Vol. 11
APM Associate Professor

SAITO Hiroaki

・Research Field:

Hospitality Management,
Service Management,
Organisational Psychology & Behaviour・Subjects:

Management of Human Resources andOrganizational Behavior,Global Management, Major Seminar
Interview date: October, 2021

Tips

1 . Use the “microphone policy” and randomly
choose students to speak in class
2. Split the 100 minutes of class into twoparts: concepts and theories as teaching
input and theory practice as learning
output3. Invite guest lecturers to connect students
with industries and alumni

Q: In your classes, which subject do youplan for the most?

order to increase the quality of students’learning?

A: I plan for my classes a lot, but I probably spend

A: I will not talk for the entire 100 minutes ofmore time on Organizational Behavior. Because

class. Instead, I use the time in each session by

Organizational Behavior is a required course in

splitting the session into two sub-sessions. The first

APM, I need it to be in line with what the otherhalf involves a normal lecture, which I call passive

professors are teaching in the subject. Basically, I

learning, and the second half is active learning. In

need to follow the textbook. But I use a lot of

the first half, I teach concepts and theories to theexamples that the students can easily relate tostudents. For the second half, we utilize thethemselves. For example, I use examples ofbreakout rooms for group discussions and teamhospitality and organization where many students

projects, or have a guest lecture. I will provide

work as part-time jobs such as Suginoi (hotel) andactivities that apply the concepts and theories that

Joyfull (restaurant). I believe that if students cannot

students learned in the first half. This kind ofconnect the theories and concepts learned in classparticipation makes up the active learning half ofto their actual lives, they will forget those concepts

the session. My idea is that if students don’ teasily.

produce any output (learning) from the input(teaching), then that input will be lost quickly.

Q: In your classes, what do you do in

Through this structure, I try to enhance students’understanding and retention of knowledge learnedin class.

Q: In your classes, what do you do toincrease students’ motivation forlearning?
A:I always invite guest lecturers from different
companies to my classes and they give assignments
to the students. For example, these lecturers talkabout how their company responds to theCOVID-19 situation and what the remaining issues
are. Then, the students develop their own ideas toaddress those issues, and make a video. These
kinds of assignments are team assignments with
about 27 teams. After the assignment is complete, I
pick the top 5 projects, and send them to the guest
lecturer’s company. They watch the videos andgive comments to the students. In this way, I try toconnect the concepts learned in the classroom toreality. Even in my Human Resource Managementclass, I invited APU alumni as guest lecturers toevery single session. This way students can learn
not only about the industry perspective, but also
meet alumni who are working at real companies(Amazon Japan or Nippon Signal), for example.
It’ s also good for the senpai (graduated seniors), tocome back to APU and provide what they have

A: My classes are hybrid. I have one TA look afterother students both on-site and online can still

the students in class, and another TA to look after

always write their own answers in the Zoom chatthe students participating online. I normally have abox. In this way, anyone can have an opportunity

rehearsal before every class with the TAs in order

to convey their ideas to me and gain confidence infor them to truly understand the lecture contents

doing so.

and manage the session better. During class, theTAs go into the breakout rooms and give

I am also one of those professors that uses soundcomments to stimulate creativity and innovation.

effects. For example, I use a sound effect if thestudent is correct (a ding sound effect), if theA “microphone policy” is something I also use in

student did a good job (applause sound effects), or

my class. Before online classes, our TAs would

if the student is nervous (funny sound effect). I use

pass the actual microphone to a student at random.

these effects to stimulate interest and holdNow, although we use the unmute function on

students’ attention. Especially when I’ m teachinglearning, motivation, and the overall experience.

Zoom instead, I still use the name “microphone

a complicated concept, entertainment becomes sopolicy” to describe requiring students to speak up

important.

