Faculty Development Lecture and Workshop: On course evaluation

Today at Yokkaichi Nursing and Medical Care University the faculty and administration attended a presentation by Professor Masahiro Chikada of Nagoya University's Center for the Studies of Higher Education. The presentation contained new and useful information as well as helping me to reevaluate my own course evaluations and syllabus.

In this post, I will present some of the ideas that were new to me. First Prof. Chikada used an interesting diagram to show the flow of information in any school between teachers and students

Teacher------------------------------>
   curriculum, syllabus, teach, grade
             <---------------------------------------------------------Student
                entrance, register, attend, take tests, course evaluation

Chikada also presented some results of research on course evaluations done by Takahashi Yasuoka

• the fewer students in class, the higher the evaluations, from 30 up evaluations decreased until reaching 100 people, where they leveled off
• almost no relationship between grades and course evaluations
• science and technical fields showed lower evaluations than other disciplines
• no relationship between teacher's research record and course evaluations
• evaluation results decrease as age rises (speaking habits sited as cause)
• results show relationship to days and times, Mondays and third periods being lowest
• teachers don't like big classes, but students indifferent
• as evaluation questions increase in number, reliability drops
• quick feedback on results is important to students

Chikada's conclusion was that
1. Syllabus should reflect the purpose of the class as well as details on what kind necessary for passing and excellence.
2. Schools should determine their own definition of what is a "good class."
3. Schools should put their results to work, praising teachers with high marks and providing support for teachers with low marks, as well as reviewing and revising curriculum and faculty responsibilities.
4. Insure that students and see and feel the results of course evaluations.

Report on the Japan Steiner School Management Business Meeting, 2009

This is report on the business meeting portion of the Japan Steiner School Management Gathering held on August 16, 2009. They are from my notes and are not to be considered an official document from the group. I post them here as an advertisement for Steiner schools in Japan, and as a record for any interested party.

The Management Gathering was held at the Izumi School in Toyo Machi, Hokkaido. The meeting was attended by representatives from 10 schools and education research institutions.

The meeting started in the morning on the 16th. The agenda included an introductory statement by a representative from each of the ten groups represented. Also attending was the founder of Furuyama Education Research. The schools' reports included numbers of students, teachers, current projects, problems, and plans for the future. Some common issues included school space, teacher availability, and status of students as school refusers.

A representive from the Kyo Tanabe Steiner School in Kyoto reported on their progress in registering as a UNESCO school. A list of Japanese UNESCO Schools can be found here. The application paperwork awaits delivery to UNESCO by the Japanese government.

High schools were the next topic of discussion. Since students are not registered as attending accredited schools in Japan if they are going to a Steiner school, their admission to Japanese colleges and universities is not possible. As a result, some students choolse to leave Steiner schools when they reach high school. High schools are also expensive to manage because of the students' material needs. For example, equipment and facilities for scientific experiments is expensive. As a result there were suggestions that schools cooperatively operate high schools. For example having schools in a geographic area cooperate to open regional high schools with dormitory facilities so that children who continue in Steiner schools could travel to learn at cooperatively managed schools.

The next main order of business was the establishement of a federation of steiner schools in Japan. The suggestion met with a mix of opinions. The main objectives, laid out by the original presenter of the idea were,
1. Serve as a clearing house for information on Steiner schools in Japan and the world for
   a. media
   b. prospective students and parents
   c. current students and parents
   d. teachers and prospective teachers
   e. international media learners and scholars
   f. prospective donors
2. Serve as a political action group
3. Serve as a sanctioning body for Steiner schools in Japan
4. Serve as an economic buffer for schools that require immediate financial support

The final two issues coverd included Steiner Schools in Asia and criticisms of Waldorf schools.

This Sounds Like a Macro Economic Problem

In Macro Economics classes one of the things you learn is about supply and demand, and how that affects prices. That is, when there is a shortage of widgets, demand increases, and prices go up. When there is a glut of widgets, demand decreases and prices go down. When prices go up, fewer people buy, reducing the strain on demand. When prices go down, more people buy, easing the oversupply. Simple stuff, but why isn't it happening in Japan at universities?

One news article reports that, "Nearly 40 percent of privately run colleges and universities across Japan operated in the red in the academic year to last March." That means prices should be coming down and that more students should be able to afford college now.



 But that isn't true. In fact a study research from the University of Tokyo found, "that less than 30 percent of high school students from households with under 2 million yen in annual income go on to a four-year university. " 


If there is a problem of recruiting students, schools should be reducing their prices, making it possible for children from lower-income families to get a good education.


There are serious management problems that benefit no one if these problems continue.

Another Anniversary of the Hiroshima Bombing

About every two years there is enough pressure built up for a new post on the events today. Today is another anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. At the risk of sounding insensitive, the popular sentiments often ring hollow and uninformed. There are no thesis statements attached to all of this outpouring of sentiment. There is never any mention of Japan's plans to build their own nukes, nor of their post-war experimentation with them.

Today on television there will be at least two emotionally charged television shows about how a group of young people lost their lives in the bombings. There are countless "news" reports on the events in 1945 and commemoration activities today. There are memorial services held all over the country, and all over the globe. What is the thesis statement? Any writer knows that there must be a statement somewhere identifying the the central theme of the piece. What is it here? Is it that we should abolish nuclear weapons? Is it that we should pursue a peaceful solution to our problems in the future? Is it that America performed a war crime for which it should be tried and punished? What is the point?

