This academic year marks the start of the Liberal Arts and Sciences Education. The first semester has finally come to an end. Phew, it was a long one… As mentioned at the Liberal Arts and Sciences Education Kick-off Symposium held on May 24th, the Liberal Arts and Sciences Seminar and the Collaborative Learning for Challenges have been added as new compulsory courses for first-year students and are now underway. For first-year students, classes are scheduled so that they finish by the 4th period, with no 5th period classes except for the weekly Liberal Arts and Sciences Seminar, allowing time for preparation and review.

The Liberal Arts and Sciences Seminar is conducted in classes of about 23 students, with groups composed of students from various faculties. It is offered with the purpose of “thinking about what university learning is.” For students who have spent their elementary, junior high, and high school years focused on knowledge-acquisition learning, the goal is to change their perspective on learning and have them think about what they want to do and what they aim to achieve through discussions with peers and self-reflection. They then present the results of this process. Additionally, every week, students write about what happened during the week and their thoughts on that day’s seminar, and instructors provide written feedback every week.

Collaborative Learning for Challenges courses are designed to learn about a single theme from various research fields and to acquire an interdisciplinary perspective. Basically, they are conducted in sets of mini-lectures, group work, and presentations. Two consecutive class periods are assigned to one theme, with three instructors involved. Each instructor is responsible for four weeks (eight class periods). In the group I coordinated, we focused on the theme of “Formation of Society and Sharing of Values,” consisting of three sub-themes: Historical Materials as Information – “Japan” Society from a Historical Perspective (History), Designing a New Society with Social Media (Design), and Future Talent Creating “Society” – Thinking about Human Resource Development to Support the Coming Era (Educational Technology).

We have been conducting trial classes and designing the curriculum since last year, and various pros and cons have emerged. As this year and next year are in the formative evaluation stage, I believe the courses will be redesigned.

As for my impressions from the first semester:
・The content of the courses is highly significant, but it might be difficult for first-year students to grasp that significance (they may only be able to understand the significance and effectiveness of these courses in the second semester of their second year or in their third year).

The seminar, in particular, is at the level of training taken by employees who have been with a company for about three years, so it is certainly of great value (as someone who actually worked in a company, I can say that for sure!). In the corporate world, this kind of seminar is worth hundreds of thousands or even a million yen. Instructors are required to have the skills to convey that value in a way that first-year students can understand. I tried to make it understandable by citing concrete examples, such as my experiences from my time in the corporate world (though I’m not sure if it got through (laughs)). I think the discussion themes are a bit difficult, so I would like to prepare several themes for next year so that students can choose.

・It might be good to have them experience diverse communication styles.

Basically, presentations and discussions are incorporated as communication formats, but it might be good to also incorporate discussions and debates. Regarding discussions, I used to have students form groups of several people for a single theme, conduct research, and then discuss the theme with people outside their group when I was at Kanazawa University, and this was very effective. It involves collaborating within the group and engaging in cognitive learning activities outside the group. I thought it was good because it allows students to learn how to use different communication formats, how to divide labor within a group, and how to use tools that fit those learning activities, without placing too much emphasis on content understanding.

I would like to make use of the reflections from the first semester to improve the classes and make them even better. The seminar is only for the first semester, but there will be Collaborative Learning for Challenges again in the second semester. I will do my best. Also, regarding the balance with research. Since the first semester involved getting used to things, I held back a bit on research activities, but I realized more than ever that I need to be more proactive in my research. Both the seminar and the Collaborative Learning for Challenges are content-based, and if the content is not substantial, students will lose interest. A 50/50 balance between education and research is just right.