Volume 24 Issue 3
Winter 2017

Learning Learning
GETTING CONNECTED2LOCAL GET-TOGETHER REPORTS
Kansai Get-together Report
Agnes PatkoWe have held our meetings every
month at a community centre inKyoto and provided continuous
professional support to each other. Due to a
new email communication system, we managed
to inform all members of the SIG in the area
about our activities. We had new participants
almost every month in the spring semester.
After the very successful first Kansai to theWorld Conference in the Autumn of 2016, thegroup decided to organise the event again. Thisyear it was held in June as the venue had alreadybeen booked by one of the SIG members foranother event, which had been cancelled. Asresult, the rooms became available forus. Organising the student conference was mucheasier and quicker than last year. We received
positive feedback from both presenters andparticipants of the conference. At JALT 2017,
we had a meeting with the organisers ofILA2018 and decided that K2W3 will be held atILA2018. It will hopefully attract a large numberof presenters. Although there is obvious student
interest, the Kansai group do not want toconcentrate solely on event organisation.
The biggest challenge that we have been
facing is attracting people to the get-togethers.
Even though we get new participants, it is hardto keep them active. Compared to people in theTokyo area, people in Kansai are less willing totake an hour or longer train ride to attend theget-togethers. Discussing current issues related
to teaching does not seem to satisfy members.
Also, discussions about the student conference
during the get-together time may prevent a
number of people from attending due to a lackof interest in the event.

LOCAL GET-TOGETHERS

We have been talking about joint research plans,but, owing to various factors, such as different
teaching contexts and research interests, andinconsistent participation in meetings, we havenot managed to make any concrete decision yet.
Participants have expressed interest in
holding mini-presentations or workshops inwhich they can introduce a classroom activity orreport about their most recent research
results. Having talked to the regular participants,
I would like to propose that we meet bi-monthly
with a set theme or agenda. To this end, wecould send out a call for presentations
and/or workshops at the beginning of the year.

Hiroshima 2017 Get-togethers
Jim RonaldT

he Hiroshima LD Get-togethers havebeen happening now for a decade or
more, with some years of regularmonthly meetings, and some of less regular—
and also some where nothing happens. Apartfrom our looming Inter-university Scrabble
Contest, 2017 has been a “nothing happened”
year, at least this far. Maybe a fallow year in
preparation for a bigger harvest next year? Ormaybe a chance to think differently about how
to do things? For example, being reminded at
the JALT conference of the importance ofworkplace teacher groups, I wonder whether thelocal group might work well as a supporter,
encourager of these at different schools oruniversities. Easier for many people to join, andostensibly more relevant to many teachers, too?
For me, over the decade of local LD Gettogethers, two benefits that stand out for me
have been the building of friendships, and theopportunities for languaging—giving shape andpurpose to fuzzy reflections. Certainly, thesecond could well work online—with aFacebook group, like the Kansai LD gettogethers, or similar. And the first throughhelping to foster workplace groups—and just

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Volume 24 Issue 3
Winter 2017

Learning Learning
being more sociable? Looking forward to what
we can do in 2018—and appreciating the
support of Tokyo and Kansai Get-togethers!

TokyoGet-togethers:
September 2017

January-

Andy Barfield, Ian Hurrell and Jenny MorganW

ith Ken Ikeda starting his sabbaticalin California and after many years ofholding the Tokyo Get-togethers atOtsuma Women’s University, the get-togethers
moved to Rikkyo University Ikebukuro campus
from April 2017. Based on discussions andfeedback from participants at the January andFebruary get-togethers, we decided to moveaway from holding individual research-themed
workshops of the previous year’s get-togethers
to focusing on building continuity between gettogethers by encouraging the creation ofcollaborative groups that would meet anddiscuss over several get-togethers with a mind tostart a shared project at some point.
Accordingly, we followed this structure in April,May, and June:
14.00-14.15 Mingling and meeting in pairs
14.15-14.45 Talking about people’s working
contexts, research interests and goals; miniposter making about their Learner
Development interests
14.45-15.00 Sharing posters; finding possible
connections for group discussion
15.00-15.15 Short break
15.15-16.45 Pair and small-group discussions
exploring shared interests, puzzles, andpossible collaborations/projects
16.45-17.00 Whole group reflection circle toshare a brief summary of the focus of eachgroup’s discussion.
To further encourage continuity between gettogethers we also decided to try out a newprocess for the post get-together write-ups.

