Author: 河上愛梨

We are pleased to announce the publication of the book “Interactive teaching jissen-hen 3: Manabi o unagasu hyōka: rubric no sahō to jitsurei [Interactive Teaching practice 3: Evaluation that promotes active learning: rubrics’ design methods and cases]” (Kurita, K., & Nakamura, N. (Eds.), Kawai Publishing).

This book focuses on rubric, which is an assessment tool suitable for reports, presentations, and so on. It explains the basics and characteristics of rubrics, the procedure for creating them, and how to utilize them to promote students’ learning more effectively, and provides a variety of examples.

Please click here to purchase the book on Amazon.

As with the online course, this book is useful not only for graduate students and university faculty, but also for elementary and secondary teachers.

We hope that you will take a look at this book.

 

■　Related links

What Is “Interactive Teaching”? | UTokyo FD

Interactive Teaching（インタラクティブ・ティーチング） | Coursera

The following is a brief summary of DAY 3 of the Real Session held on September 15th (Fri), 2023.

• ■Objectives for DAY 3
• ●Be able to envision your career path and organize your daily activities and future prospects.

 

■DAY 3 Schedule

 

• [TP/SAP Chart Creation] (9:00–12:35)
• Participants were divided into two groups according to their needs and respectively created a chart: a TP chart (Instructor: Kurita) or a SAP chart (Instructor: Park). The objectives of this activity were to reflect on their teaching/research activities and to make use of such reflection in improving their future classes and clarifying their career paths.

 

• [Reflection on the Entire Session] (12:35–12:45)
• Participants reflected on the entire session and individually organized what they had learned and their thoughts.

 

• [Award of Certificate of Completion] (12:45–13:00)
• The certificates of completion were awarded to participants.

 

• ■Participants’ Reactions
• Eight participants answered our questionnaire after the session. Regarding the question on the satisfaction of the whole event (i.e., a five-point scale question with “5: Extremely satisfied” and “1: Extremely dissatisfied”), four people (50%) rated “5” (the highest), and four (50%) rated “4.” Furthermore, seven participants (87.5%) rated “5” (the highest)  and one (12.5%) rated “4” to the question asking whether participation in the event would be useful to their future (“5: Strongly agree” and “1: Strongly disagree”).

Here are some of the feedback we received in the comment section (*Please note that we partly extracted the feedback to anonymize the respondents.):

 

●What did you find good about this event?

“That I could experience the practical learning that can be a review of the online course but also lead to the knowledge retention and improvement of my teaching skills.

“That the session as a whole was built on participative learning and I could learn active learning through experiencing it.”

“That I could deliver a microteaching lecture twice and receive feedback for that. That the venue like “culturally isolated island” allowed me to immerse myself in the session for three days and two nights. That a lot of informal interactions happened by conducting the session face-to-face. That I could spend fulfilling three days thanks to the staff’s support.”

“The SAP Chart Creation was a great reflective opportunity. The workload was not small, but the time passed so quickly as the other participants listened respectfully to me and gave me comments about it in pairs.

“It was great that even on a small scale I practiced what I learned through the online course and received feedback. There were many things that I only noticed after doing myself.”

“That I could acquire the knowledge and skills necessary for learner-centered learning. That I could get to know people with various professions and received opinions from diverse perspectives.”

 

●Other remarks and comments

“The content itself was highly suggestive and I could interact with people from a wide variety of fields.”

“Since I am not a teacher, I was not sure if I can participate until just before the session. However, it turned out to be a great opportunity. The announcements from Kawakami-san were just right amount and spot-on, so that also encouraged me to join it. Looking back, I enjoyed being deep in the mountains of Hachioji. Thank you very much♪”

“Overall, the session schedule was so tight including the revision of microteaching after the session on DAY 1, but I thought the certificate has the value for that.”

“I am sincerely grateful for this opportunity despite your very busy schedule. I would like to recommend this session to educators in my hometown or those with whom I have connection. Also, if I can, I would like to participate in it again to retry a 6-minute class. I hope to carry out the missions from my standpoint at that time. Thank you for your support.”

“The learning made me realize that I knew nothing and think that I want to learn more. Also, the face-to-face intensive session was a pleasant stimulus for me to learn about blind self and the knowledge of ignorance. I will put this learning into practice wherever I am situated in the future. I am grateful for the three days of active learning. Thank you very much.

“Thank you very much for the three days. I would like to participate again if there is a chance.”

“It is fun to have a training camp for adults. Thank you for your preparation to make it so. I had a fruitful summer vacation.”

 

We are pleased that we received high ratings from all the respondents in various aspects. They also provided us with a lot of comments on the points that need improvement and requests for topics to be focused on in the future. We are eager to develop new events based on the opinions we received. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the people who provided us with feedback.

 

• ■What’s Next?
• The event was the first training-camp-style Real Session to be held after the launch of the course “Interactive Teaching.” The responses to our questionnaire show that many of the participants learned a lot from the Real Session. On the other hand, since we staff were not familiar with this form of event, there were also many comments on the points that need improvement and requests for topics to be focused on in the future. Reconsidering the venue, procedure, and event structure, we are eager to develop/run events based on the feedback. We hope that many people will join our future events. Details are to be announced. We look forward to your participation.

 

• ■References
• Coursera “Interactive Teaching” https://www.coursera.org/learn/interactive-teaching
• UTokyo OCW “Teaching Development in Higher Education” (The University of Tokyo Future Faculty Program) https://ocw.u-tokyo.ac.jp/course_11441/

 

• Click here for the details of DAY 1.
• Click here for the details of DAY 2.

 

Airi Kawakami (Project Academic Specialist in charge of “Interactive Teaching”)

 

The following is a brief summary of DAY 2 of the Real Session held on September 14th (Thu), 2023.

