Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 26 (1): Looking Back | 報告

LOOKING BACK | 報告
Reflections
on CreatingCommunity:
LearningTogether 4
Andy Barfield, Ken
Ikeda, JennyMorgan, & James
Underwood
Creating Community:
Learning Together 4 took place on Sunday
December 16, 2018 with over 31 poster
presentations/digital displays by both students
and teachers. This small-scale, informal
afternoon conference offered opportunities forstudents and teachers to learn together fromeach other about different experiences,questions and issues to do with learnerdevelopment. As the final Tokyo get-togetherof the year, we aimed to keep presentation
formats informal and interactive. There were
three rounds of poster presentations anddigital displays, with each round followed bysmall discussion and reflection circles for 10
minutes in pairs and small groups in eachpresentation room. The conference finishedwith a plenary session where participants andpresenters had a chance to share reflections
and questions about creating community andlearning together, while designing a poster that
documented their experiences. The
participants were then invited to formally
write up these reflections and we include here

three of these.
Our thanks go to everybody who helped outand participated in the conference, as well asto Aki Kubota & Dexter Da Silva, Haruka
Shintani & Nick Kasperek, Jim Ronald & Robert
Moreau who contributed their reflections.

Reflections on CCLT4 from Aki
Kubota and Dexter Da Silva
Aki Kubota, 3rd year student, Facultyof Law, Chuo University
I participated in the Creating Community:
Learning Together 4 (CCLT4) and gave mypresentation about Burmese youth integrationin Canada. Overall, I had a great experiencethrough talking and discussing about specificcases in Canada to do with refugees withpeople I met for the first time at theconference. For example, how different is thesituation of Burmese youth refugees in ruraland urban areas? What difficulties have
Burmese youth faced at school, in theworkplace, and at home, with friends, family,
neighbors and people with whom they work?
Also, I talked about why I was interested in theissue as well as my experience of researching
and learning about development issues in thespring semester and then doing fieldworkinterviews about multilingual education for
ethnic minority children for two and a halfweeks last summer in Myanmar. In thisreflection, I would like to report what I
learned at CCLT4 and improvements andchanges that I can make for next time.
While I saw how other teachers andstudents presented, what I learned most wasNewsletter of the JALT Learner Development SIG <http://ld-sig.org>

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 26 (1):that engaging people in your presentation andseeing carefully someone who joins in themiddle of your presentation are very importantand challenging to actually carry out. I foundmany great models about how to do this in thefirst and second rounds so that, when it cameto my own presentation, I tried my hand atlooking at my audience carefully. However,things did not work out completely as planned.
In fact, while I was giving my presentation, I
could not do well in letting many otherstudents and teachers join the discussions andbe interested in my research issue. In the end,
I was unable to give any comments about what
the audience discussed.
In terms of improvement and changes, I
should have learned more about how to makethe investigation area narrow. I got feedback
about my research and presentation after thethird round. A teacher told me that my topic,
Burmese youth integration in Canada, wasgreat and important to discuss with people,
but I should have examined specific cases suchas Burmese youth in Canada who live in avillage or a remote part of Toronto. I was
grateful to get this important feedback andthat would be of help in improving my researchand presentation skills in the future.
At CCLT4 I learned a lot from people I did notknow before. I also learnt how to makeconnections with people throughpresentations, discussions and reviews. Ibelieve that there is a reason why I could nothandle it. I did not feel very knowledgeable
and ready to discuss with people and give astrong opinion although I had researched about
Burmese youth integration in Canada and gave
the presentation about it. Although I have still
many bad points, I believe that taking part inthis conference was a great learning chance toLooking Back | 報告
find out what is necessary to be improved infuture presentations and discussions and I
would like to join CCLT in 2020 and take partagain.

Dexter Da Silva, Keisen University
This was my third time participating in
CCLT and my second time presenting. I
presented on the topic of Self-Directed
Learning, which is the focus of the class inwhich I teach Keisen students who alsopresented at CCLT. A couple of people came to
my poster presentation because they were alsointerested in that topic, so I had two short
discussions on it. However, I learnt much morefrom the wide variety of poster presentations I
saw and listened to, especially the student
presentations. I could really feel inspired by
the display of learning that is going on atuniversities in Japan.
The poster presentation I was mostinterested in was Aki Kubota’s on Burmese
youth integration in Canada. I wanted to know
more about the situation and the problems
because I know nothing about it but am very
interested in Burma / Myanmar and Burmese
emigration. I could see and understand thedifficulties that Aki wrote about that she had,because a couple of other people were also
very interested in the topic and had strong
opinions about Canada and immigration issues.
So it developed into a very lively discussion.
However, I perceive this as a positive result ofthe topic and content of the poster
presentation which stimulated the discussion.
Aki’s reflection shows, I believe, theunpredictable directions that learning together
can take. This is part of the excitement ofevents like CCLT.

