University Education Reform by Employing Gaming-Simulation: Case Study at Akita University in Japan

Transcription

1 University Education Reform by Employing Gaming-Simulation: Case Study at Akita University in Japan Akita University Special Committee for Good Practice Scheme Masami IDO(Chair),Shintaro HAYASHI,Masako SASAKI, Yoshio HAYASHI et al. 1. What is missing in Japanese university education In university education in Japan, many classes are likely to be conducted in a form of lecture transmitting content knowledge from a teacher to students in one way direction. This type of class does not allow teachers and their students to learn from each other through the processes of sharing their knowledge and experiences and creating knowledge by suggesting ideas and discussing. Nowadays the word Ji atama ryoku 1 in Japanese, which indicates such abilities as creative thinking and raw intelligence, has been getting used quite often in business education in Japan. In other words, creativity, adaptability, and emergence are required of employees. Without reflection about and reconstruction of university education methods, university will not be capable of educating students to be furnished with social practical abilities 2 that will enable them to be adaptive to social change, create knowledge for society, and reform society in a better way. In light of these educational and social phenomena, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) inaugurated in 2003 Distinct University Education Assistance Program (Distinct Good Practice (DGP)), where the Ministry encouraged universities across the country to apply their curriculum and course improvement plans and distributed funds to selected universities through assessment. Akita University was selected as one of the universities for the 2006 DGP with a project entitled Reconstruction of University Education by Gaming Simulation: Experiential Learning Project for Social Practical Abilitiesʺ(from 2006 to 2008) and has been developing the - 1 -

2 university educational reform project incorporating gaming simulation 3. In other words, the project is an undergraduate program that aims to achieve a unified learning of knowledge and action by introducing into class experiential learning feasible in a classroom or on campus, such as simulation, role play, games, and so forth. This type of class was named Gaming Simulation Class, which was intended to foster students positive attitudes to understand and solve social issues or problems and equip them with social practical abilities. Without the unified learning with knowledge and action combined such as taking an action based on knowledge or understanding through an action or practice, students would not be able to develop their social practical abilities. For instance, the students who have not ridden on a wheelchair utterly change their view after participating in a class where they experience moving around in a wheelchair or assist a wheel chaired person. They understand through action how hard it is for a wheel chaired person to overcome obstacles such as badly parked bicycles, drops in road level, fixed desks and chairs in a classroom. This is an understanding through experience, different from an understanding only in a brain. Some students become painfully aware of this problem and actually try to solve it, which proves the effectiveness of experience or practice. This unified learning can be implemented by reforming a traditional university learning style and its content and relationships between a teacher and students or among students. 2. Features of the present project The previous project Field Internship Class, which was adopted as Distinct Good Practice from 2003 to 2006, attempted to develop students initiative and zest for living (Ikiru chikara) in relations between lecture styled learning and hands on learning with emphasis on experience and exchange. Following the project, the present project plans to conduct experiential learning in a classroom with the method of gaming simulation at its core and aims to improve classes for university education. As Gaming simulation is able to provide an educational content and an educational method that meet modern needs of - 2 -

3 solving social issues and problems such as disaster and crime prevention and municipal amalgamation and of improving abilities such as communication ability, cross cultural understanding, and negotiation skills. The following three features of the present project are worth noticing. 1 Teaching improvement by systematization of experiential learning activities As contrasted to classroom lecture, experiential learning was defined as learning activities such as real experience, imitating learning, vicarious experience, make believe play, dramatization, simulation, survey, observation, experiment, production, presentation, discussion. However, the differences, associations, and characteristics in these learning activities and the terms have not been clear. In the present project, we have organized and systematized these experiential learning activities from the viewpoints of experience content, the way of involvement in the object of learning, and the object, place, and means of experience (see Figure 1.) 4 This systematization enables us to understand characteristics of each of the experiential learning activities, make a suitable use of those varied learning activities according to the occasions, and enhance educational effect. In Figure 1, the field internship style class that has been worked on in our university is in the category of A with Figure 1. Systematization of emphasis on hands on experience. The Experiential Learning Activities category A, including actual experience, firsthand experience, field research, provides learners with a chance to interact with people and use resources in the field site (learner 1) and observe it (learner 2). Due to various constrains, however, we cannot conduct this field internship class, which is not all we have to do