■Objectives for DAY 2

• ●Experience active learning strategies and be able to use them.
• ●Be able to describe a course that lets students learn actively in the form of a syllabus.
• ●Be able to design an evaluation based on essential knowledge.
• ●Be able to apply what you learned when conducting a lecture for microteaching sessions.

 

■DAY 2 Schedule

 

■Summary

• [Syllabus] (8:50–10:25)
• Participants listened to a lecture on syllabuses and worked on an activity. They learned the tips on creating text syllabi and revised their own ones. They also created graphic syllabi and shared them in groups.

 

• [Evaluation] (10:50–12:40)
• Participants discussed various aspects of evaluation, using a worksheet. Also, they created rubrics in groups and presented them to each other in the format of Poster Tour.

 

• [Active Learning] (13:30–14:50)
• The lecturer gave a lecture on active learning. Participants experienced one of the active learning strategies, “Peer Instruction.”

 

• [Revising Microteaching] (15:00–15:30)
• Participants revised their lecture for microteaching sessions based on what they learned.

 

• [Microteaching Session] (15:30–18:00)
• Participants conducted refined lectures for the microteaching session. This time the lectures were given to the whole participants instead of groups.
• STEP 1: A participant conducts a lecture as a lecturer. (6 min)
• STEP 2: The lecturer-participant receives feedback from the instructors while the other participants fill in the feedback sheets.
• STEP 3: The lecturer-participant shares their thoughts with the whole participants, and he/she receives the feedback sheets that other participants filled in.

 

DAY 2 became another busy day where participants not just listened to lectures but also experienced active learning strategies and worked on various activities. It was designed to let them apply what they learned to the revision of their lectures and syllabuses.

• Click here for the details of DAY 3.
• (Click here for the details of DAY 1.)

 

Airi Kawakami (Project Academic Specialist in charge of “Interactive Teaching”)

• 【Overview of the Coursera “Interactive Teaching”: The 2nd Real Session]
• ・Date/Time: September 13th (Wed), 2023, 13:00–20:30, 14th (Thu), 8:40–18:00, and 15th (Fri), 9:00–13:00
• ・Format: Face-to-face
• ・Venue: Inter-University Seminar House (Hachioji)
• ・Instructors: Kayoko Kurita, Wonhwa Park, Airi Kawakami, Osami Nabeta (The University of Tokyo)
• ・Intended for: Those who completed “Interactive Teaching” and are able to work on pre-assignments
• ・Language: Japanese
• ・Fee: Free of charge (Actual expenses for accommodation and meals)

 

“Coursera ‘Interactive Teaching’: The 2nd Real Session” was held as a face-to-face event on September 13th, 14th, and 15th, 2023. The Real Session was intended for those who had completed the course “Interactive Teaching,” and 10 people with various occupations and affiliations gathered from across the country.

The following is a brief summary of DAY 1.

 

■Objectives of the Real Session

• 1. Be able to devise methods that help you induce/maintain/enhance students’ motivation.
• 2. Be able to design a class that lets students learn actively.
• 3. Experience active learning strategies and be able to use them.
• 4. Be able to describe a course that lets students learn actively in the form of a syllabus.
• 5. Be able to design an evaluation based on essential knowledge.
• 6. Be able to apply what you learned when conducting a lecture for microteaching sessions.
• 7. Be able to envision your career path and organize your daily activities and future prospects.

The objectives for DAY 1 were 1, 2, and 6 in the above list.

 

■DAY 1 Schedule

 

■Summary

• Preparation
• Participants worked on pre-assignments and prepared the following materials for the session: (1) a 6-min lecture for microteaching sessions, (2) class design, and (3) a text syllabus. Also, they posted a self-introduction in Google Classroom.

 

• DAY 1 (September 13th, 2023)
• [Introduction] (13:00–13:25)
• The session started at 13:00 by sharing goals and objectives, followed by a brief self-introduction of the instructors.

 

• [Microteaching Session: The 1st Trial] (13:25–15:45)
• Each participant conducted a lecture for microteaching sessions in two groups. They were reminded of the basic principles (such as “3Ks”) and how to take part in role-playing before delivering a lecture one by one, just like the regular UTokyo FFP classes as described as follows:
• STEP 1: A participant conducts a lecture as a lecturer. (6 min)
• STEP 2: The lecturer-participant receives feedback from the instructor while the other participants fill in the feedback sheets.
• STEP 3: Participants exchange feedback in a group to improve the lecture.

 

 

• [Break] (15:05–15:20)
• We asked participants beforehand if they could bring their local snacks. Thanks to all the participants, the snack area was filled with a variety of sweets. We offered coffee and tea. In addition, clips of the mascot of the course, Ital-kun, have been placed in the reference book space as giveaways.

 

• [Class Design] (16:00–17:15)
• The lecturer gave a lecture on class design. Participants worked on an activity to revise their class design sheets.

 

• [Motivation] (19:00–20:10)
• The lecturer gave a lecture on motivation. In the activity “Let’s give advice to a professor,” participants discussed in groups what kind of advice they should give to an instructor about his/her concern. Also, in the activity “Refining lectures for microteaching sessions”, they worked on revising their lectures by applying what they had learned in the session.

 

• [Wrap-up] (20:10–20:20)
• Participants reflected on the goals and objectives of DAY 1 and individually organized what they had learned and their thoughts.

 

Starting with a microteaching session, participants had a busy schedule on DAY 1 with lectures and activities, but they all stayed focused and eagerly worked on every task.

• Click here for the details of DAY 2.
• (Click here for the details of DAY 3.)

 

Airi Kawakami (Project Academic Specialist in charge of “Interactive Teaching”)