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 26 (1): Looking Back | 報告

Rejuvenated Learning and“Active Learning”:
Reflections on CCLT4 from
Haruka Shintaku and Nick
Kasparek
Haruka Shintaku, 2nd year student,
Department of international Society,
Faculty of Human and Social studies,
Keisen University
Before I joined this event, I was onlythinking about the achievement of mypresentation. But as I listened to and watchedmore and more presentations, and talked witha lot of people, I got interested in many things,
especially diversity, identity, and theconnections between Japan and Hawaii.
My theme is "My English Journey". I like
English since I was a child. But after entering
university, I had many things which I want todo; volunteer work, study English, study
manything ...etc. But I don't have time fordoing everything. I had many things to do then.
So I thought "I give up things I want to do,
because I can't do." And I didn't study English
so much, and also other subjects too . But I
noticed it was wrong. I just escaped. I havedifferent thought which I will not escape. I will
do anything hard. And I decided to continue"My English Journey".
At CCLT4 I was most interested in“Identity”. Identity is involved in many thingsin complex ways, such as people's life
histories, the languages that they use, and thedifferent groups they belong to. One
presentation was about the people who grewup with different languages. From listening tothis presentation, I started to want to know
about how such people’s identities develop.
Persons having parents from different
countries would seem to have two cultures,
while persons having parents from the same
country would seem to have one culture. I
don’t know how we could determine whichcountries, nationalities, or ethnic group such
persons belong to. But the presenter said,“Actually, there is no race in the world.” Thismeans that people should choose and decide
who they are by themselves. This is what ismeant by “building identities.” I also want tobuild my own identity.
I found myself wanting to learn a lot morethings, both in university and beyond. I alsodecided to learn seriously for the rest of myuniversity life. I noticed that I haven’t learned
many things for about two years. I thus plan torestart my university life.

Nick Kasparek, Tokyo University ofForeign Studies
Like Haruka, I got a lot out of theinteractions both about my own presentationand others’ presentations. It was especiallyinteresting to see different perspectives anddata on learner motivation, note-taking, andreflection. Many presentations reinforced forNewsletter of the JALT Learner Development SIG <http://ld-sig.org>

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 26 (1):me that learning is an internal process thatteachers can try to encourage, but can neverhope to completely control. In this sense,
then, all learning is “active learning.” My
presentation described part of the discovery
process of what we mean when we callsomething “active learning,” particularly inthe context of an English language course forteacher trainees with institutionally required“active learning” assignments. I drew uponideas that emerged through classroom
discussions with my students as inquiry
partners to come to new understandings of theterm by juxtaposing our perspectives, throughexperimentation with learning tasks thatevolved as we tried them out, and through myown reflections in dialogue with the academic
literature. This dialogue was further enrichedat the conference, as I learned from anotherparticipant that in the official Japanesecontext (directed by MEXT), “active learning”
involves three main components: autonomy,interaction, and deep learning. While each ofthese terms would also need to be unpacked,
these components accord well with what mystudents told me in discussion and with theactive learning assignment that my students
and I experimented with: using course
concepts to conduct challenging and relatively
autonomous collaborative education researchas teacher trainees, designing a poster
together, and presenting it at CCLT4. In short,the assignments seemed to become a form ofcollaborative project-based learning.
While MEXT’s three official components
seemed present in our course’s active learningassignments, what my students and I seemed
to value most about the project—and whatmade it “really active,” or “meccha active,”for them—was how it involved them in doing

Looking Back | 報告
real research, that is, actually doing andthinking about what an educator-scholar
actually does. Building on the official
components, especially the “deep learning”
aspect, I therefore suggest that teachers inJapan also find inspiration in complementaryideas from the broader literature on
curriculum design (Bean, 2011; Fink, 2013; vanLier, 1996). Retaining the focus on autonomy
and interaction, “deep learning” could then be
helpfully understood as involving direct
experiences with relevant inquiry and focusedreflection on learning. As Bean (2011) argues,
active learning is especially likely to occur insmall groups critically discussing pertinent
puzzles that help students become“autonomous thinkers who can join theconversation of the discipline” (p. 200).
Similarly, Fink (2013) stresses that taken
holistically, active learning involves “realaction in an authentic setting” (p. 120), findingfor oneself and using relevant information andideas, and reflecting on changes inunderstanding. Meanwhile, van Lier (1996)
emphasizes that the authentic use of language,autonomy such as that involved in conducting
collaborative research on group-chosen
puzzles, and heightened awareness of learning,such as through shared reflection, are each key
elements of not only active learning generally
but especially of language learning. Involving
students in relevant collaborative inquiry andguiding focused reflection emerge as common
key elements of active learning in thisliterature, and these elements provide a
helpful framework for group research projects
as assignments that fulfill “active learning”
requirements in a more meaningful way,particularly in English language education
courses.

