Talk in Batam
1. Before the talk
After I got Batam Island, Indonesia. I visited UIB, Universitas Internasional Batam at that afternoon. I presented what I did at uni. Prior to the talk, I met vice rectors. They gave me interesting topics about difference among students' behaviours from different countries. Japanese are rather serious and many are apt to speak nicely. Grammatical errors are not preferable in their talking. They are also shy but diligent. One of the rectors also mentioned that one student would like to join the international programme again. Then I got one thing to raise an issue later on.
2. Presentation
3. Why AL is needed?
In Japan, active learning (AL) is encouraged. One main reason is a paradigm shift for education. Traditionally lecturers give lectures in classrooms. Communications are made in one way, i.e. from a lecturer to learners. Learners are rather passive. However, communications are made in several ways in AL. Lecturers become facilitators. Learners need to be more active. Project or problem based learning (PBL) can be practiced in group works.
After I got Batam Island, Indonesia. I visited UIB, Universitas Internasional Batam at that afternoon. I presented what I did at uni. Prior to the talk, I met vice rectors. They gave me interesting topics about difference among students' behaviours from different countries. Japanese are rather serious and many are apt to speak nicely. Grammatical errors are not preferable in their talking. They are also shy but diligent. One of the rectors also mentioned that one student would like to join the international programme again. Then I got one thing to raise an issue later on.
2. Presentation
After talking to them for a while, I moved to the venue. Around 20 staff were waiting. I started presenting. I also told them to interrupt me if they had questions. After self-introduction, I started talking. Initially the participants showed interests in missions of women's universities. In Southeast Asia, there is no women's university, I reckon. participants assumed that Japan is a developed country and wonder the necessity of women's universities in Japan. Some of women's universities in Japan used to have mission to educate students as good wives and wise mothers. However, the Japanese government encourages more women to work outside their homes. It is necessary to explain socio-economic changes in the past 20 year. One of examples was that ageing society give huge impacts on roles of family members. In addition, technological development makes unpredictable in the future. Missions of women's universities have changed in the past few decades. Thus the mottos at KWU are Independence, Communications and Creativity.
3. Why AL is needed?
In Japan, active learning (AL) is encouraged. One main reason is a paradigm shift for education. Traditionally lecturers give lectures in classrooms. Communications are made in one way, i.e. from a lecturer to learners. Learners are rather passive. However, communications are made in several ways in AL. Lecturers become facilitators. Learners need to be more active. Project or problem based learning (PBL) can be practiced in group works.
PBL is one of AL methodologies. I explained course structures. Many participants understood what PBL was like. One gave me one question about evaluation. Then my answer was to make use of rubric. As an example, I showed rubric for UIB Island camp. Last year I got information about the camp. Based on the brochure, I constructed logic model and accordingly rubric. It was not complete, I did not know what programmes are implemented, but roughly I created it. It must be easier to understand rubric from empirical examples. Objectives of UIB Island Camp is accelerate international exchange with students from different countries. A participant also mentioned that they could create rubric from particular activities. Prior to the activities, students need to understand target goal from rubric.
4. Difficulties in adjustment
In my past experiences, it is not easy to copy things from country A to country B. Many things in foreign countries are different from in Japan. If a thing is copied to country A from Japan, some surrounding it can go wrong or not match. In this sense, PBL cannot be practiced in the same approach in Indonesia if they copy from Japan. Modification or customisation is more important. there can be different approach to fit the Indonesian context. So I reckon, it is significant to understand respective positions, like Japanese, International standard and Indonesian. So it is not easy to adjust for the Indonesian context. But I hope I have another chance to talk to keep this dialoge.
