} 学部生 – Page 13 – UTokyo FD
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[9th UTokyo FFP] DAY 4 Evaluation

DAY 4 of the UTokyo FFP on evaluation was held on May 11th and 12th. The main topics were as follows:

  • ・Significance of evaluation
  • ・Methods and targets of evaluation
  • ・Formative evaluation and summative evaluation
  • ・Reliability, validity, and efficiency of evaluation
  • ・Measures to take after evaluation
  • ・Rubrics

In the UTokyo FFP, participants work on exercises in creating rubrics during the session on evaluation, every semester. “Knowing” rubrics and “Being able to create” rubrics are completely different. The exercises are intended to help participants consider the values and limits of rubrics in their own contexts by actually creating one.

 

It is very difficult to create a rubric from scratch. One of the effective ways to make it easier is to find a rubric with similar learning goals to yours and customize it. As for rubric samples, please refer to the following website:

AAC&U VALUE Rubric (English)
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.

 

Participants created rubrics in groups. And they shared their rubrics with a method called “Gallery Walk,” where they examined others’ rubrics freely. One of the group members remained to explain the rubric they made, and the rest looked around to see the other groups’ rubrics. Another sharing method called “Poster Tour” will be used in the next session, so we would like the participants to contrast it with “Gallery Walk.”

By the way, we are sparing more time for Q&A sessions than in previous semesters. And since participants reflect on what they learned after each session by filling in an online form, and we reply to their questions via documents, we are receiving more questions than before. I’m very happy to receive good questions one after another as the instructor of this course.

The class design is, therefore, modified every class in response to the above interaction, and so we sometimes have to shorten the time for sharing activities in groups by changing them into pair activities, but I believe it is important to keep the class design flexible.

(Kurita)

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[9th UTokyo FFP] DAY 3 Syllabus and Course Design

DAY 3 sessions for the 9th UTokyo FFP were held on April 27th and 28th. The topics were as follows:

  • ・The roles of a syllabus
  • ・Setting goals and objectives of a syllabus
  • ・Course design (creating a graphic syllabus)
  • ・Improving a syllabus into one that promotes learning

A syllabus is not just a tool for students to choose which course to take but is also something that promotes their learning and a tool for instructors to design the course, which can be used as evidence for their achievement in teaching. Participants first learned such significance.
In DAY 3 sessions, each participant brings a syllabus made by themselves or an existing syllabus of a course that is similar to his/her own and learns about the topic by improving it.

Firstly, participants made sure what the goals and objectives were, modified their own syllabuses, and further improved them in pairs. Then, the instructor explained “Backward Design,” followed by the course design activity through the creation of a graphic syllabus. The explanation was given by citing references and syllabus samples created by participants in the past, so it must have been easy for the participants to get the feel of it.

 

Participants were provided with handouts of the UTokyo FFP syllabus with annotations on each item. They compared the handout with the syllabus they brought and found out the points that needed improvement by themselves. Then, they shared the points in groups.
The instructor used to explain the points one by one, which tended to make the class a “one-way” lecture in the past semesters, but providing the participants with informative materials and having them work on the improvement of syllabuses individually or in groups seem to be much more effective in making them consider the topic in their own contexts. They kept on asking good questions over the following 15 minutes.

 

A participant explaining his graphic syllabus

ペアシェアSharing ideas in pairs

(Kurita)
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General Library, The University of Tokyo Calls for Application for the 6th ACS

Here is the announcement by the General Library on the recruitment of supporters to discuss issues and take action related to a new style of libraries.

The supporter organization has engaged in planning and running the “Mini-lecture Programs” co-held by the UTokyo FFP and the Library, and is where you can launch new projects. If you are interested, please read the following and apply from the library’s website.

URL:http://new.lib.u-tokyo.ac.jp/post_acs/5010

 

*The main points of the recruitment are cited from the website as follows:

==

■Activities
Period: The 6th Term: June 2017–March 2018

Main Venue: Hongo Campus, The University of Tokyo

Activities:

Regular meetings to be held once a month

Planning and implementing projects related to the completion of the New Library

Planning and implementing projects on how to utilize affiliated libraries better than before

■Briefing Session
Briefing sessions will be held to give you the summary and activities of ACS.
If you are interested in ACS, please join the session.

1. Friday, April 28th, 12:20–12:50

2. Wednesday, May 10th, 15:00–15:30

■Application Guideline
Qualifications:

Applicants should be undergraduate or graduate students at the University of Tokyo.

Applicants should be able to join the monthly meetings held on the Hongo Campus.

*Meetings will be arranged in accordance with the members’ schedules.

==

*Academic Commons Supporter (ACS)
(Twitter) https://twitter.com/acsUTokyoNewLib
*The University of Tokyo New Library Project: Twitter and Facebook
(Twitter) https://twitter.com/UTokyoNewLib
(Facebook) https://www.facebook.com/UTokyoNewLibrary

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[New Release] Leaflet “The first step to enrich your campus life Q&A Vol.1” (from the intensive course “Let’s learn Japanese implicit customs and way of thinking”)

A leaflet “The first step to enrich your campus life Q&A Vol.1” was created following a discussion during an intensive course titled “Let’s learn implicit Japanese customs and way of thinking,” which was held on March 27, 2017. It is a summary of the discussion held between overseas and Japanese students regarding the cultural differences overseas students are likely to experience in Japanese offices/laboratories.

The leaflet is distributed free of charge. Click here to download.
(Update: The leaflet was updated on April 29, 2017.)

 

 

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[Report Published] “Interactive Teaching” Big Real Session

We published a report on the “Interactive Teaching” Big Real Session (BRS) held on February 4th, 2017.