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 26 (1): Looking Back | 報告
Through CCLT4, I gained further confidence
that the time is ripe for discussion about what
we as teachers and learners want from “activelearning” tasks, whether or not these aremandated from above. The way that mystudents and I—along with various conference
attendees—seemed to find enriched sharedunderstandings of “active learning” gives mehope that other teachers can similarly work
toward their own better understandings
through dialogue. My hope is that bycontinuing to attend to the meaning of active
learning and to suggest frameworks for its
actual practice, I can help to extend thisdiscussion.
References
Bean, J. C. (2011). Engaging Ideas: The
professor’s guide to integrating writing,critical thinking, and active learning in theclassroom (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
Fink, L. D. (2013). Creating significant learning
experiences, revised and updated an
integrated approach to designing college
courses (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
van Lier, L. (1996). Interaction in the language
curriculum: Awareness, autonomy, andauthenticity. New York, NY: Longman.
Reflections from Jim Ronald and Robert
MoreauFrom Jim Ronald
In the final shared reflection with Robert,
words such as shock and struggle, realizing
being challenged and even breakdownreflected the impressions we were left with ofmany of the learners’ presentations that wejoined. These “discomforts” or “disturbances”

in people’s lives were often the spark that led
to the investigations they reported, or part ofthe learning journey they described. This wastrue in many of the students’ presentations,regarding various types of culture shock, orchallenges to preconceptions.
For me, similar feelings also applied to theexperience of joining CCLT for the first time.
The existence of the conference was not a
shock, and neither did I feel any struggle orchallenge in its name; after all, it’s not
unusual for conference titles to use big words.
At least that was until I was actually there andrealizing that the conference was deliberately
planned and realized with the objectives ofcreating community and learning together. And
that, within the limits of what is possible in
one afternoon and early evening, it did seemto be very successful in doing what it set out
to do. One reason for joining the conference
was to help me prepare to be program chairfor Hiroshima JALT, and to see how we can dothings differently.
Having said that, joining the conference
alone, as a teacher and an adult, may havebeen very different from that of the university
students joining the conference with perhaps
half a dozen of their classmates, or at leastfrom the same university. Did they talk toother people, people they didn’t know? Didthey, individually or together, decide a policyof only English, only “other” people? Were theyencouraged to? And where were malestudents?! More questions, more challenges!
Looking back, has joining this conference,and reflecting on it, changed me? Just
recently, joining a similarly different
conference, excitELT, was one direct outcome and that in turn has me realizing the value ofstruggles and challenges in our development.

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 26 (1):From Robert Moreau
As always, it was a pleasure to be able toattend the latest CCLT conference. One of thespecial things for me about this event is thestudent presentations, and this year was noexception. In several of the student
presentations there was an interesting mix ofresearch projects that dealt with issues
involving foreign countries, and the impact thisresearch had in developing the views of theresearchers while doing these projects. For
example, Haruka Hibi’s research on temporary
housing settlements in various countries, orCecilia Fujishima, Zhu Wangyi, Miu Yoshino,and Maika Seki’s presentation on Japanese
history and the awareness of multiple points ofsubject amongst different cultures that had
resulted from it. Both of these presentations
were very insightful, and demonstrated thetime and effort that the students had put into
thinking critically about their topics.
At the end of the conference there was asession set aside for reflecting on theLooking Back | 報告
presentations we had experienced, during
which time Jim Ronald and I had the chance tosit down together and share our impressions,while jotting down some keywords on a smallposter.
Looking at our poster, the three words thatfirst jump out at me are; identity,intercultural, and history. As mentioned above,
the presentation by Fujishima et al. wasclosely related to this theme. In their talk,called “Developing an Awareness of Others
through Japanese History”, the students
discussed their learning about Japanese andKorean historical figures. They touched oncross-cultural perceptions, national identityand also the role of education in these areas.
One reason this hit home for me is that, while
doing a research project about the Second
World War, one of my own students
commented on the gap between what she hadlearned in High School about the atomic bombs
used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki versus theinsights she gained doing research frommultiple sources, including those from foreigncountries, in the university project. The
Shirayuri university students reiterated thisnotion of the need to rise to the challenge of
exploring and understanding issues frommultiple, and international perspectives, andnot just accept without question what one
learns from a single textbook. It was great tosee this kind of critical thinking in practice in awell-constructed and thoughtful studentpresentation.
I wish that I could have taken in more ofthe presentations at CCLT, but being able toreflect with other people at the end of theconference was a good opportunity to shareideas and find out about some of thepresentations I had missed out on. These

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 26 (1): Looking Back | 報告reflections have also helped to provide mewith insights into the potential of criticalthinking that our students are capable of, andits connection to developing a wider awarenessand understanding of the issues that students
encounter while doing research projects. Thisis definitely something I will keep in mind
when students are working on projects in myown classes.

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