(Kurita) Hello, everyone. (Student) Hello. (Kurita) Welcome to "Interactive Teaching" WEEK 8. This week's topic is "Let's think about career paths PART 2: Use of portfolios." In this session, I would like to explain how to create a Structured Academic Portfolio (SAP) with regard to research. The goals for this week are to: "Give a general overview of the activities in education and research, and envision a career path to become a faculty member. Today's objective is the third one: "Be able to create your own SAP chart by following the specific procedure." We will focus on Research in this session. Here is the table of contents: how to create the Research part of SAP, and the wrap-up. Let's take a look at the specific procedure of creating the Research part. Here is the whole picture of the SAP chart. Education is on the left side. Research is on the right side. The middle one at the bottom is for Service. Integration is in the central part. This is how you use this chart. We focused on the Education part in the last session. You start by describing educational practices at the bottom and then proceed to the educational view and goals in that order. We would like to focus on the Research part of this session. I would like to give a brief direction on this part. Starting from the Research Theme and moving on to the lower sections for reflecting on specific content. Then move on to the upper sections for deepening your understanding of the significance, and for extracting your view and goals for the research. It starts from specific aspects and then moves on to abstract and ideological aspects. This is the workflow. The first component is the Research Theme. Describe the research themes you are engaged in and the ones you want to be engaged in if you have any. There are two types of themes here, so I recommend you use two colors for tags to distinguish one from the other. What did you write for your research themes, Kaneko-san? (Student) My present research themes are the development of soundproofing construction systems and improvement of windows. (Kurita) Thank you. You listed two in your present themes. If you would like to write about your future themes, write them on the tags with a different color. After listing the research themes, move on to the next component: the Main Outcome. Describe the outcome of the research theme you wrote, such as papers and presentations at academic conferences. What did you write for this component, Kaneko-san? (Student) I published a paper on the development of soundproofing in a refereed journal. (Kurita) That's great. You published a paper. Write such things in this section. The next component is Budget right next to the Main Outcome. Work on this item if there is any funding you have obtained before. Grant-in-Aid for Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Research Fellow would be the most familiar funding for graduate students like you. The funding for present faculty members would be research subsidies and KAKENHI (Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research). Write about such kinds of funding. The next component is the Skill Set. This one is also on a white background, so it is an optional item. Describe your skill set and knowledge that is useful for conducting research, for example, methods you used for the research you wrote for the Main Outcome, or a technique you use for conducting research. Teramoto-san, what did you write for this component? (Student) My field is community health nursing, so I wrote that I analyzed the health data of community residents by using statistical analysis software. (Kurita) Thank you. You are capable of using statistical analysis software. I think there are also skill sets that you want to obtain in the future. What did you write for them, Teramoto-san? (Student) Well, I was only handling quantitative data before, so I would like to learn skills for analyzing qualitative data. (Kurita) I see. Quantitative and qualitative data are both important in the field of nursing. Write about such things for this component. The next component is Effort. Describe the effort you have made in the past or you are making in the present to improve conducting research, for example, active participation in study meetings, and practice to obtain new methods. This is also an optional item, so write it only if you have any. The next component is Value. Describe the purpose and significance of the research themes you wrote in the Research Theme section. List and describe in your own words about the values that make up the research theme, or about what you feel the significance is. What did you write for this component, Ozawa-san? (Student) I specialize in the field of energy systems. There is a social demand for reexamining the present energy system especially the electricity in Japan, so I would like to respond to such a demand. (Kurita) I see. These are about significance and purpose. Thank you. In addition to the significance and purpose, describe the values you wrote down for conducting research in Philosophy. What did you write for this component, Ozawa-san? (Student) Well, what made me start to conduct research on energy systems was the desire to work on holistic systems instead of particular technologies, so I prefer to take a broad view on things instead of insisting on a particular technology when conducting research. (Kurita) So that is your philosophy. Thank you. The next component is Goal. Describe the research goals you want to accomplish in the future by giving an overview of what you wrote in the Research part including: the Research Theme, the Main Outcome of those themes, and optional items such as Budget or Funding, Skill Set, Effort to improve conducting research, and Philosophy. What did you write for Goal, Mizukoshi-san? (Student) I would like to develop a new type of childbirth class for couples from the point of view of a midwife. (Kurita) That is nice. Do you have any specific image in mind for the classes? (Student) Well, present childbirth classes have couples practice things such as how to give their baby baths, but I think they should learn more than that, such as skills to deepen discussions with each other. (Kurita) I see. Yes, I, too, practiced giving a baby a bath with my husband in a childbirth class. We were told things like "don't shake your baby. So your goal is to develop a new type of childbirth class for couples to improve their discussion skills. That is a nice goal. Now, let's wrap up. We focused on the Research part of the SAP chart in this session. The Research part is in the right side of the chart. Start with considering your research themes, and describe the specific outcomes of the research, budget, skill sets you possess, and efforts you have made to improve conducting the research. Then reflect on the purpose and significance of the research, move on to describing the philosophy of your research, and list the future goals by overviewing what you wrote. This is how the Research part is structured. That's all for this session.