Please click here.

 

The report shows the analysis of the questionnaire responded to by the participants at the venue or online, and the future prospect of the event based on the questionnaire results.

Please also check the video of the event published previously.

 

We are preparing for the announcement of the 2nd BRS in due course.

Thank you for supporting “Interactive Teaching.”

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[Publication] “Hakase ni nattara dō ikiru? 78mei ga kataru career path” [How do you live your life after receiving a PhD? Career paths described by 78 people]

★Cover

This book was completed thanks to the cooperation of the alumni of “The University of Tokyo Future Faculty Program” (UTokyo FFP)!

 

What kind of career path can you envision after entering university, proceeding to graduate school, and completing the doctoral program?

What lies beyond completing the doctoral program is highly uncertain for doctoral students themselves as well as the general public.

This book answers the question through interviews with people in various academic fields. The first half of the book organizes the information on the basic procedure to obtain academic degrees at university and what you should do to prepare for building a career as you wish, while the latter half is a collection of interviews with those who completed their doctoral programs ranging as many as 15 academic fields.

It took nearly two years from the very beginning to complete the book thanks to the UTokyo FFP alumni working hard on the basic arrangement of chapters and conducting interviews. It is the diverse backgrounds of UTokyo FFP alumni that realized conducting interviews with people from such a wide variety of fields.

The book collected what those who are working actively in various fields had in their mind and tried to do while they were in the middle of building their careers.

It is strongly recommended not only for undergraduates and graduate students but also for working adults and high school students.

 

Product detail page on Amazon

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[Report] “Interactive Teaching” Big Real Session Videos Available

All videos of the “Interactive Teaching” Big Real Session (BRS) (held on February 4th, 2017), from the introduction to the wrap-up, are now available online!
You can watch the videos session by session on either website as follows:
UTokyo TV: http://todai.tv/contents-list/faculty/brs-1#__tabcon-6
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGkctuF55veBi7xDGCgcYkw

[For BRS participants]
Please use the videos for your reflection. The staff and speakers had a lot to realize recently by reviewing the videos under editing. (Let us share our reflections at another time.) We hope the videos remind you of “What I learned today” and “My determination to apply what I learned to my life tomorrow” two months ago and motivate you toward the new academic year.

[For those who were unable to join BRS due to conflicting schedules or losing the lottery]
Thank you for waiting. You must be busy at the turn of the academic year, but we offer the videos session by session. Please start with the session you are interested in in your spare time.

[For those who would like to learn about “Interactive Teaching”]
As they say, “Seeing is believing.” Please take a look at the videos to know about BRS. However, “Thinking is far greater than seeing,” and “Acting is far greater than thinking.” We hope these videos will become an opportunity for you to join the projects to support those who support learners.

[Call for sending reports on utilizing the videos]
We would also appreciate it if you would let us know the use of the videos in your activities. Please notify us of any brief reports from this form. We would like to share your efforts (e.g., for studying by yourself, (online) workshops, etc.).

 

Lastly, thank you very much to the UTokyo TV staff for their cooperation from filming the event to publishing the videos. We are impressed with their quick and accurate work, editing the videos beautifully. It might be a little inadequate in terms of business etiquette to praise our colleagues in a broad sense, but we would like to express our sincere gratitude to them.

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【Event report】Master the skills in a day! Arts of making presentations in English

<About>Tuesday, March 14th, 2017

The Center for Research and Development of Higher Education organized an English Academia workshop “Master the skills in a day! Arts of making presentations in English.” Its purpose was to let the participants master the arts of making attractive presentations on their research topics in English. The workshop was placed as an offline practice session for an online course “English Academia” (https://utokyo-ea.com).

It was held at Fukutake Learning Studio, Hongo Campus. A total of 17 participants consisted of graduate students at the University of Tokyo, coming from a variety of fields of science and humanities. Bilingual staff at the Center served as the facilitators, and the instructors included those who used English as their first language.

The participants were divided into groups of two to four with one instructor for each and practiced making presentations. Before the workshop, they had been asked to prepare presentation materials explaining the main concepts and keywords of their research questions easily understandable to the undergraduate students new to their fields. Each participant first made a five-minute presentation in English using the materials they had prepared and received feedback from the instructor and the other participants. Their presentation topics covered a wide variety of themes such as “Machine Learning,” “Bitcoin,” “Unemployment Rates,” and “Protein Engineering.” We filmed and recorded each presentation with iPads and IC recorders so that they could review their own presentations objectively.


Subsequently, staff who used English as their first language shared the feedback on the skills of English presentations with all the participants. Following a break, the participants individually worked on improving their presentation materials and methods. They were able to consult the instructors at any time and also had an active discussion with other participants. Finally, they gave a second try on making presentations and received feedback in groups. All the presentations were improved from the first ones; it was easier to understand by the audience, and their visual materials, diction, use of their eyes, and gestures were refined.

We received positive feedback from the participants after the workshop as follows:
“It was highly valuable to receive feedback from various people.”
“In addition to mastering the skills in making presentations, I realized the importance of taking an appropriate attitude of mind.”
They also seemed to look forward to our future workshops by listing the topics they would like us to take up such as “Q&A sessions at academic conferences,” “poster sessions,” “delivering classes for overseas students,” and “interviews in English.”


We will continue to hold workshops related to English Academia on the improvement of academic communication skills in English for young researchers. We sincerely look forward to your participation.

Click here for more details of English Academia.↓
https://utokyo-ea.com

Click here for more details of the PAGE project. ↓
https://www.he.u-tokyo.ac.jp/activities/page/

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[Report] “Let’s Learn Japanese Implicit Customs and Way of Thinking”

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!