LOCAL GET-TOGETHERS

Each group created their own Google Doc torecord the content of their discussions anddevelop together a narrative of theircollaboration that they might refer to from one
get-together to another. Links to the groups’
Google Docs are then published in the generalwrite-up of the get-together on the LD website
so that they can be viewed publicly (seehttp://ld-sig.org/2017-tokyo-get-togethers/).
The spring semester started with our April
get-together attended by a dozen or somembers at LD Tokyo’s new venue at Rikkyo
University Ikebukuro Campus. The theme ofthis first gathering was “Beginnings: Ideas andPossibilities for Collaborative Learner Development
Projects: Sharing Interests and Starting Questions.”
Attendees spent time sharing with newmembers about their teaching contexts, researchinterests, learner-teacher puzzles, and goals forattending the LD get-togethers, and as well ascatching up with old friends since the winterbreak. Then, participants created and sharedmini-posters summarizing our individual LD
interests, challenge/puzzles, and goals looking
for possible connections for collaboration.
This led to people splitting off into smaller
interest groups that included: a motivational
strategies group; a reflection group discussing
reflective practices and processes in learner andteacher development; and a research analysis
group for teachers who wanted to discuss theircurrent personal research and writing projects.
We ended this get-together with a commitment
by group members to contribute to a shortreflective report about their discussions to beshared on the LD website.
The May get-together was attended by asimilar number of people, and had the theme of“Explorations: Sharing Possibilities for CollaborativeLearner Development Projects: Exploring Puzzles andFinding New Paths.” We hoped that people
would continue with the April interest groups,
forming or re-forming other interest groups—
the groups and projects are not fixed, and arealways open to new people joining in. Groups
discussed learner development projects theywould like to do in collaboration with (an)otherget-together participant(s). At that stage, we had

GETTING CONNECTED |60

Learning Learningin mind the informal afternoon conference,
Creating Community: Learning Together 4, tentatively
proposed for December 2017. At the end of theMay get-together, each group agreed to write up
a report of their discussions using Google Docs.
We also talked about keeping contact andmomentum for our projects through to the next
get-together in June.
A small but nonetheless lively group met for
the June get-together: “Progressions—Continuingwith Our Interest Groups and Learner DevelopmentIssues.” One member shared a specificpresentation she was working on for a summer
conference. Then, in response to a member’squestion “What is learner development?,” welaunched into an extended discussion about
different aspects of learner development
processes and puzzles. An ongoing discussion
and work in progress!
At the end of July, the Tokyo get-together
coordination team (Andy, Ian, Jenny) met forreflection and discussion about the springsemester. We realise that while LD SIG
members have a strong interest in discussing
learner development issues, many are
increasingly busy and find it hard to attend gettogethers regularly and there has been a
noticeable a drop off in attendance at themonthly get-togethers. This has made it difficult
to cultivate collaboration and continuity
between get-togethers, which is the primary
purpose of the meetings. As a result, we decided
to put on hold the December CCLT4 informal
afternoon conference.

Volume 24 Issue 3
Winter 2017
focus on identifying common issues of interest,
discussing collaborative research and writing
projects about learner development, andplanning how to put their researchideas/puzzles/questions into action in thespring semester. Then, in the interim period
from May to September/October, eachcollaborative group would meet decentrally todiscuss the implementation of their researchideas, according to group members’ schedules,
using online tools such as Skype and sometimes
meeting face to face for a bite to eat and drink
together, as and when people had space andtime to do so. In the final period of the year
“conventional” get-togethers in September
and/or October would let groups start toconsolidate their work with a view to sharing it
publicly by the end of the year (December) or
the start of the next (January).
• Would such a blended approach offer a way
forward for 2018?
• Are there other approaches that you feel
would be worth trying?
• How can the get-togethers be run so thatthey work for you?
We are looking forward to meeting with you
and hearing your views or by email at<ldsigtokyogettogethers@gmail.com>.

At the time of writing this in early September
we are looking forward to opening a discussion
among LD members in the greater Tokyo area
about how to re-energize participation in gettogethers or, indeed, whether to continue theget-togethers in 2018 or not. One alternative
might be to move towards a blended approachfor the get-togethers, for example, combining
face-to-face get-togethers in the first few
sessions of the year (say January, February,April, and May) with decentralised small-groupmeetings from May to September, and wholegroup meetings in October and December. In
the initial months of the year participants might

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