How can Teaching Practices of Higher Education be improved by ICT?
An Ongoing MOE Comparative Research Project of Japan

Katsuaki Suzuki, Kumamoto University, JAPANNoyuri Mima, Future University Hakodate, JAPANYuhei Yamauchi, The University of Tokyo, JAPAN

Abstract: The purpose of this short paper is to introduce an on-going research project inJapan for improving teaching practice through the use of ICT. The authors are fromhigher education unit of the MOE supported research project in 2009-2011. The current
situation of Japanese higher education is first introduced, which will be followed by ourinvestigation plan focused on introductory orientation effort for the newly enteredstudents. We would like to report our results from the first year review as to howteaching practice at higher education can be connected with more advanced teachingpractices in elementary and secondary education, as well as the roles of ICT for theimprovement of higher education teaching.

Introduction
In 2003, when Economist Intelligence Unit Limited and IBM Corporation announced that Japan was the23rd in the world in “e-Learning Readiness Ranking” (https://www-304.ibm.com/jct03001c/services/learning/solutions/pdfs/eiu_e-learning_readiness_rankings.pdf), it was of great shock to those who werein the field of e-Learning in Japan. We knew at that time, that Japan was not a leading country, butnobody was realized it could be judged as low as the 23rd. In the same Ranking, South Korea was the topof Asia (rank 5), followed by Singapore (rank 6), Taiwan (rank 16), and Hong Kong (rank 19). Malaysia
was ranked the 25th, just after Japan. More recently, The Networked Readiness Index 2008-2009 ofWorld Economic Forum (Dutta & Mia, 2009) reported that behind 4th-ranked Singapore, five other Asia
and Pacific region’s economies place in the top 20 as follows: Korea (11th), Hong Kong (12th), Taiwan(13th), Australia (14th), and Japan (17th). This report provides an interesting observation regarding why
Japan has not been catching up with the rest of the Asian countries:
Japan boasts undeniable prowess at leveraging ICT and innovating, as reflected by the level ofbusiness readiness (11th) and usage (4th), individual usage (13th), and the number of per capita
utility patents (3rd). However, ICT readiness remains impaired by several regulatory,administrative, and infrastructural shortcomings. Furthermore, the rating of government
readiness (25th) and usage (34th) has plummeted, the result of a sharp fall in the measures ofprioritization, promotion, and procurement of ICT. (p.19; underlines added by the author)

On the other hand, teaching practices and culture of teachers in Japanese schools has been attracted muchinternational attention. Lesson study is of particular interest among teacher educators (e.g., Fernandez,2002; Lewis, et al, 2006). High rankings of Japanese students in various international comparison studies(e.g., TIMSS2003 and PISA) have also been a major source of the interest so that many international
scholars have tried to find a way to “import” the secret of Japanese education. Contrary to these attentions,many Japanese researchers and administrators are concerned why Japanese are not performing wellenough, as compared to the past. In depth investigation should be in order to reveal the current situationof Japanese education, especially as it is related to Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

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Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Japan (MOE) of Japan approved a groupof 16 researchers representing the Japan Society for Educational Technology to conduct a thoroughinvestigation of teaching practices in elementary, secondary, and higher education. The project is being
conducted under the title of Integrated Study of Revision and Development of Teaching Methods inPrimary, Secondary, and Higher Education, with Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S), 2009-2011,
headed by Prof. Yoshizaki of Nihon Women's University. The aim of the project to reveal characteristicsof teaching practices of Japanese elementary, secondary, and higher education. Site visits of domestic andoversea schools will be carried out so that viewpoints and clues will be discovered to revise and develop
teaching methods.
The project team consists of 5 subgroups (or Units): (1) Overall Supervisor Group, (2) Elementary School
Group, (3) Junior-high School Group, (4) Senior-high School Group, and (5) College and University
Group. The authors of this paper are in the 5th Unit that covers higher education. The project has set
comparison framework as shown in Figure 1: Elements in teaching, comparative studies, and layers ofschool categories. Each group is currently undergoing school visits and reviews of related literature, withthe framework in mind.

College and University
Senior-High School
Junior-High School
Elementary School
Teacher Support
Learning Activities
Teaching Staffing
Group Works
Textbooks
Media
Learning Time
Learning Space
Evaluation
Etc.
DomesticInternational

Figure 1: Research Framework for Comparative Research ProjectCurrent Situation of Higher Education in Japan
Japan has about 750 universities and colleges, 580 of which are private. Many have been suffering fromsmaller number of applicants due to decline of 18 year-old population, with 1.25 children is born in 2008
per a couple. As the result of smaller numbers of applicants each year, 69.1 % of private universities
could not fulfill their capacity enrollment for FY 2009, as reported by The Promotion and mutual aid
corporation for Private Schools of Japan. With the prospect of the upset of demand-supply relationship in2009, which means all high school graduate wishing to move on to college can enter a university orcollege, much attention has been given as to how to attract high school graduates by providing a better
quality education.