Secondly there is no discussion of Japan's nuclear program. Japan had a program, and it was believed at that time that Japan would test its weapon on August 12 in Hunan, China, the same place where Japanese planes had spread plague virus in experiments on biological weapons. One has to wonder if the people of Hunan were to be used again in nuclear weapons experiments. The Red Army invaded Hunan before the Americans could get there to assess the situation, and as Japan had a weapons production facility there, the Soviets were not interested in having the Americans searching around and getting their hands on valuable information.

There is no discussion of Japan having enough capability to build a nuclear weapon, making it a de facto nuclear state. There is no mention of its "space program" being similar to North Korea's, with definite applications for business and industry, that could just as easily be a missile development program.

This emotional appeal will continue through into September with remembrances of Nagasaki, and the end of the war with no direct, meaningful appeals for peace, nuclear disarmament, or mutual understanding. After all of the tears, and the wishing it hadn't happened, what are we supposed to think?

Learning Vocabulary: Master the Most Useful First

When you set out to master a new language, you know you will have to learn words. You may rely on a teacher or a textbook to tell you which words are important, and which words to remember, but you must take charge of your own vocabulary learning strategies. If you build your vocabulary, even with a remedial understanding of grammar, you will be able to communicate more effectively and have more fun. Consider these points as you continue on your path to fluency.

How many words do you know in English? If you are a college educated native speaker of the language, then you probably know about 17,000. You probably knew about 12,000 when you began college. Now, how much of that enormous reservoir of words do you use on any given day? The first 2,000 most frequently used words in English make up 85% of our daily language use. That means that most of the words that you use everyday are recycled over and over gain. The other words are there on reserve, but not used as often. There is even a distinction we can make between words we can use actively and those which we only know passively. For example a word that you hear sometimes on the news but have difficulty remembering for yourself when you want to use it is a some passive vocabulary.

What are the most frequently used words? There are linguists who take samples of language from sources, compile the data and calculate the words and their frequency. The most commonly used word in English is the. In fact of the first 227 words so far in this essay, you will find the eleven times. Number 2001, according to the most frequently used words according to Paul Nation's General Service List (GSL) is apple. Think about it. Did you say apple today? Did you read the word? You may have, but even if you have indeed eaten on today, you may not have heard anyone say the word, said it yourself, read it, and even less likely, written it. 

The same can be said for any other language in existence. There are some words that are used frequently, and there are words that are not. As a language learner, you should focus on building a solid base of vocabulary with these words in your new language. There is little reason to learn other words unless they are of professional or personal use to you. If there is no such list available for your language, you could start by translating the GSL into your language. (This will probably give you a pretty good start, but it isn't perfect. Not all words will translate directly. For example English has a word for leg and foot. They are distinctly different. In Japanese for example, they get lumped together as ashi.)

Armed with that knowledge now you can move on to remembering the words you need, but you need to be aware that words can be remembered in different ways. Probably the most useful way to have remembered a word is being able to understand someone when they say it. If you are going to use the language for spoken communication, then you need to be able to understand the other person say the word. Then of course, you may want to be able to say it yourself. This means that you will have to listen to the word and repeat it enough times to get the pronunciation close enough so that when you use the word, your partner can understand. You may want to be able to read the word, too. If you are interested in reading menus, train schedules, or historical information about a particular area, then being able to read the word is essential. Writing the word would be handy if you are going to be corresponding with people, business partners for example, in your target language. Then you need to know how to spell the words correctly, too.

These skills are mutually exclusive and do not overlap. Which means that just because you can read a word does not mean that you will automatically be able to say it or understand it when it is said to you. You probably have words like that in your native language, words that you can say, understand and read, but cannot spell. You may not need to be able to spell the new words, either, and that is alright, too. If that is the case, then do not spend time learning how to do that.

An implication of this knowledge is that written lists of vocabulary, like the GSL, will be helpful, but the words will be written on a page. You will need to listen and understand them. Current language textbooks often contain CDs or even DVDs with spoken language recorded on them. If you use one of these for your language, be aware that some of the words in the text will not be from the first 2000 words that we mentioned. Be selective about how you spend your time and energy, but practice the words you hear by saying, reading and writing them for yourself, based on your needs.

Finally there is one truth that you should know. The words in any vocabulary list are going to be what are called root words for word families. One word family may have a root word, like a spoon, which is a thing we eat with, but may also be a verb that means "to scoop out" or "to engage in loving behavior, like kissing." These members of the family are not counted as separate words. They are counted as one in the list of 2,000. There will be words like that in your language, too, and you should make decisions about which of the members of the family are essential to learn and which are not. For example with our word spoon, the amorous behavior meaning is not used that often, so is not really necessary at the being of our learning. Another example is the word for tree in Japanese is ki. It also carries the meaning of wood. Both words are common enough that you would want to learn them both. You may want to make a chart with the different uses of the word, the noun, verb, adjective, and adverb forms of the word. You can add to it later as time goes on.

Learning new vocabulary can be fun and rewarding as you pile up your list of mastered words. It will certainly be rewarding when you can understand and use the words in you new language, and the most frequently used words will be the easiest and most gratifying to remember because they occur so often. Stick to the basics and build a solid base of vocabulary with the most fundamental word families. Listen to and say the words at least, and be able to read and write them when you want to be able to. Then when you branch out into other fields of your language learning, it will be more fun and rewarding.