(Nakahara) Hello, everyone. (Yamabe) Hello. (Nakahara) I’m Jun Nakahara from the University of Tokyo. This session asks instructors who play a leading role in their research field or discipline what teaching means to them. Today, I will have a discussion with Dr. Akinori Yamabe from the College of Arts and Sciences. Thank you very much for taking the time to join us. (Yamabe) It’s my pleasure. Thank you for having me here. (Nakahara) First of all, could you tell us about your field? (Yamabe) To state my conclusion first, it is education. (Nakahara) Education. (Yamabe) Yes. When I was a student, I studied the history of science. The history of science is, so to speak, the history of human knowledge, so it overlaps a great deal with the history of universities. And through the practice of education, my interest has changed dramatically. Today, I entirely engage in education research through domestic and international conferences and activities with research funds such as KAKENHI (Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research). (Nakahara) Really? I see. (Yamabe) Yes. (Nakahara) So, you are teaching education, usually on Komaba Campus, right? (Yamabe) Yes. I teach at the graduate school, senior division of college, and junior division of college, that means students in their first and second year, on Komaba Campus. (Nakahara) I see. Many of the students on Komaba Campus are undergraduates. What kind of undergraduate courses are you in charge of? (Yamabe) I’m in charge of two types of undergraduate education. One is first-year education to teach academic skills or to support students in learning those skills. The other comprises courses where students learn certain topics, which change year by year, through active learning. Speaking of the latter, the topic for last year’s course was international issues. Students took the lead in the activity, starting by discovering an issue, then inspecting its cause, and finally figuring out a solution through active learning. This semester, students are learning research ethics through active learning. (Nakahara) Are these undergraduate students in their first or second year? (Yamabe) Yes. (Nakahara) You provide them with topics such as research ethics and international issues, and their learning method is active learning or something that is carried out interactively. Am I getting it right? (Yamabe) Yes. To be more specific, we use a problem-based learning method for teaching international issues, and we use a project-based learning method for teaching research ethics and science communication. (Nakahara) I see. Project-based learning and problem-based learning. What are the differences between the two? (Yamabe) The ultimate goal of problem-based learning is to solve a problem. Therefore, learners exchange ideas in groups and repetitively go through a reflective process that leads to a solution. This method emphasizes process. Project-based learning includes problem solving, but there’s more to it than that. For example, by making use of a situation, such as a campus festival or a campus open day, students express to broader society what they are learning or something related to the course topic. This is not a one-sided expression of their ideas, as they interactive with society. The course is designed as such. (Nakahara) I see. The abbreviation of the two terms, PBL, is the same, and what they probably have in common is that students are divided into groups and go through a process of discussing and determining issues. (Yamabe) Yes. Roughly speaking, I think both are a form of collaborative learning. (Nakahara) When the students are engaged in discussion, what are you doing? (Yamabe) I occasionally mildly intervene in the discussion when it is not going smoothly. I devote myself to facilitating the discussion so that it reactivates. Other than that, I mostly observe what is happening. There is research that shows that intervention by instructors is desired not to exceed 20%, so I control myself and observe. However, I do not completely pass everything on to the students, so I engage with students when it is appropriate to do so as an instructor or professional. (Nakahara) In that sense, even though you have in mind a certain desirable idea or a course of direction, you have to wait for that to appear while the students express various opinions. I think there is an aspect of waiting. (Yamabe) Yes, there is. (Nakahara) And, as you just mentioned, students may go this way or that, but you must be tolerant to a certain extent. That seems like quite a difficult situation to manage. (Yamabe) Yes. It might depend partly on the individual instructor’s sense, but instead of attributing the difficulty to such a thing, I would like to speak in a more technical way. For example, by presenting a large framework several times at the beginning of the semester, you can clarify in advance that you will not deal with a discussion that goes beyond the framework. You can also give the students a certain amount of flexibility by saying that as long as it remains within the framework, they can choose any topic or theme. You can prevent the situation from becoming chaotic by keeping a balance. (Nakahara) I see. (Yamabe) Or another way is to create a situation where instructors and students create the course together without losing direction by using the start of each week’s session to share information on what each group has done