4 The gaming simulation class in the present project focuses on experience in the categories B, C, and D. The category B refers to experiential learning with a guest teacher invited or real objects brought in a classroom. The category C is experiential learning through modeling, such as drama, simulation, and role play, what we call virtual or simulated experience. The category D includes experiential learning by the use of a medium like the Internet or TV conferencing system, where learners can communicate with people in a distant place or interact with many different people. Through experiential learning at these learning places referred to by the categories B, C, and D in gaming simulation class, the learners are able to unify knowledge and action and develop their social practical abilities. 2 Construction of class coordinating multiple academic fields Team teaching (TT) has been promoted in Japan, mainly in elementary and secondary education. This is an attempt to enhance educational content by teaching material development and class implementation by more than one teacher and conduct meticulous and individually targeted educational guidance. This educational effect by TT is also expected in higher education and its advantages can be employed in the gaming simulation class. For example, Gaming simulation: municipal amalgamation 5, which is a teaching material that gets university students and school children to think about the problem of municipal amalgamation spontaneously, was produced by a teacher of social studies education with a support from a teacher of administrative law and complemented by a learning meeting with a self governing body staff member as a guest speaker. This is a good example that shows this sort of teaching material cannot be developed by a teacher alone. In this gaming simulation, some learners take a role of a self governing body staff member and others take a role of its citizens. The place in the gaming simulation is an actual one and the learners discuss whether or not their place should be merged based on its map or data. By taking an actual role, the learners think of the problem as their own and have a spontaneous and exploratory work about it. As various roles are set - 4 -

5 up, the learners can consider the municipal amalgamation from different perspectives. Other teachers in this project work on constructing a server for a gaming simulation to protect residents from a disaster caused by a volcanic eruption. They are a team of a teacher of social studies education, a teacher of volcanology, and a teacher of information science and cooperate to construct it with special knowledge of each academic field 6. In addition to this, the students are offered professional knowledge from an expert of the field site of a volcanic eruption. This sort of academic coordination provides teachers with a learning system where they share their special knowledge, which promotes their self development and class improvement. 3 Construction of class system through mutual learning and self correction Gaming simulation presumes interaction among teachers and students. Hence, it changes a formal type of class which is generally seen in Japanese university such as a one way teacher centered class or a question and answer class. The students in a gaming simulation class learn through experiential interaction. For instance, Bafa Bafa 7, a game for intercultural understanding, has students divided into two different societies called α and β, learn the rules of the society they belong to, and interact with the other society. The society α is patriarchal and makes much account of interpersonal relations while the societyβ is a gender equal market society and seeks profits. Accordingly, quite a few students experience conflict and culture shock. In a subsequent discussion, the students quite often reveal negative impressions of the other society. Gradually, however, the students notice their ethnocentrism and are able to think about a desirable intercultural exchange in the real society. Sharing experiences, the students have an opportunity to check their experience against expertise

6 Since teachers are facilitators rather than teaching a certain content, they themselves learn quite a few times from what learners noti ced and spoke in the subsequent discussion. The learners also make suggestions about teaching materials or class itself, which leads to self correcting Figure 2. Self Correcting Class Construction System class construction and teachers self reflective attitude. The summary of 1 and 2 is seen in Figure Annual plans of the project The project carries out the annual plan of 2008, which is the last project year. Lastly, we will introduce the annual plan of the project and review the plan for this year. We are going to accept applications from faculty members on gaming simulation class as we did last year, promote research practice, and continue to improve class. More teaching materials using gaming simulation are going to be created by involving students in projects designed by teachers, so that the method of gaming simulation will be prevalent among students as well as teachers. In October, 2008, citizen judge mock trial by three elements of the judicial community and students will be held at Akita municipal court, bringing in view the citizen judge system that will commence for a criminal case on May 21st, 2009 (this citizen judge system is similar to a citizen participation system, but general citizens are selected as citizen judges in each case in this system). The project activities over the past two and a half years will conclude by holding Gaming simulation Symposium and Experience Session and some other conferences. The present project of reconstruction of university education by gaming simulation is going to be presented not only at international conferences like this but also disseminated to the world in different - 6 -

