(Fujita)Hello, everyone watching this online. Welcome to WEEK 2 of our “Interactive Teaching” Skill Sessions. Today, we are going to begin the main part of the course. We’re going to ask the students here to do a performance of sorts, and then we’re going to give you some feedback. Hello, everyone. (Students)Hello. (Fujita)We are moving on to the main part of the course. Are you nervous? You look a little worried, but trust me, I’m more nervous than you. This is the first session of the main part, so we’d like briefly to go over Active Learning with you, which you already learned about in the Knowledge Session. I am an actor, and spend a lot of time on stage. For all of you, “stage” means a teacher’s platform. We don’t have anything like that here, but you go on stage by standing on the platform. When I am on stage, I am seen by the audience. The audience is the seer, and there is a relationship between us of seeing and being seen. If you replace this situation with a classroom, the instructor is the person who teaches, and the students are the ones being taught. There is a relationship of teaching and being taught. However, when we talk about an interactive relationship, we mean a relationship where the two sides learn from each other. If we go back to the stage, I’m standing in the spotlight on the stage. But suppose I change where I stand – I move this way toward you, for example. Then the spotlight moves over here. How do you feel now that you’re in the spotlight? (Student)I feel nervous. (Fujita)You feel nervous. So, in accordance with my movement, the spotlight changes its position, as a matter of course. I believe that instructors think of space just like actors do, and create their space using their own body. As a first step to creating your space, suppose you’re teaching the first class of a course and you’re going to introduce yourself, as you’re most likely to do that in the first class. I believe you already introduced yourselves in the Knowledge Session last week, but I assume you did so as a student. This time, I want you to pretend that you’re an instructor, and try to give an interesting self-introduction. You can move your body, like I did just now, to engage everyone in the room. It might be a little hard for you to give it a try right away, so I’m going to ask another instructor to show you an example – Shuya Watanabe, from Ongakuza Musical. Now, Watanabe will introduce himself as if he’s an instructor giving the first class of a course. Please watch and see what you can learn from how he performs. Afterward, it’s going to be your turn to introduce yourselves in your own way. That’s how we’re going to do it. Let’s get started. (Watanabe)OK. Hello, everyone. (Students)Hello. (Watanabe)My name is Shuya Watanabe from Ongakuza Musical. Nice to meet you. Thanks very much. Today, I’m going to talk to you about the importance of theater, especially musicals. Let me ask you something. Have you ever had the experience of humming or skipping when you’re feeling happy? Anyone? Of course you have! Could you sing a song right now? No? So, singing and dancing are in fact actions based on instinct. That’s why musicals are the art form that suits human beings the best. I would like to begin my talk with that. Thank you. (Fujita)OK, that was a little over 30 seconds. That’s how long I’d like your self-introductions to be. I noticed your faces all froze at once. Are you OK? Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. You can talk about your own field, so try to make a presentation that is interesting for everyone. Let’s start with this table. Who would like to present first? And everyone’s looking away from me! Well, Nakamura-san, you were the one who looked away from me the most, so you’re the presenter. Are you ready? Please come up to the front. Let’s have a big hand for Nakamura-san! Watanabe will be listening as one of the students. Start when you’re ready. (Presenter)Hello, everyone. (Students)Hello. (Presenter)I am Nagafumi Nakamura. I’m now going to start this class, entitled “Military Force for Peace? An Introduction to International Politics.” The first question I would like to ask everyone is quite a heavy one, but what do you think we need to do to achieve peace? What do you think? I’m not actually going to ask any of you today, but I would like you to think about the question. I assume many of you are considering the idea of abolishing weapons such as nuclear armaments or landmines, but that is not how we, as international political scientists, look at the problem. Of course we think it would be better to get rid of weapons, but our job is to think logically about the policies we need in order to create a world without weapons. I can’t yet answer the question I asked you either, but I would like to discuss this issue with you throughout the course. Thank you. (Fujita)A round of applause for Nakamura-san. Please stay there. How do you think your performance went? You had to do it without any warning. (Presenter)My mind went blank. (Fujita)Blank! Well, despite your mind going blank, I think you did well and everyone was engaged by your talk. Now I would like to give feedback from a physical and spatial perspective. The first point I’d make is about posture. Yes. This isn’t only for you – everyone is likely to stick their head out like this. That’s because the feeling that you want to convey something is reflected in the posture of your body. However, this posture makes you look unsure of yourself. So what you should do is to expand your chest, but once you do that, you look like you’re bending