プログラム: FFP

The 1st 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 Thursday, January 5th, 2017.

Kengo Nagasaki and Kenji Shigeno, the instructors gave ambitious mini-lectures incorporating the analysis of historical materials and pair activities.
There were 14 participants, the most ever. They lively discussed what the instructors should improve until the last minute.

The 2nd pre-workshop will be held from 14:00–16:00 on Friday, January 20th.
The Mini-lecture Program will be held from 17:00–19:00 on Friday, January 27th.
Both are held at the same venue: Seminar Room, 3F, General Library.

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/

The 8th Mini-lecture Program by UTokyo Graduate Students

(Matsubara)

DAY 6 (Refining Lectures for the Microteaching Session) was held on December 8th and 9th, and DAY 7 (Microteaching Session (Final)) was held on December 15th and 16th.

DAY 6 Refining Lectures for the Microteaching Session
In the previous session, participants practiced how to examine lessons for microteaching and acquired the viewpoints of good lectures. This time, they refined their respective lectures in groups of 5–6, sparing about 30 minutes each.

The following is the procedure for one participant. They repeated this cycle as many as the participants:

• The lecturer-participant gives a 6-min mini-lecture.
• Feedback (3 min): The lecturer-participant receives direct feedback from the group manager (the instructor or an FFP alumnus/alumna). The student-participants fill out their feedback sheets.
• Examination (14 min): Participants have a group discussion on what was good about the lecture and what points needed improvement. The clerk takes the minutes.
• The participant switches to the next one.

Feedback sheets and minutes were scanned before being returned to them.
Also, the lectures were filmed so that the videos would work as a tool for the improvement of lectures as well as the feedback sheets.

DAY 7 Microteaching Session (Final)
We made four groups last time, and each lecturer-participant gave a lecture using his/her own PC to a small audience.
This time, to make the situation similar to the real classroom, we made two groups instead of four and let the participants give refined lectures using a projector to a larger audience.

The following is the procedure for one participant. They repeated this cycle as many as the participants:

• The lecturer-participant gives a 6-min mini-lecture.
• Feedback (3 min): The lecturer-participant receives direct feedback from the group manager (the instructor or an FFP alumnus/alumna). The student-participants fill out their feedback sheets.
• The participant switches to the next one.

The lectures were again filmed, and the feedback sheets, too, were returned.

Participants were given the following tasks as an assignment:

• Good points about the lecture
• Improvement points about the lecture
• What you learned from others
• Free comments (optional)

They were required to submit the above (via Google Form) and the final version of the class design sheet, lecture slides, and others.

I found many mini-lectures dramatically improved based on the feedback they received on DAY 6.
What you can acquire from this program is very limited, but I believe that experiencing the careful work of improvement is important as a core of one’s attitude in designing classes in the future.

That’s all for this year, and the next DAY 8 is the only session left. Time flies.

(Kurita)

UTokyo FFP DAY 5 for exercise in giving feedback on lectures and summary was held on November 24th and 28th.

Exercise in Giving Feedback on Lectures

In the UTokyo FFP, every participant conducts a lecture for microteaching sessions. This time, they practiced how to examine others’ lectures to prepare for the peer-reviewing in the next session. This is because giving feedback without having appropriate viewpoints leads to nothing. It is also intended to help participants design and conduct better lectures.
Two participants, who had volunteered previously, first conducted their mini-lectures in front of everyone, and the rest of the participants examined them thoroughly.

• The lecturer-participant gave a mini-lecture.
• The student-participants filled out their feedback sheets respectively.
• Participants had a group discussion on what was good about the lecture and what points needed improvement.
• Participants had a discussion with everyone.

Following the two mini-lectures, participants discussed how to redefine points that were good or needed improvement into metacognitive ones and shared their ideas. This process was intended for acquiring viewpoints on designing their mini-lectures and future classes.

The four mini-lectures conducted in Thursday and Friday classes were all very interesting and are likely to be improved furthermore based on a lot of feedback they received. All the participants will design their mini-lectures and examine them with each other in small groups in the next session.

