(Kurita) Hello, everyone. (Student) Hello. (Kurita) Welcome to “Interactive Teaching” WEEK 8. This week’s topic is “Let’s think about career paths (2): Use of portfolios. In this session, we are going to learn how to create a Structured Academic Portfolio (SAP) with regard to education. Before starting the main topic, I will clarify the goals for this week, which are to: “Give a general overview of the activities in education and research, and envision a career path to become a faculty member. Today’s objective is the third one: “Be able to create your own SAP chart by following the specific procedure." Please download this SAP chart and print it in an A3 size piece of paper if possible to make it easier to work on activities. Here is the table of contents: how to create the Education part of the SAP, and the wrap-up. I would like to begin with how to create the Education part. Here is a SAP chart. Let’s briefly review the whole structure of this chart. The left side of the sheet is for the Education part. Start with listing your educational practices in the Teaching Fact component. The component above is the Methodology, which is for listing the specific methods you use. The component above is the Strategy, which is for considering why you chose those particular methods. Then, move up to the Philosophy component to think further about your educational views. The next step is to describe your goals. There is another component called Effort beside Teaching Fact and this is for describing activities in order to improve your teaching skills. The Research part is placed on the right side of the sheet. First, you list your research themes in the Research Theme component and list your papers in the Main Outcome component. Then, list your research fund in the Budget component, if you have any; list your Effort to improve how you conduct research, and the Skill Set you possess, which is an advantage for conducting research. And here is the Value component. This is for considering the significance and purpose of the research. After that, move up to Philosophy to consider why you are conducting the research, which is an important component of research. Then, describe the goals of the research in the Goal component, as well as describing the educational goals. The middle part is for Service. This might be unfamiliar to graduate students like you, but this part describes things other than education and research, such as administration and social contribution. And here is the section for Integration. This is the part for describing the relationship between Education, Research, and Service. After that, move on to the Core section for integrating what you have written so far. Describe what you think you give the most priority to. Then, describe your Academic Goal as a whole, that is, the goal you envision to fulfill as a faculty member. This is the structure of a SAP chart. Now let’s take a look at the Education part of this chart. As I mentioned, I would like to delve into each component starting from the educational practices. The first component is Teaching Facts at the bottom and this is where you should start. Describe your educational experiences as an educator, such as part-time lecturer, teaching assistant (TA), or mentor looking after juniors in a laboratory. If you use an A3-sized chart, I recommend you use this size for the tags. I will explain why later on, but I also recommend you use two colors to distinguish your present situation from your future plans. Write the name of the courses you are or were in charge of as a part-time lecturer if any. In the case of TAs, please write the name of the courses and describe your responsibilities. I think there are various kinds of activities to describe on this sheet other than Teaching Fact, but I recommend you reflect on your experience in units of three to five years. When you write on whatever tags for the SAP chart, please keep in mind the units of three to five years. OK, then, for example, what kind of activities could you write here, Nakamura-san? (Student) I often work as a TA, so I think I could write about that. (Kurita) I see. What kind of courses are you involved in? (Student) I am a TA for the international politics course. I am in charge of one of the seminar groups. (Kurita) That sounds like quite an intensive course. (Student) Yes, it is. (Kurita) Since you are engaged in such activities, you can write about that on the tags and paste them on the chart. Now, let’s move on to the next component: Effort. This component is on a white background, which means that it is an optional item. Therefore, if you have nothing to add here, just skip it. This component is for describing the efforts you make or made in order to improve your teaching skills. What kind of activities would be written here? What did you write for this component, Teramoto-san? (Student) Well, it applies to everyone who is here right now, but I wrote about participating in the UTokyo Future Faculty Program. (Kurita) Yes, the program is for improving teaching skills, so you wrote about that. Thank you. Let’s move on to the next component: Methodology. Based on what you wrote for Teaching Fact, such as one’s activities as a TA as Nakamura-san mentioned, describe the teaching methods you always use or what you always try to do in your educational experiences, for example, giving a quiz at the beginning of every class, using peer instruction, or making it a rule to remember the names of all the students. Write about things like that. What did you write for this component, Ozawa-san? (Student) Well, I once worked as a TA for a class on atmospheric temperature and body temperature. It was delivered in a fieldwork style, and the instructor did an experiment by having students go outside and feel what the temperature was like and how their body temperature changed accordingly. (Kurita) Experiment. (Student) Yes. (Kurita) So you were involved in fieldwork. Thank you. You could write such activities here. This is about the methods you use or have used. There is one more thing you can write in this component: the methods you wish to use in the future. I showed you pink-colored tags for describing the past and present, but please change the color for describing the future. Ozawa-san, what methods did you write for the future? (Student) I learned about peer instruction in the previous session, so I would like to apply that method to my class in the future. I would also like to deliver my class while checking the students’ comprehension. (Kurita) Thank you. Peer instruction could be written on the tags for describing what to do in the future. Let’s move on to the next component: Strategy. We have covered methodology based on educational experience. The next step is to list strategies or policies that are the reasons why you employ such methodologies. Describe the reasons why you use or why you want to use the methodologies you wrote briefly. For example, using repetition for helping students internalize what they learned. How about you, Mizukoshi-san? (Student) I would like to talk to students daily in order to build a one-to-one relationship of trust and deepen my relationship with each student. (Kurita) Thank you. Write such things for this component. The next component is Philosophy. This is an optional item, but it is very important. It takes quite a long time to write this component, so work on it when you have enough time. Describe the reasons why you use or want to use the strategy you wrote, or your educational view, if you have any specific one. How about you, Yoshida-san? (Student) Well, I am strongly interested in programming, mathematical sciences, and life sciences, and the passion for these topics has led me to my present activities, so I would like students to be able to find the topics that they could be enthusiastic about also. (Kurita) I see. (Student) And I would like to support them finding those topics. (Kurita) Thank you. That is what you wrote for Philosophy. The next component is the Goal. This is the section to describe your educational goals by overviewing what you wrote so far in the chart including Teaching Fact, Methodology, and Strategy. The goals might be specific ones that could be accomplished in the next one or two years or long-term ones to be accomplished in five to ten years. You can also set a long-term goal, and then break it into short-term goals as steps to reach the long-term goal. Write about, for example, employing specific new methods, your wish to work as a part-time lecturer, or participating in workshops. What did you write for the Goal section, Teramoto-san? (Student) My goal is to design classes that enable students to enjoy learning by adopting new methods. (Kurita) That plan sounds a bit rough. (Student) Yes, it might be. (Kurita) I think you should specify what you would like to do and set objectives for that goal. (Student) OK. (Kurita) Thank you. We have covered what to write for the Education part of the SAP chart. Now, let’s wrap up. The slide shows the whole SAP chart, but in this session, we focused on the Education part specifically. Start from the component at the bottom by reflecting on your past and present educational practices and methodologies then consider the strategies, that is, the reasons why you adopt those methodologies, and move on to extracting your educational view by considering why you employ those strategies if you have enough time. Finally, set your goals by examining the gap between the present situation and your future. This is the process in which to reflect on the educational aspects of your activities as a whole. We have covered education, so we would like to focus on research in the next session. That’s all for this session.
