(Kurita)Hello, everyone. (Students)Hello. (Kurita)This is “Interactive Teaching” WEEK 1. This week’s topic is “Let’s learn about Active Learning”. Today’s session is “Applying the methods of Active Learning”. The overall goal for this week is “to promote a better understanding of Active Learning". The specific objective for today is this third one: “Be able to explain how to apply Active Learning methods”. Here is the table of contents. We will cover “Shift to Active Learning” and the wrap-up. Let’s get into today’s topic. In the last session, we discussed that there are so many methods of Active Learning, from simple to complicated ones. However, Active Learning methods are more than those that have names. An Active Learning method does not have to be anything special. Your usual teaching methods or contents can be transformed into an Active Learning method with a bit of innovation. That is what I would like you to learn today. Here’s what I’m going to do. First, I am going to give you a one-way lecture. Then, I will show you a demonstration on the same topic. Then, we’ll proceed to hands-on learning. I would like you to feel the differences among these three methods. I also would like you to think about the Active Learning methods that lie between lectures and demonstration and hands-on learning. These are what we are going to do today. The topic is about dicing tofu (bean curd). The goal is to understand the characteristics of tofu as an ingredient, and to be able to cook it well. The specific objective is to be able to dice tofu. By the way, do you cook tofu daily? Not so many? A few. Then this would be a nice learning material for you. I think you all have a handout at hand. It’s a text explaining how to dice tofu. I would like to give a lecture on this text. Let me start. Please read the text and keep looking at it. First, the upper half. Dicing something involves cutting it into one-centimeter cubes. First, you place the tofu on your palm. Hold a kitchen knife flat and put two or three rifts into the tofu horizontally. Then, cut the tofu vertically in two directions at right angles, and then it’s done. It will be on the test next week, so memorize it. That was the one-way lecture. Next, I would like to show you the same topic in a demonstration. I’ll do it here, so come over here. First, dicing something, not only tofu, involves cutting it into one-centimeter cubes. These kinds of packed tofu or fine-grained tofu are so soft, so you often have to cut them on your palm. After putting it on your palm, carve it with a kitchen knife horizontally, not vertically. This is about one centimeter. Then cut the tofu vertically in two directions at right angles; either direction could be done first. Then, it’s done. Here’s the point you should watch out. I did it easily, but you must not pull the knife when cutting tofu. It will cut your hand, so be sure to cut the tofu in a way like you are placing the knife softly on your palm. This is the point you have to be careful with. Did you get it? OK. Next is hands-on learning. I think most of you are unfamiliar with cutting tofu. Would you like to give it a try? (Student)OK. (Kurita)Here’s another pack of tofu. OK, give it a try. (Student)Yes. (Kurita)You can refer to the handout. First, you put the tofu on your palm. Then, cut horizontally. You are so good! (Student)Thank you. (Kurita)Then, vertically at a right angle. (Student)Yes. (Kurita)OK, thank you. (Student)I’m done. (Kurita)Thank you. You’ve done it so well! I can’t believe that it was the first time for you to do it. This is how to dice tofu. That was hands-on learning. Next, there’s one more thing. I’d like you to experience teaching someone else. I showed this in a demonstration, and Hodrigo-san went through hands-on learning. Then, I would like you to learn about dicing tofu by teaching and showing someone else. How about you, Kaneko-san? Would you give it a try? Yes. Please come over here. You can refer to the handout. I’ll be one of the students, too. (Student)OK, I would like to explain how to dice tofu. Dicing tofu involves cutting it into one-centimeter cubes. First, put tofu on your palm. Then, hold the kitchen knife flat and cut the tofu horizontally. Next, cut the tofu vertically in two directions at right angles. When you do this, be careful not to pull the knife so as not to cut your hand. Place the knife straight on the palm slowly. Finished. (Kurita)Yes. Thank you. Please have a seat. You gave us caution while you were cutting, and I think that was very good. That is something that can’t be done when simply reading the text. How did you feel? Wasn’t it easier for you to acquire skills by teaching someone else, than when I was just explaining it to you? (Student)Yes, it was. (Kurita)Yes. How about you? Was it different from listening to the lecture? (Student)Yes, I felt that I could really do it. (Kurita)Yes. I think you should feel learning something better by doing and teaching, compared with only listening. Now, let’s get back to the slides. Please return to your seats. OK. We went through a one-way explanation, a demonstration, hands-on learning, and a student teaching other students regarding the topic of dicing tofu. I think the methods of actually cooking, demonstrating, and teaching someone else were more effective for acquiring skills compared with one-way explanation. Active Learning methods are situated between here (i.e. one-way explanation) and here (i.e. demonstration, hands-on learning, and teaching others.) The degree of acquisition becomes more effective in the order of lecture, demonstration, hands-on learning, and teaching someone else. This is called the learning pyramid, and I think you actually felt the difference through our short experiment. However, you don’t always have tofu with you, and you don’t always have the chance to stage a cutting demonstration, and to have your students to go through hands-on learning. In such cases, what kind of methods would you use instead of a one-way lecture? Think of it with the topic of dicing tofu. First, think by yourself, and after a few minutes, share your idea with the student next to you, and then tell the entire class. I’ll let you know in one minute. You seem to have come up with one or two ideas. Please share your ideas in pairs, or is in groups better? Then, discuss in groups. What kind of ideas did you come up with? Now it’s time for sharing your ideas to the class. What kind of Active Learning methods could be used in a scenario where you cannot use a demonstration or hands-on learning? Tell us your group’s most interesting idea. How about your group? (Student)Well, we’ve come up with the idea of first showing the definition of dicing, and also the condition that tofu is soft, and then having students discuss how to cut the tofu. (Kurita)So you don’t tell them how to cut. (Student)Cutting is shown later. First, you let the students figure out. I see. That’s interesting. Terrible ways of cutting may come up, and students can learn from it. Thank you. How about this group? (Student)My idea is to have students ask their mother in advance how to dice tofu. By preparing for the class and knowing the outline beforehand, students can smoothly learn an accurate method in the class. (Kurita)So you adopt the method of studying at home. Students will learn outside the class and then attend the class. It’s a kind of flipped classroom. Thank you for sharing a nice idea. Thank you all for your various ideas. We’ve been working on the topic of cutting tofu, but similar things are applicable to the acquisition of a wide variety of knowledge or skills. You set an objective of having your students acquire specific knowledge or skills. First comes the one-way lecture. Active Learning is supposed to push it forward to the setting of using the taught knowledge or skills, and of teaching someone else. In this way, teaching will be more effective for the students to acquire knowledge and skills. However, it is impossible for all the cases to reach these stages. The ideas you have come up with can exactly be the methods of Active Learning to be applied in those cases. So when you design a class, even if you don’t have enough time to reach the stage of actually using the taught knowledge or skills, it is possible for you to devise an alternative way to let students learn deeply. Let’s wrap up. Active Learning can be realized with a bit of imagination. You can apply Active Learning into your class without using a special method. That’s all for this session.