7 forms such as research reports, books, academic papers, and web pages or through the mass media in order to advocate the educational significance of gaming simulation 8. Figure 3. Annual plans of the project Academic yea r 2006 To establish t he foundation for the projec t Academic yea r 2007 To promote a nd improve o n the project Academic yea r 2008 To present th e results of th e project and to explore fur ther develop ments To hold a moot court under the newly established jury system wit h professionals in the three legal fields (i.e., lawyers, judges and public prosecutors) and students To develop teaching materials and to conduct actual teaching on t he basis of the project s gaming simulation plans offered by the general public in competition To publicize the project s activities by putting them on the websi te and making a report on them To develop teaching materials and to conduct actual teaching on t he basis of the project s gaming simulation plans offered by the general public in competition To hold a students competition in the technique of gamingsimulation To host the 2007 Workshop Forum on Distinctive Good Practice (T okushoku GP) and the 2007 Autumn Conference for JASAG (Japan Association of Simulation and Gaming) To publish a journal of selected practices entitled The world of g aming simulations To visit overseas countries to observe gaming simulations abroad To publicize the project s activities on the website and to publis h a report on them To call for proposals on plans for teaching gaming simulation ty pe of classes and to present the results To present openly both at home and abroad the results of studies on and practices in the teaching of gaming simulation type of clas ses To hold a moot court under the new jury system with legal profes sionals in the three fields (i.e., lawyers, judges and public prosec utors) and students To hold a symposium and workshop sessions on Distinctive GP( Good Practice) s gaming simulations To present the project s activities on the website and to publish a report on them Notes 1. It is featured not only in business magazines and books but in the April 3rd, 2008 NHK TV program Close up Gendai : How do you move Mt. Fuji? : Era of Ji atama ryoku. 2. We define social practical abilities as the abilities to activate knowledge and skills, cooperate with others, and to act for self realization and a better society. 3. The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and - 7 -

8 Technology (MEXT) accepted applications nationwide from university and college undergraduate courses with the purpose of promoting educational reform under three sub program categories: project to improve an educational curriculum, project to improve an educational method, and project to improve the other educational elements. In 2006, 48 projects were selected among 331 applications. The Akita University project was adopted one of the projects to improve an educational method. 4. See Ido, M. (2002). Design of learning theory using role play in social studies. NSK Publishing Company. 5. See Ido, M. (2004). Development and Practice of Gaming simulation Municipal Amalgamation: A Case Study at Akita Prefectural General Education Center. Gaming simulation and Gaming, 14 1, Shintaro Hayashi, one of the project members, developed evacuation games for volcanic eruption modeled after Mt. Pinatubo, Libra and Libra 2. See its URL: 7. Shirts.R.G. (1977). Bafa Bafa. Del Mar CA: Simile Ⅱ. 8. Listed below are results of the project: 1 Special Committee for Good Practice Scheme, Faculty of Education, Akita University. (2007). Report: citizen judge mock trial by three elements of the judicial community and students. Akita University. 2 Special Committee for Good Practice Scheme, Faculty of Education, Akita University. (2008). Akita University Distinct University Education Assistance Program Reconstruction of university education by gaming simulation: experiential learning project for social practical abilities 2008 report. Akita University. 3 Special Committee for Good Practice Scheme, Faculty of Education, Akita University. (2008). The world of gaming simulation: creation of experiential learning for social practical abilities. Akita University. 4 Ido, M. (2008). Gaming simulation teaching material: development and practice of the earth summit (grant in aid for scientific research (C) ). 5 URL of Special Committee for Good Practice Scheme, Faculty of Education, Akita University. u.ac.jp/ - 8 -

9 Our other members : Hiroshi IZUMI, Manabu SHIMASAWA, Ryohei TAKAMURA Emiko TAKENOUCHI, Kanji HIMENO, Kazue MOCHIZUKI - 9 -