“5 th Inquiry-Type Learning Study Forum” was held to showcase various student activities based on the “autonomous self-study” educational philosophy of Tamagawa Gakuen.
Approximately 150 people who were interested in Tamagawa Gakuen ‘s activities attended. These included people such as teachers, college students and people related to education in Japan. They came from all over the country to this forum which had the theme of “Active Learning in the Global Age”.
“Super Global High School“ develops students to have global leadership skills. “Super Science High School” promotes advanced science education. “Skills of learning” cultivates skills in critical thinking and expression. Tamagawa presented the results of these programs in a variety of contents including poster sessions, open classes, lectures and practical reports, workshops and tours.
In the poster session held in the morning, students who participated in African Studies and European Studies programs and students who studied international problems gave presentations.
They gave presentations to the people who gathered and displayed the materials they created which summarized the research results. They attracted a lot of attention and received many questions and advice from the visitors.
In an open class, the “Model United Nations” was conducted, simulating a United Nations Conference.
With the theme of “Elimination of Child Labor”, students discussed the goal of “permanently eliminating child labor from the carpet industry”.
They divided into five groups mixing students representing developing countries and students representing developed countries. They explored possible solutions with the focus on “how to create a win-win plan for each country”.
The students were a bit nervous when it started as about 50 visitors watched the groups. They immediately concentrated on the discussion and actively started, however.
“Send engineers in developed countries to teach technological skills in developing countries. By doing this, I believe developing countries will be more productive and that will eventually be better for developed countries”
“What about making a logo saying “This is child labor free” Like with a fair trade symbol, a company in an advanced country can align themselves in a way that contributes to society.”
Every group came up with ideas in a short time that would benefit developed countries and developing countries. The visitors were interested in the diversity of their viewpoints, flexibility, consultation, and negotiation skills.
In the afternoon, lectures and reports were held.
The theme was “statistics”, considering the current educational flow which requires students to express their problems and solutions numerically and objectively when practicing active learning.
The keynote lecture was on “The Application of Problem Solving and Statistics” by Mr. Atsushi Nagao of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Primary and Secondary Education Bureau.
“Grasping the trends of events based on data and making appropriate judgements, this will develop an autonomous attitude towards learning.”
While introducing various materials such as the course of study guidance, he explained the importance and educational significance of utilizing “statistics” for problem solving.
The next speaker was Michiko Watanabe, a professor at Keio University Graduate School, who specializes in statistical science.
“When there is a problem, I create an ideal image of a situation. At the same time, I try to understand what the reality is and clarify the gap between the ideal situation and reality. The “difference” you see at that time is an issue to be solved. In statistics, we make this into a number. ”
While showing examples of statistics used by elementary school students in Japan and views on overseas statistics, she introduced a method of solving problems using statistics.
Finally, a practical report was given by Yuki Ishii of Kanonji Dai-Ichi High School in Kagawa. He is a teacher who received a prize from the Japan Statistical Society for statistical education.
Mr. Ishii introduced statistics learning in mathematics class, and two students from his class won the statistic graph competition this year. From that experience, he talked about the outcomes of the lessons using statistics and the merits and demerits of its introduction.
At the subcommittee after the lecture, a workshop was held by Mr. Yoshifumi Goto of Tamagawa Gakuen who is in charge of the Model United Nations aspect of SGH.
After speaking on the outline of the Model United Nations and how to teach negotiation to students, participants experienced a real example of the Model United Nations.
The negotiation method practiced at Tamagawa Gakuen is not to bargain to win or lose, but to create mutual benefit. As a result, students are encouraged to abandon fixed ideas and preconceptions through negotiation and develop creative ideas.
Participants who observed the open classes of the Model United Nations held in the morning, realized the effect of such learning methods and broadened their understanding by actually experiencing it themselves.
“I was inspired by the advanced active learning activities.”
“I felt that students were more involved than last year’s research group and that they are growing every year.”
These were some examples of the comments the reception at the close of the day.
Each participant received some meaningful information from the experience and they were full of energy to continue improving the education system.
Since its foundation in 1929, the spirit of “Jigaku-Jiritsu (Self Study, Autonomy)” has been a key principle of Tamagawa Gakuen and it is shown in the form of active learning. Along with this spirit, this event displayed the advanced efforts of Tamagawa Gakuen which continue to evolve.
【Lecturer Profile】
Atsushi Nagao
He graduated from the Mathematics Department of Hiroshima University in 1977. After working as a teacher at Hiroshima Prefectural High School, Hiroshima University’s Middle and High school, he became a curriculum researcher at the National Education Policy Research Institute Curriculum Research Center in 2001. Since 2011, he has been working at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Primary and Secondary Education Bureau. His research field is pedagogy and subjective pedagogy.
Michiko Watanabe
Received a Doctorate in Science from Kyushu University in 1986. After working as associate Professor of Economics at Kansai University and Professor of Economics at Toyo University, etc., she is now a Professor at Keio University Graduate School since 2012. Visiting Professor of the Open University of Japan, Director of the Statistics Center, Independent Administrative Institution. In 2012, received the 17th Japan Statistical Society Award.
Hiroyuki Ishii
After graduating from the Faculty of Science in Shizuoka University, he became a teacher at Kagawa Prefectural Sakaide Industrial High School in 1984. He worked for a variety of high schools in Kagawa prefecture afterwards and then became a teacher at Kagawa Prefecture’s Kanonji Daiichi High School in 2006. In the year 2016, he received the 12th Japan Statistical Society Statistics Education Award.