Summary (Poster Tour)

Participants reviewed what they had learned so far by using a method called “Poster Tour.” The objectives of the activity were to experience the “Poster Tour,” one of the active learning strategies, as well as review the whole learning materials.

Participants of both Thursday and Friday classes had already been prepared to work on an assignment together regardless of the combination of group members. Every group created a poster on a given topic in an efficient manner, and every member was able to explain the topic.

(Kurita)

The UTokyo FFP DAY 4 focusing on evaluation was held on November 4th and 8th.

The goals and objectives were as follows:

Goals
To obtain basic knowledge in evaluating student learning, to understand the significance and features of evaluation, and to be able to apply evaluation to student learning.

Objectives

• ・To be able to explain the significance of evaluation.
• ・To be able to contrast formative evaluation and summative evaluation.
• ・To be able to explain any given evaluation method based on the features of evaluation.
• ・To be able to create a rubric.

The exercise in giving marks to a paper assignment and creating a rubric for that is incorporated into the learning of the rubric.

“Knowing” rubrics and “Being able to create” rubrics are completely different, so that is why we would like the learners to create one in the classroom. The exercise of creating a rubric is included in the activities from the first semester of the UTokyo FFP. Participants can feel the benefits and difficulties of creating a rubric together in groups.  Then, they realize the advantages and disadvantages of rubrics through the exercise.

By the way, we often hear that it is hard to create a rubric from scratch. One of the effective ways to make it easier is to find a standard type of rubric with similar learning goals to yours and customize it. Please refer to the following two websites:

AAC&U VALUE Rubric
American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) offers what they call “VALUE rubrics.” They are templates of rubrics for various tasks, which you can use and customize. You have to go through the “shopping cart,” but they are available for free download.

Rubric Bank (Japan Association for Educational Development in Higher Education)
The website collects rubrics created by teachers in Japan. They are designed for particular tasks while VALUE Rubrics are designed as standard types of rubrics.

(Kurita)

• UTokyoFFP values “Learning by and from experience” and “Learning as the leading actor”

On October 27th and 28th, DAY3 classes of UTokyoFFP were held. Main theme are as follows.

• ・How many roles of syllabus do you know?
• ・How to set the purpose and objectives of the syllabus
• ・Let’s create our courses’s graphic syllabus
• ・How can we enhance student’s learning by our syllabus?

[:]

Researchers from Tufts University and Kanawaza University cordially visited our office.

On October 13th and 14th, DAY2 classes of UTokyoFFP were held. Main Theme are as follows:

• ・Instructional Design: Close the loop by ADDIE model
• ・Class Design
• ・Methods for Active Learning (Questioning, Think-Pair-Share, Peer Instruction）
• ・Effects of Active Learning
• ・Motivation Theory（Expectancy and Value Theory）

“The University of Tokyo Future Faculty Program” (UTokyo FFP) started on October 6th and 7th.

It will be held for two consecutive periods every other week, in principle, over A1 and A2 Terms. The first class focused on creating a collaborative learning environment. The main topics were as follows:

• ・Icebreaker (Introducing others)
• ・Research presentation (1-min self-introduction) & peer review
• ・Present situation of higher education
• ・Summary of the UTokyo FFP

Associate Professor Kayoko Kurita and Project Researcher Yu Matsubara, both in charge of the UTokyo FFP, and Hirokazu Tanaka and Hisashi Shigematsu, the UTokyo FFP alumni, visited Ito Campus, Kyushu University, to participate in and give a presentation at the 1st Kyushu University Education Innovation Study Meeting (AY2016) on Wednesday, August 10th, 2016.

The Study Meeting was organized by Student Affairs Planning Division, Student Affairs Department, Kyushu University, and the theme was “Significance and Necessity of PFFP (Preparing Future Faculty Program): Considering with Graduate Students (from Kyushu University, The University of Tokyo, and Osaka University).”

Before the commencement of PFFP at Kyushu University scheduled for this autumn,  The University of Tokyo and Osaka University shared the preceding cases including the episodes of graduate students who completed the programs and examined the significance and issues of PFFP.

The organizers and learners of PFFP gathered and interacted across the universities. We expect that PFFP will spread among universities nationwide and that the contents of the program will be enriched.