This program helps graduate students, postdocs, and faculty/staff members affiliated with the University of Tokyo who aim to become faculty members enhance their teaching skills.
We run a course titled “The University of Tokyo Future Faculty Program” (or “UTokyo FFP”) to help graduate students, postdocs, and faculty/staff members affiliated with the University of Tokyo who aim to become faculty members enhance their teaching skills.
As higher education becomes more universal and university students more diverse, the approaches required from university teaching staff are changing.
This program is open to graduate students across the University, creating exchanges between graduate students studying in a variety of research fields.
Participants gathered from different areas of research stimulate each other, and in so doing can increase their own teaching abilities as they create valuable human relationships.
The university classes that a professor might have to teach are diversifying in size, content, and class style, and the number of universities requiring sample syllabi and holding mock classes when hiring faculty members is increasing.
There is also an ongoing shift to student-centered education, and active learning class styles are drawing attention.
These classroom approaches require faculty members to not only be knowledgeable experts, but also facilitators to inspire learning, and it is becoming important for educators to acquire these skills.
UTokyo FFP offers the opportunity for educators to gain such knowledge and skills in a systematic and effective way.
Features
| Day 1: Introduction | Icebreaking by sharing what inspired each participant to take the course, the present situation of higher education, research presentations (1-min self-introduction), and self-analysis and peer-reviewing of research presentations. |
|---|---|
| Day 2: Class design | Significance of class design, goals and objectives of a class, ADDIE model, active learning, motivation, and creating a class design sheet. |
| Day 3: Evaluation | Significance of evaluation, evaluation methods, evaluation of evaluation, creating a rubric, exercises in creating rubrics and evaluating with them, and sharing rubrics through a gallery walk. |
| Day 4: Syllabus and course design | Significance of a syllabus, setting goals and objectives, and course design (backward design and graphic syllabus). |
| Day 5: Review of DAY1–4 and exercise in giving feedback on lectures | Lectures for microteaching given by volunteers, exercise in giving feedback on those lectures, and a poster tour for sharing what the participants have learned so far. |
| Day 6: Refining the lectures for microteaching | Microteaching session (1) and examination of the lectures for further refinement. |
| Day 7: Microteaching session | Microteaching session (2) and examination of the lectures. |
| Day 8: Career path design | Creating a Structured Academic Portfolio (SAP) chart. |
The advantages of taking the course “UTokyo FFP”
UTokyo FFP is open to those affiliated with the University of Tokyo as regular graduate students, postdocs, or faculty/staff members.
We also offer an observer (auditor) category for those outside the University. Please note that observers should attend all sessions in principle; please contact us for more details.
We hold a half-yearly program, where the graduate students and faculty members completing the UTokyo Future Faculty Program (UTokyo FFP, a program on learning how to teach) give mini-lectures.
(Organizers: University of Tokyo Library System / Center for Research and Development of Higher Education, The University of Tokyo)
Four to seven participants who conducted excellent lectures for the microteaching session in the UTokyo FFP give mini-lectures by making it easier for the audience to understand them even if they are new to their academic fields.
The program started in 2014 and has been held 20 times as of March 2023.
It is originally a face-to-face lecture format, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have recently switched to an online format, which enables the audience to join the program and experience active learning strategies from anywhere in the country.
【Past programs available on UTokyo TV】
The videos of the past mini-lectures are available on UTokyo TV (☆). Enjoy learning with our collection.
*Please note that the mini-lectures are conducted in Japanese. (The videos will be updated frequently.)
☆ UTokyo TV About UTokyo TV | UTokyo TV (todai.tv)
UTokyo TV is an official website that offers videos of events such as UTokyo Open Lectures, open campus events, symposiums, and workshops.
These videos are free and available to the public, with no registration required.
(Some videos are for special purposes such as training programs, which are offered exclusively to UTokyo staff and students.)
In 2016, some of the videos became available on the UTokyo TV YouTube channel.
Enjoy learning with the huge collection of videos created from research and educational activities at the University of Tokyo!