- 658 -MOE was under the strict control for enforcing standard curriculum for all higher education institutes andfor establishing a new university or a new faculty (program) within an existing university. However, thepolicy was changed in 1991 and 2003, when MOE deregulated the restriction of curriculum and capacityof student enrollment. Since then, each individual institute would be able to take a responsibility ofcreating unique educational programs at its own risk. Although MOE still enforces rigorous procedure forapproving expansion/establishment of new university or program, it is more or less shifted whether or nota university maintains to be attractive for high school graduates depends on the effort of the institute.
While MOE became less restrictive in the construction of higher education programs, the new approachin maintaining the quality are now enforced from operational perspectives. In 2007, MOE set a new
standard enforcing external review process of all higher education institutions every seven years.
Organizational system in faculty development has also been adopted as a requirement for all
undergraduate programs starting in FY 2008. Therefore, more and more interests have been aroused
among higher education institutes for advancing the quality of educational practices.
So, teaching in higher education is becoming a more difficult job. According to a survey by Japan
Universities Association for Computer Education in 2008, with responses of 21,797 fulltime faculty from334 private universities, 56.3% answered the most difficult aspect of teaching is the lack of basic
knowledge of the students. The second was the lack of motivation of the students (37.2%). On the otherhand, a small scale survey of freshmen (412 answered) by a private company (Just Systems, Inc.)revealed the most unsatisfactory element in their university life was the unexpected quality of lectures(21.1%). The major reasons for their lack of satisfaction were “not interested content” (42.7%) and“one-way lecture style” (32.5%).
As for e-Learning in higher education in Japan, we have much more to go than we have accomplished.
According to Annual Reports of ICT in Higher Education 2008 (NIME, 2008), over a half (51.1%) ofJapanese universities answered that they are using e-Learning. The growth over five years of the ratio ofintroduction of e-Learning is as shown in Figure 2. It is still low, compared with other advance countries.
However, when asked if e-Learning is for awarding credits, the situation becomes worse. The ratio ofuniversities awarding credits by e-Learning was 20.7% only. Even if the universities planning forawarding credits (4.4%) are added, only a quarter of the universities are for e-Learning as a means ofofficial channel of their program.

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Figure 2: Ration of Universities introduced e-Learning (NIME, 2008)- 659 -Research Agenda for the Higher Education Unit
The higher education subgroup of the MOE approved research project consists of three researchers, listed
as authors of this paper, each from different institute. To fulfill the purpose of the research project, wedecided to focus our initial effort to investigate introductory orientation effort among universities, fromthe viewpoints of active learning and learning commons. Many of the universities are claimed to have lessprepared students, because of weaker competition for entrance examination. Thus it has been a major
problem as to how to provide a bridging training to make the new comers ready to learn from existing
curriculum. Traditional approach within higher education must be reconsidered to accommodate changes
in characteristics of coming freshmen to make their first exposure more active and interactive.
We see a great need in this area for utilizing ICT to make the effort more effective and flexible. For
example, based on the University of Tokyo’s goal of an ideal liberal education, the Komaba Active
Learning Studio, or KALS (http://www.kals.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/english/index.html), was created as a model
classroom on the university’s Komaba campus. Equipped with state-of-the-art information technology,
KALS offers classes tailored to many types of active learning, including discussions, group work, andpresentations. Future University (FUN)-Hakodate (http://www.fun.ac.jp/) was created as a learningorganization to break the mold of traditional knowledge acquisition model of higher education. The entire
university was designed with the principles of learning without walls in open spaces, no course barriers
by project-based learning, no personal barriers by cooperative learning and team teaching, nolanguage/communication barriers by emphasis on communication skills, and no age/learning stylebarriers to accommodate diversity of learners. Students are regarded as the center of learning and asapprentice researchers, while portfolio was regarded as the central means to measure their achievement.
We are currently involved in multiple means to investigate this issue. The methodology includes (1)Literature reviews of related articles, (2) Site visits and interviews with faculty and students, and (3)creating a framework for the structure of comparative study with international and primary/secondary
education.

Concluding Remarks
We expect that there are commonalities and differences between Higher and Primary/Secondary
Education. Responsive divisions are different within MOE. No teacher licenses are needed to teach at
higher education institutions. More emphasis has been placed in research record than good teaching.
However, one can look at the situation of Japan, normally viewed as hardship for the faculty, as anopportunity to seek and implement better teaching with a help of ICT. It is our hope that we can find away to contribute for the improvement of teaching in higher education, in Japan and in other countries
with similar environmental situations, through the outcome of our research. We are looking forward tosharing our project to learn from each other, which we hope give us stimuli to advance our research
project.

References
Fernandez, C. (2002). Learning from Japanese Approaches to Professional Development: The Case ofLesson Study. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(5), 393-405.
Lewis, C., Perry, R., & Murata, A. (2006). How Should Research Contribute to InstructionalImprovement? The Case of Lesson Study. Educational Researcher, 35(3), 3-14.
Dutta, S., & Mia, I. (Eds.). (2009). The Global Information Technology Report 2008–2009: Mobility in a
Networked World. The World Economic Forum. [Available online] http://www.weforum.org/pdf/gitr/ 2009/gitr09fullreport.pdf.

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