Evaluation Sheet of Guest Professor Program,Graduate School of Science, Osaka Prefecture University
The following information will be used as a reference material for our evaluation of theprogram. We appreciate your kind cooperation. We appreciate your sending this form by
e-mail to kiriye@mi.s.osakafu-u.ac.jp, Prof. Kouyemon Iriye, Graduate School of Science,
Osaka Prefecture University.
1. If there are comments or advice for the graduate students who took your lecturein “Science Communication”, we appreciate your writing them below.
The first lecture was difficult because the students were a bit tense and blocked, so theyfound difficult to interact with me. In the second lecture they were more relaxed andinteractions were easier. My advice to all students attending these kind of lectures isthat they should feel part of the programme in the sense that programme success also
depends of them and how much it benefits them. The programme provides them anexcellent opportunity to improve their English level in a practical way and this is very
important for them and for their formation.

2. If there are comments or advice for the graduate students of your host professor, weappreciate them.
Students at the host professor group have been fantastic. I have enjoyed their company
very much and we have had a lot of interactions and discussions. They have attended
and assisted me in every moment and we have enjoyed many lunches and diners
together, including beers and sake. I am very thankful to them. In may opinion, thisattitude has also been very beneficial for them concerning the practice of English as it
forced them to expand and increase their vocabulary beyond academic limits. However,their attitude in the lectures did not differ from the rest of the students. My conclusion
is that there is an educational blockade that should be corrected.

3. If there are comments or advice for the undergraduate students who took yourlecture, we appreciate them.

Although they were more relaxed than the graduated students, my advice is the sameas above. They should make every possible effort to interact with the visiting professor
and speak to him. If the lectures are intended to be participative, they should make aneffort to overcome their fears to speak and do it. It is in their direct benefit.

4. If there are comments and suggestions for our program, we appreciate them.
The programme is very interesting and it has been a pleasure to participate in it. I amvery thankful to the organisers and particularly to Prof. Yuko Hosokoshi for having
invited me to take part of the programme. The apartment provided has also been
excellent and at a very convenient location for the work in the University and for
shopping facilities.
My major difficulty has been to adjust the level of my lectures to the students level.
Given the differences between the subject contents from one country to another, it
would help receiving clear information of the scope of the programme, aim of thelectures and students background. Prof. Hosokoshi took good care to let me know inadvance some of these differences but after finish my lectures I have the feeling that
contents of some of them could be too demanding for the students. Particularly
considering the extra effort they have to make because of the language. In general I
have perceived a lack of information from the progamme office regarding what isexpected from my contribution.
As a total, I have given 5 lectures, one open seminar, two large group seminars of morethan two hours presentation each and a short presentation in the department workshop,
five group meetings with different groups in the department, listened in an individualmode to all the students within the host professor group and actively discussed research
results with one of the doctorate students resulting in a more adequate interpretation of
his results. Although the last is the natural consequence of scientific interactions
potentially leading to the preparation of joint publications, the number of presentations
was higher that expected and represented a major effort of preparation. A more precise
knowledge in advance of contents and scope can help to facilitate the preparation of somany lectures.
Let me offer a final suggestion tending to facilitate the use of the apartment
possibilities. The programme office has provided a number of appliances in theapartment to contribute to a comfortable stay in it. In addition, the apartment has anumber of commodities, like air condition and heating, bath temperature controller, andother. All them have buttons with key words in Japanese, difficult to understand for thevisitor, which might risk a wrong manipulation of the equipment. My suggestion is tohave these key words translated and stick them, when possible, close to the appliance.
Important information including a map in Englis regarding close location of pharmacy,
doctor, supermarket, and so on, and emergency phones should also be provided in theapartment.

5. Can we make this sheet open to the public?
Name Fernando Palacio

Thank youYESDate Nov. 11, 2009