News

The following is a brief summary of DAY 3 of the Real Session held on July 30th (Wed), 2025.

• ■Objectives for DAY 3
• ●Be able to apply what you learned when conducting a lecture for microteaching sessions.
• ●Be able to envision your career path and organize your daily activities and future prospects.

■DAY 3 Schedule

• [Microteaching Session: Final] (9:40–12:40)
• Participants conducted refined lectures for the microteaching session. They delivered lectures one by one, just like the first trial on DAY 1, but 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: Whole participants exchange feedback.

• [AP/TP Chart Creation] (13:30–17:00)
• Participants were divided into two groups according to their needs and respectively created a chart: an AP chart (Instructor: Kurita) or a TP chart (Instructor: Nabeta). 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] (17:00–17:10)
• Participants reflected on the entire session and individually organized what they had learned and their thoughts.

• [Award of Certificate of Completion] (17:10–17:30)
• The certificates of completion were awarded to participants.

• ■Participants’ Reactions
• Seven 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”), seven respondents (87.5%) rated “5” (the highest). Furthermore, again all the respondents (100%) rated “5” (the highest) 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?

“I appreciated that the program was designed to help us systematically understand knowledge. By giving microteaching lessons at both the beginning and the end, I was able to incorporate what I had learned and improve my teaching. It was also inspiring to see how other participants’ lessons changed over time. I had the chance to learn through active learning myself, which let me experience how it feels from the learner’s perspective. Working on improving my syllabus and creating a TP chart made me reflect on my own philosophy, objectives, and goals, and also think about the foundations of my teaching. Although I wasn’t able to complete everything, I felt motivated to continue learning and to apply these ideas myself. The lunch was delicious. The instructors worked very well together, creating a positive atmosphere for the whole program, and a group of people who genuinely wanted to learn had gathered.”

“Learning face-to-face made me realize the uncertainty and limitations of my own efforts with Coursera. By relearning directly with the instructors, I was able to think more deeply and practically. I also greatly appreciated receiving insights and perspectives from many different teachers.”

“All of the participants were very dedicated to teaching, and even though we came from different fields, I received constructive feedback and had meaningful discussions. Through creating the TP, I was able to make my inner thoughts and feelings about teaching more visible.”

●Other remarks and comments

“It was three days full of learning, including wonderful interactions with other participants. I would like to put what I gained here into practice in my university lectures and also share it with my colleagues. I am deeply grateful to Kurita-sensei, Nabeta-sensei, Park-sensei, and Kawakami-sensei for all that I learned from you during these three days. I look forward to your continued guidance and support.” 

“My impression is that the three days flew by in no time. It truly turned out to be a very fulfilling summer learning experience. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone involved. I plan to make use of what I learned in this session to review and improve my own work during August.”

“When I first heard it would be three days, I thought it would be very long. But once it started, it turned out to be three intense days that passed in the blink of an eye. I realized how little I usually think through my lectures, and while reflecting on that, I was able to spend the time positively. Thank you very much for everything—from the preparations and the lectures to the lunches and the wonderful keychains. I want to rethink further about many things and raise the level of my lectures.”

“It was incredibly enjoyable. I was truly able to spend such a precious time. I believe this will become a very significant experience in my life. This opportunity has inspired me to study even more. Thank you very much.”

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?
• It was the fourth time to hold the Real Session as an event of Coursera “Interactive Teaching.” The responses to our questionnaire show that many of the participants learned a lot from the Real Session. Although there were some inconveniences, we were able to successfully complete the event thanks to the understanding and cooperation of all those who attended. We are eager to develop/run events based on the feedback. We are going to organize various education-/FD-events, so 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/
• Coursera “Learn How to Teach by 6 Min. Micro Teaching” https://www.coursera.org/learn/6min-micro-teaching

• 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”)