Kochi University; Teacher training system to enhance the quality of education - Learning together in lesson studies -

Utilization of JICA-Net multimedia materials in JICA Knowledge Co-Creation Program

One of trainees explains the life of elementary school in her country to children when visiting Shimanto Town Nanasato Elementary School (UNESCO school)

The Center for International Collaboration in Kochi University conducts three or four JICA Knowledge Co-Creation Programs annually. These programs focus on making trainees acquire knowledge more practically with the combination of lecture, inspection, and practice so that they will be able to take concrete actions taking advantage of what they learned after going back to their country. We organized a training called "The promotion of education in remote rural area to guarantee children's learning - toward the achievement of SDGs -" from 26th August to 23rd September 2018. Twelve training participants participated from ten countries of Kenya, Namibia, Liberia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Cambodia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Laos, and Papua New Guinea.

I usually utilize some JICA-Net multimedia materials in any programs because their main points are well arranged to understand easily in a short time. I think that these are so effective to grasp the whole picture of Japanese education system in pre-learning and to understand lectures contents deeply. I used the material "Teachers Learning Together - Japanese Teacher Training System and Lesson Studies-"* in this program. Since one of JICA staff in Human Development Department introduced this movie to me at the meeting, I watched it in advance. Then, I found that its contents matched the purpose of the program and I thought this video would help training participants understand deeply about teacher training system and the importance of lesson studies. I decided to use that in the program and distributed copied movie materials to training participants so that they could utilize after going back to their own countries.

*This material is limited viewing to people who are engaged in JICA's projects. For more information, please contact us through JICA-Net Library Desk (eitpl-jicanet@jica.go.jp).

Understand the significance and practice of lesson studies through visual images

A teacher developing his lesson study plan in the dusk after school

Lesson studies are the opportunities for teachers to learn together in order to improve practical teaching ability by observing lessons each other. Teachers have a chance to prevent falling into self-righteousness with having their lessons observed by other teachers and listen to various objective opinions. On the other hand, by observing other teachers' lessons teachers who observe can realize there are many different way of teaching and reflect on the way they teach in their lessons. This video consists of two sections. The first section, called the System Section, explains an overview of the teacher training system in Japan. The second section, called the Practice Section, provides an example of lesson study. It focuses on one teacher at the elementary school University of Tsukuba and follows his lesson study throughout. In order to draw children's interest and enable the children to discover ideas on their own without being manipulated by a teacher, how did he put a lot of thought into his plan? Did the lesson go as he planned? What did he think by listening to many opinions and ideas from the Lesson Reflection? You can feel his enthusiasm for education through the screen.

The content of the material was so comprehensible and useful for promotion of understanding. We were able to have training participants recognized that teachers' capability improvement is indispensable to improve the quality of education. Nine of 12 training participants have a duty involved in educating of teachers after having their careers as teachers. One other is an active teacher, the other two are administrators of the Ministry of Education. They seemed to learn a lot from each point of view. Many participants seemed to realize that it was necessary to prepare guidelines for improving teaching methods, teaching plans and training curriculums in order to enrich more the content of teacher training, it was because they included it in the action plan created at the end of the program.

Disseminate an image of keep learning teacher to the world.

In the demo lesson of multi-grade class of 1st-3rd grades. One participant and Japanese lecturers are observing

On 25th - 27th October which is less than a month after the completion of the training, teacher training utilizing learning in Japan was held in the Philippines. Besides that, I got emails from Kenya and Afghanistan that tell me they watched JICA-Net multimedia material with other teachers and education officials to disseminate education system of Japan to their own countries. Lecture will be improved with being observed by many other teachers. If the teacher has lots of ideas and perspectives, the children will be happy, because the teacher is more open their ideas and perspectives. Teachers learn for their students and help them to discover the joy of learning. When teachers see that their students are happy to learn, that gives teachers the energy to keep on going. These world common truths of education are transmitted to the world by this JICA-Net multimedia material. I realize this video material is an effective and powerful tool to develop education of each training participant's country even after they went back to there.

Yoko Okamoto
Training course leader
The Center for International Collaboration
Kochi University

*The Material(s) mainly applied

Teachers Learning Together - Japanese Teacher Training System and Lesson Studies-

This video consists of two sections. The first section, called the System Section, provides an overview and explanation of the in-service teacher training system in Japan. The second section, called the Practice Section, explains the significance and perception of lesson studies and the system that makes them possible. The Practice Section focuses on one teacher and introduces a lesson study from lesson planning to lesson implementation and reflection upon the lesson. The continual process towards learning by teachers results in better lessons and happier students whose enthusiasm in turn energizes the teacher. This section focuses on the development of the students as well as the teacher.

*This material is limited viewing to people who are engaged in JICA's projects. For more information, please contact us through JICA-Net Library Desk (eitpl-jicanet@jica.go.jp).