NEWS

On Monday, February 8, 2016, Professor MIZOKAMI Shinichi from Center for the Promotion of Excellence in Higher Education, Kyoto University came to APU to give a lecture entitled “Active Learning and Deep Learning.” APU has adopted active learning in an effort to provide opportunities for students growth that take full advantage of the university’s multicultural environment. This lecture was organized by the Education Development and Learning Support Center (EDLSC) as part of its faculty development efforts.

To begin the lecture, Professor MIZOKAMI asked participants sitting next to each other to introduce themselves and ask each other simple questions. This is a device he uses in his own classes to facilitate group work by having students in teams get to know each other first.

He explained that active learning is “active” in the sense of overcoming passive learning, such as listening to a one-way lecture. He said that active learning involves a range of activities, including writing, speaking, thinking, and presenting, which help deepen students’ understanding when combined with conventional lectures. He also had the participants use clickers, which are frequently used in foreign universities to obtain student responses to surveys in real time, and discussed how these can be used to encourage participation in class.

Finally, he discussed deep learning, a learning style where students deepen their understanding by relating their ideas to existing knowledge and experiences, and its importance in improving the quality of learning.

After the lecture, the participants asked several detailed questions, such as how to incorporate active learning into math subjects, and talked about how they would like to use what they learned today to improve their own lectures.