by the previous session. (Nakahara) I see. I would like to ask you the next question from a different perspective. Because of my research field, I am used to teaching working adults or business people, and also graduate students, and I’m quite good at that, but when it comes to teaching undergraduates… in one word, I’m poor at it. (Yamabe) Really? (Nakahara) The reason why I’m poor at it is that I don’t understand how much the students don’t understand or what they are interested in. I think that’s probably because I don’t have enough experience. Could you share some tips about how to prepare for teaching undergraduates? (Yamabe) Sure. There are two. First, as is often said in the field of education, devote yourself to making the education learner-centered, which is what I am trying to do. This does not mean to flatter students, but to make the students responsible for their own learning. I tell this to the students and that I will do my best to support them. That is one thing. Second, which has recently been said, is diversity. In both positive and negative ways, students are not yet specialized. Especially at this university, in a good way, they are divided into streams of Humanities and Social Sciences I, II, and III, and Natural Sciences I, II, and III. Fortunately, quite a few students wish to take my course, so based on the applicants’ approval, I select students so as to create a learning environment balanced according to their streams, academic years, and gender. I often receive positive responses from students because they have met people with different value systems to their own, who they would otherwise never have exchanged ideas in the classroom, and that they are now able to renew their own sense of values by learning with these other students. (Nakahara) I see. Don’t they have trouble communicating with each other? I mean, highly diverse participants are likely to break up potentially. Doesn’t that happen? (Yamabe) Well, I think there are probably some conflicts in the learners’ minds. There may be a sense of value that they can’t possibly accept. However, I try to create a table for communication that everyone can sit at by telling them clearly that conflict is also part of learning. (Nakahara) I see. (Yamabe) I started to think of the necessity for diversity not recently, but about 10 years ago. I’m not sure if this information is helpful, but there is medical education in the U.K. called interprofessional education. Traditional medical education was carried out separately in schools of medicine, nursing, rehabilitation, and pharmacy. However, team medicine is required. in clinical settings, However, since education was carried out in separate settings, health professionals met each other for the first time in real clinical settings, which was not a desirable situation. They had real, precious patients in front of them. It was too late. So, a new method was adopted. Students from each school gather at the early stage of learning and exchange ideas over certain cases, solving problems together, each from their own academic perspective. This is exactly the same as PBL. I’ve been thinking that this is applicable to university education where we are now. Environmental issues, international issues… nothing can be solved with an approach from a single field. That’s why I feel it is necessary for students to create the basis and to get ready to cooperate with people who think in different academic ways to solve problems together at an early stage. (Nakahara) I see. In that sense, conflicts may occur, but even so, the learners need to get on with it. (Yamabe) Yes. (Nakahara) I would like to move on to another question. Those who would like to become instructors are watching this online. Could you give words of encouragement or a message to them from your point of view? (Yamabe)Well, I am in the sixth year of working as an instructor, so I’m not very experienced. However, if you look at this question from the opposite direction, I am one of the people who can still share your feelings. There are many points to stumble on as an educator when practicing education. I think you, too, will encounter such points. In those cases, you can often figure out what the problem is. The problem might be solved in an advanced way, or you can figure out the reason why you stumbled, by asking yourself if you are really managing to deliver classes in a learner-centered way. As I talked about the medical field, consider what good doctors are like. I believe they are the ones who don’t persist in holding their own diagnosis, but who read the context of each patient in front of them and keep thinking about the best approach to take for the sake of that person. I think education is similar to that. Educators should not force on learners what they one-sidedly believe is the case, but exert their professionalism by carefully reading what the learners need in their respective contexts and support them accordingly. This is one thing, and there’s one more. Educators who have a mindset that they can learn from the learners behave in such ways, leading to good relationships with the learners and an atmosphere of co-creating good education. If you encounter some problems in the future, remember what I have said. I would be grateful if what I have said will work as a part of the solution for you. (Nakahara) OK. I would like to end this session. Thank you very much. (Yamabe) Thank you.
