, there is a limited number of seats available, so registration from the following URL is recommended. https://webform.adm.u-tokyo.ac.jp/Forms/mlp8/
We invite applications for a Project Researcher on the administration of the UTokyo FFP. The new Project Researcher is scheduled to be appointed in April 2017. The application deadline is February 3rd.
We look forward to the applications from those who are eager to plan various projects and improve education by considering the post as their opportunity to “learn how to teach” by getting involved in the administration of the UTokyo FFP.
Please click here for the application guidelines and details.
The new year has started, and DAY 8, the final session of the UTokyo FFP, was held on January 6th and 12th.
Yello sticky notes are for things about the present and past, blue for the future, and red is for something especially important.Participants shared their progress frequently with their partners while creating their charts. They recognized what they should do by explaining their ideas to them.
This session is for overviewing and reflecting on the participants’ own teaching, research, and other activities, recognizing the philosophy of their activities (i.e., what they consider important in their activities), and setting objectives for their future career by creating a worksheet called “SAP Chart.”
SAP stands for “Structured Academic Portfolio” (Yoshida & Kurita, 2016a). Essentially, an academic portfolio is “a reflective, evidence-based collection of materials that documents teaching, research, and service performance” (Seldin & Miller, 2009). The feature of SAP is that “the description is structured with specific steps and points.” A SAP Chart (Yoshida & Kurita, 2016b) is positioned as a preparatory assignment for creating a SAP, but since it enables the author to reflect on his/her entire activities in a short time (though roughly) and makes it easier to overview the description, it can also be used as a single item. It is a suitable tool for graduate students to envision their career paths and gives them an opportunity to connect what they learned in the UTokyo FFP and their own teaching philosophy. This is why the creation of a SAP Chart is incorporated into the materials in the final session of the program.
Participants were given three and a half hours to create their SAP Charts. They shared their works in pairs at any time and deepened their reflection by explaining their charts and answering questions cast by their partners. They first seemed to be “awkward” in explaining their teaching philosophy and research values to another person, but they gradually got used to it and had a lively discussion with their partners; they could not stop talking even when we announced the closing of the sharing session.
We are relieved that the 8th semester of UTokyo FFP completed the entire classes with earnest participants. The amount of knowledge and skills we can share within a semester is limited, but the value of this program is whether the participants can acquire the attitude to keep thinking about education, and we hope they did.
We would like to improve the program for the next semester (the 9th UTokyo FFP), based on the result of the questionnaires filled out by those who completed the 8th semester. Thank you for taking the course.
Kayoko Kurita
Seldin, P., & Miller, J. E. (2009). The academic portfolio: a practical guide to documenting teaching, research, and service (Vol. 132). John Wiley & Sons.
Yoshida, L., & Kurita, K. (2016a). Kōzōka academic portfolio sakusei no hyōka [Evaluation of the creation of a Structured Academic Portfolio]. The 22nd Kyoto University Conference on Higher Education, 238-239, 2016.3.17-18, Kyoto University
Yoshida, L., & Kurita, K. (2016b). Evaluation of Structured Academic Portfolio Chart and Workshop for Reflection on Academic Work. Procedia Computer Science, 96, 1454-1462.