backward. Could you bend backward on purpose? Yes, that’s it. This posture makes you look too weighed down, so after bending backward, lower your shoulders. Bend backward, then lower your shoulders. That’s it. Your chin might lift higher than you want, and it’s hard to adjust the position of your chin. So be conscious of your eyes instead of your chin. Eyes are important. You managed to use your eyes quite effectively at first, but as you became more nervous, you started to look around restlessly. What do you have to do to stop looking around like that? You should think of who you are talking to. For example, if you imagine you’re talking to all the people here, you’re likely to look at everyone. Instead, divide the audience into three sections: one section on the left, one on the right, and one in the middle. Keep these three sections in mind when talking to the audience, then your eyes will look genuinely relaxed. Eyes are more important than you imagine. If you change the direction you’re looking in when changing topic, you can also refocus the listeners’ attention. Eyes express your attention. If I move my eyes like this, for example, you might think that someone has come in. You might think that something must have happened outside. If you want to move on to the next topic in a visual manner, you could deliberately move your eyes suddenly, like this. That’s my feedback. Nakamura-san was the first person to go, and he must have been under a lot of pressure. Watanabe-san, what did you think of his performance? (Watanabe)As a whole, your tone of voice and your use of space were flat and didn’t change, so I think you should emphasize the important points of your presentation by moving your eyes, taking a step forward, or putting out your hand. Then it would be easier for the audience to decide which points to pay attention to or to ask more about. (Presenter)Thank you. (Fujita)You did a great job under pressure. Please, everyone give a big hand for him! OK, I’m going to choose the next speaker from this table. The first presenter was a he, so the next should be a she. OK, it’s your turn. Let’s have a round of applause for her. Are you ready? Please, take it away. (Presenter)Hello, everyone. (Students)Hello. (Presenter)My name is Tae Horiuchi. Nice to meet you. (Students)Nice to meet you. (Presenter)This course is entitled “Psychology in Your Daily Life.” First, I would like to ask you a question. I assume that none of you have ever studied psychology before, but what are your impressions of what’s involved in studying psychology? I’d like to ask some of you. How about you? (Student)The study of how people think? (Presenter)Thanks very much. Let’s ask someone from this table, too. How about you? (Student)The scientific observation of changes in the mind, and things like that? (Presenter)Thanks, both of you. You’re exactly right. How people think and how the mind changes. Those are both part of the subject, of course, but actually, the scope of psychology extends further, to how people move their eyes to look at something – for example, I’m looking around restlessly right now… It also extends to how people feel, what they smell, how people grow up, and much more. Psychology affects a variety of things in our daily life without our noticing. Those are the things we’re going to learn about over the next six months of this course. (Fujita)Thank you. You seemed nervous. (Presenter)I was extremely nervous. (Fujita)You mentioned yourself that you were looking around restlessly, and that made all of us relaxed. That was considerate of you. And you tried to step forward. That was good, but I would like to point out how you walked. You looked terribly unsure, like this. When you move, your movement attracts everyone’s attention. So when you walk, you should be confident and clearly show which way you’re going. That will make you look impressive. When you approach someone, they’ll be aware that you’re coming toward them in particular, and they’ll feel prepared. If you look uncertain when you’re walking, they might feel that you came to them by chance. So, you should express yourself to clearly let whoever know that you’re going to approach and ask them. There’s one more thing. You said, “Nice to meet you”, at the beginning. You shouldn’t have bowed and said the words at the same time. Say, “Nice to meet you”, and then make a bow. That way, you can make yourself more relaxed. Could you give it a try? Say, “Nice to meet you”. (Presenter)Nice to meet you. (Fujita)How did that feel? I’m guessing you didn’t panic and were able to be more relaxed. (Presenter)Yes, I think my heartbeat calmed down. (Fujita)I’m sure it did. And I’m sure the audience felt the same. To speak and then make a bow is called a bunrirei (separated bow). Making a bow as a separate action helps everyone feel relaxed. Thank you very much. Today, I had two people give a self-introduction in front of us. By doing something in front of people, you feel the pressure that you can’t feel when practicing by yourself at home, and you also have someone else to talk to. These are things you aren’t aware of unless you perform in front of someone. I would like to ask everyone to practice speaking in front of someone – maybe you could ask your friend to listen. You should have gained a lot of ideas for how to improve from observing today’s two presenters. Exchange feedback with one another. That kind of mutual learning is the most effective way of ensuring comprehension, so please give it a try. That’s all for WEEK 2, the session covering how to create space. Thank you.
