News

“Interactive Teaching” Flipped Classroom Style Workshop Part 1 “Designing a 90-min Class” was held on Saturday, June 17th. Here is the summary and a preview of our next event.

1. Topic, Goal, and Objectives
The topic of the event was “Designing a 90-min Class.” Based on the goal, “Be able to design a class that helps students deepen their learning,” we set specific learning objectives as follows:

① Be able to explain the significance and tips of class design. (Preparation)
② Be able to improve a class by using a class design sheet (a format for class design introduced in “Interactive Teaching”). (Workshop)

2. Summary of the Workshop
This workshop was conducted in a flipped-classroom manner, and participants worked on assignments beforehand. We also provided them with the “Metacognitive Reflection” as an opportunity to reflect on the design of the workshop itself.

(1) Preparation
All participants were asked to watch the videos for WEEK 4 of “Interactive Teaching” and read Chapter 4 of the book “Interactive Teaching” (Kawai Publishing, 2017). Also, some participants voluntarily created and submitted their class design sheets.

(2) Session (15:00–17:15)
Participants reviewed and organized what they had learned in the preparation in pairs, followed by a group activity (i.e., poster tour) to examine what was good about the sample class design sheet and what points needed improvement. This exercise was intended to help the participants apply what they had learned during the preparation and the reviewing session.

(3) Metacognitive Reflection (17:40–18:50)
Participants shared their thoughts on the design of preparation and the session, and the organizers revealed their intention of the design along the timeline. We together found out what points worked as planned, what points still needed improvement, and how they can be improved through this process.

3. Participants’ Reactions
The workshop was mainly intended for young faculties, postdocs, and graduate students; there were 21 participants in total coming from various universities. According to the five-point scale question asking the degree of satisfaction, 71 percent of the respondents were “very satisfied” (the highest rating) and 29 percent were “satisfied” (the second highest rating). We are relieved that our new event was appreciated to a certain extent. We are eager to improve our events to satisfy future participants by examining the points we need to improve as indicated in the metacognitive reflection and feedback.

4. Preview of the Next Program
We are planning to hold another event on “Designing a 90-min Class” in September. Details are to be announced. We look forward to your participation.