Q: Classes have been held online fromthe 2020 Spring Semester. What sorts ofchanges have you made for your online
classes?

when they are picked. In a hybrid class, we use thelearned in the industry to their kouhai(underclassmen). Through this method, I try toconnect the industry and the current students, aswell as the alumni and students, to improvemicrophone policy for both on-site and online
students. While the student picked uses themicrophone to share their answer to a question,

Q: When improving the contents of yourclasses, what kinds of steps do you taketowards improvement?
do, I once gave a lecture about stress(in theA: I spend time in class for students to practice

workplace) as a strain or consequence. I explainedusing the theories and concepts they learned at thethat what organizations can do in such cases isbeginning of the lecture so that they can be

X-Y-Z, and that there are many organizations

equipped to use these concepts outside of thewhich look to utilizing their break rooms

lecture. As mentioned, I split the 100 minutes ofeffectively. In the second half of the lecture, I had

class time into a first and second half. For the firststudents consider how to create a better

half, students need to have some input, which is theenvironment in a break room, and design a breakconcepts and theories I give them, such as

room to facilitate and stress recovery, restoration,

motivation theory. Then for the second half, I haveand relaxation. Students could add coffee

the students practice the theory. For example, Imachines, sofas, and TVs, for example. They also

might ask questions for students to put the theory

needed to explain why they made those choices

into practice, such as: How would you motivate aand how those items related to stress recovery or

person in this context or situation? My students

restoration.

will then come up with solutions based on the firstpart of an in-class activity.

Q: What do you think is important in theprocess of education?

As another example of the output I have students

A: From the professor’ s side, what is important ishalf of the lecture, and submit these solutions asweeks. That’ s my teaching philosophy, or theme,that I use in my lectures to encourage students toget involved.

how to put the “seeds of interest” in students’minds and grow them because whatever students
learn in the classroom is somehow related to theirlives. The concepts extend beyond the classroom
and often affect the students’ lives directly.
From the student’ s side, I think it is important toremove the concept of “failure.” It’ s really up tothe students whether they make their mistakes“stepping stones” for their learning. For example,
if a student receives a B in a case assignment, theyshould think about what went wrong and what
could be learned from those errors for the nexttime. I always ask my crew, “Tell me what issomething that you can improve?” rather thanusing negative expressions such as, “What is badhere?”

Q: What do you expect from the students

who take your classes?
A: In my course, proactive engagement is always
important. I always use the analogy of a pirateship. I consider my classroom to be like one ship,
and the professor is the captain. I can make orders
or decide the direction as the captain, but I cannot
move the ship. Who moves the ship? It’ s thestudents, and their proactive engagement in theclass and teamwork is crucial to move it. Everytime students come to the lecture, I always have thetheme music to Pirates of the Caribbean playing at
the beginning. I use that music to remind them,“Okay, from now on you are on the ship as thecrew.” I never call my students “students.” Rather,I call them “crew.” Some of the APM students callme “Captain.” All these symbols are simple, but I
am sending a single and consistent message
through them: The students are the crew, and theyneed to engage and get the most out of these 14

Interviewer Impressions
Professor “Hiro” heavily incorporates guest lecturers in histeaching. This stood out to me the most because one of thethings I want to be included in my learning experience as a
student is the practical part of the process. It is important for
students to see that the theories and concepts we discuss inthe classroom truly apply in reality. Nothing is more real for
current students like me than getting to meet APU senpai andlisten to their inspirational stories. From this interview, I can
see that including guest lectures is one of the best ways tokeep classes exciting and that Professor Hiro knows theimportance of engaging students in this way.

What is [Q]?

At APU there are many professors who put together wonderful classes, and if
we could get to know how these classes are planned, it would contribute tothe improvement of other professors’ classes. For that purpose, we havebegun doing interviews in order to learn about class planning. These articles
have been entitled [Q], comprising a variety of meanings such as: increasing
the [Q]uality of classes, answering [Q]uestions to increase quality, andforming a [Q]ueue, or line, of class improvements. We would be very happy
if these articles could contribute to the [Q]uest of APU professors’ class quality
improvement.

Interviewer
Name: LORENNIJ Kelly
College：APS (ED)Country: Marshall Islands

Message: Iakwe (hello) ！ I am Kelly, a 2ndyear Environment and Development major. I
enjoy traveling and taking my ukulele to playwherever I visit. As a member of the Project Q
team under the Academic Office’ s ALCRS, I

have been able to get an inside look on thegoals and expectations of APU’ s facultyteachers. Through these articles detailing themethods and motivations of each respective
professor, I sincerely wish each reader takes
away a nugget of wisdom.