It has already been about a week since April began. Just when it seemed like COVID-19 was settling down, variants have started spreading, and the number of infections is increasing rapidly. While Fukuoka seems to be relatively stable for now, Tokyo and the Kansai region are seeing significant increases, which is quite concerning. With the understanding that our university could shift to online classes at any moment given the situation in Fukuoka, we are currently proceeding primarily with in-person classes while taking thorough infection prevention measures. Classes will finally begin next week.
Our seminars have also finally started. I suppose in-person seminars are better after all. There was a bright atmosphere, with the students looking a bit happy, or perhaps relieved. We have accepted one new international research student this year, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they have not been able to obtain a visa to travel here, so they are participating in the seminars remotely. We started the morning with an English seminar, where we read and discuss English research papers. In the afternoon, we held our research seminar, where we continued our round-table reading of the Cambridge Handbook of Cognition in Education. The second half was dedicated to research presentations, but for the first session, I always talk about our seminar management policy, research mindset, trends in Learning Analytics research, and information on academic societies and international conferences that Yamada Laboratory aims to contribute to. This is something Professor Akahori used to do at the beginning of each year when I was a student in the Akahori Laboratory at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, in the form of a spiritual pep talk. It always helped me focus and feel motivated to do my best, so I am humbly imitating him (laughs). Since the research seminar is held every two weeks, the next session will be the real start.
After that, we hold statistics seminars and cognitive psychology seminars. In the statistics seminar, we read foundational literature on statistics while also working with and analyzing actual data. I believe the most effective way to learn is to work with one’s own research data. It increases authenticity, doesn’t it? Even if the N is small, since it is for practice, I aim for a seminar where students try various analyses and think about what can be seen and what can be inferred from them. The cognitive psychology seminar is for learning the basic principles and theories regarding “understanding.” These are quite important foundational knowledge and theories that should not be neglected. Since this is something that cannot be fully covered in regular classes, we have structured it as an autonomous learning format within the seminar. On days when we have research seminars, it really is seminars all day long (laughs). However, this truly builds research capability. It is tough until you get used to it. According to my students, there is a rumor that the seminars at Yamada Laboratory are quite strict (laughs). Yes, I suppose they are strict… but they are designed to help students acquire the fundamental knowledge and skills to thoroughly advance their research, which will definitely be useful when they enter society. It is strict and difficult, but I want to continue conducting these seminars properly.
This fiscal year is the final year of my AIP acceleration research, and my representative research project is also entering its third year. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, I want to do my best to steadily advance our research and achieve good results.
