This study investigates junior high school students' perspectives on improving manufactured products and their perceptions as users after participating in materials processing technology learning in Japan. Guided by recent changes in Japanese curriculum guidelines emphasizing real-world application, we conducted a web-based survey collecting 721…

In Japan, calls for students to become global human resources (GHR) has placed pressure on universities to internationalise. Traditionally, Japanese universities have relied on student mobility to foster GHR, but a decline in mobility numbers has highlighted the need for educators and administrators to consider how an intercultural mindset can be…

The current research explores the transformative potential of Design Thinking (DT) pedagogy in Higher Sustainability Education (HSE) in a hybrid (mix of online and face-to-face) setting. The case study examined a Field Exercise in Sustainability Science (FESS) course, using DT pedagogy, in a HSE program at a university in Japan. The critical…

The use of four-skills language exams to support the achievement of curriculum goals in Japan is an under-researched yet critical topic. This study focuses on washback from the Cambridge B1 Preliminary and B2 First exams, which were used as fixed-point tests at a senior high school. A mixed-methods approach was adopted, utilizing data from…

Despite the needs for the facilitation for multicultural group work (MCGW) in classrooms in internationalized higher education, research on teaching assistants' (TAs) potential to facilitate MCGW has been lacked. This mixed-method study examined how a course design for activating MCGW, which strategically engaged TAs, influenced the social…

Background: Countries around the world have struggled to implement education policies and practices to encourage more female youths to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). This has resulted in a persistent and sizeable gender gap in science and mathematics subjects in some countries. Using mixed-methods sequential…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the first experiences (activities, attitudes and inclinations) of an undergraduate student team with eco-design activities. Design/methodology/approach: Undergraduate students of an industrial design course were invited to participate in the design project. The activities of students…

Design thinking (DT) could provide a viable method to develop 21st-century skills in English as Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms; however, its potential is not clearly understood. To explore this potential, two Japanese university teachers developed a DT course in which students built a creativity measure and wrote academic reflections. Student…

This study aims to find out how students prepared for a flipped classroom and to examine what type of instruction could effectively guide students to do pre-class preparation. We conducted case studies for over two years in a physiology class at a Japanese university. In a survey performed in 2017, students were asked to participate in a…

The Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) is an international, non-profit educational organization. The Association's purpose is to advance the knowledge, theory, and quality of teaching and learning at all levels with information technology. The "EdMedia + Innovate Learning" conference took place in New York,…

This paper reports on how an undergraduate global leadership course was designed and implemented at a Japanese mid-sized private university to match the Japanese government's initiative of fostering global individuals through education. By incorporating a flipped learning approach (Bergmann & Sam, 2012) and the content materials from a Massive…

This study explores the role of an online pre-sessional program in preparing students to matriculate into an English-medium bachelor's program at a Japanese university. The study covers two program sessions, the first of which consisted primarily of international students, and the second comprised mainly of graduates of Japanese high schools. To…

This report describes a workshop on the Dynamics of Machinery based on the fabrication of a gyro- bicycle in a summer school program for junior high school students. The workshop was conducted by engineering students who had completed "Creative Research", an engineering design course at the National Institute of Technology, Okinawa…

This chapter reports the challenges that both the students and the teachers experienced in a telecollaborative project between a Japanese university and an American university. In this semester-long project, the students in groups of three to five from both universities worked collectively mainly asynchronously and in occasional synchronous…

In research on task-based learning and teaching, it has traditionally been assumed that differing degrees of cognitive task complexity can be inferred through task design and/or observations of differing qualities in linguistic production elicited by second language (L2) communication tasks. Without validating this assumption, however, it is…