12019 Learner Development SIG Committee Review

2019 Learner Development SIG Committee Review
for
The Learner Development SIG AGM Sunday 11:45 AM - 12:45 PM, Room 1103
The SIG’s annual general meeting is a valuable occasion for SIG members and officers to review
together the SIG’s activities in the last year, make plans for the coming 12 months, and raisequestions for discussion that members of the Learner Development community have. Please comealong and take part in planning LD grants, activities, events, and publications for 2020.
Click here for the 2018 LD SIG committee review and here for the minutes from the 2018 LD SIG
AGM. And if you would like to read reports from 2011 to 2018, you can find them here.

Table of Contents
1. Co-coordinators - Koki Tomita & Yoshio Nakai
2. Treasury Team - Patrick Kiernan
3. Membership Team - Ann Flanagan & Barrie Matte
4. Grants Team - Kris Sullivan, Sami Yoshimuta & Kio Iwai
5. Programmes Team - Blair Barr & Robert Morel
6. Publicity Team (Gretchen Clark) & Illustrator - Rob Moreau
7. Publications Team -James Underwood
8. Learning Learning Editorial Team - Andy Barfield, Tokiko Hori, Daniel Hougham, Ken Ikeda, FumikoMurase, Yoshio Nakai, Hugh Nicoll, Sean Toland, Koki Tomita, & James Underwood(submitted by Andy, Ken, …. )9. Learner Development Journal Steering Group - Tim Ashwell, Darren Elliott, Alison Stewart(submitted by Tim)
10. Learner Development Journal
Issue 3 - ​(Christina Gkonou), Yoshio Nakai, & Jim Ronald
Issue 4 - (Sabine Little) & (Michelle Golledge)はIssue 5 - Andy Barfield, Oana Cusen, Yuri Imamura, Jussi Jussila, & Riitta Kelly
11. Web Maintenance Team - Hugh Nicoll (main LD website), Darren Elliott (LD Journal website)
Hugh Nicoll (LD website)
Darren Elliott (LD Journal website)22019 Learner Development SIG Committee Review

12. Kansai Get-Togethers - Gretchen Clark
13. Tokyo Get-Togethers - James Underwood, Ken Ikeda & Ian Hurrell
14. Committee Members at large -Lee Arnold, Mathew Coomber, Dexter Da Silva, Oana Cusen, Bill
Mboutsiadis, & Mike Nix

1. Co-coordinators - Koki Tomita & Yoshio Nakai (submitted by Koki)
What your goals were in 2019
● Promote the LD SIG to the bigger public including non-JALT members. We need moreteachers and practitioners who teach at the compulsory education. This is necessary not
only for the LD SIG but also JALT to diversify our perspectives by interacting with people who
hold different perspectives from teachers working in university contexts.
● Smooth communication among SIG officers
What you / your team did 2019
● To achieve the first goal, we have tried two new promotional platforms, Sensei Portal andTwitter, by collaborating with Gretchen and the Tokyo Get-Together team to encourage newmembers to join a series of SIG activities. We mainly used Twitter for Get-togethers heldts inTokyo. Sensei Portal has been used to promote our events to new members or participants,
especially Japanese high school and junior high school teachers who don’t belong to JALT.
● For the second goal, I was hoping to introduce Slac or different communication tools to
encourage spontaneous communication among SIG officers. However, consulting with SIG
coordinators and SIG officers at the past EBMs, I have realized that current email based
communication is effective for the LD SIG given the time and effort taken for transitioning toanother communication platform. Attended the EBMs, and shared our successful SIG
activities and practices in the hope that it contributes to the development of other SIGs andChapters.
● Attended Tokyo Get-Togethers and took photos of our meetings. I hope this can lead tofurther promotion of the LD SIG.
Something that was satisfying● Participating in activities with positive, encouraging and hard-working officers is always apleasure and satisfaction to me.
● Contributed to bits and pieces of LD SIG activities including Tokyo Get-togethers, CCLT,
Learning Learning translation team, attending the EBMs. This allowed me to grasp the whole
picture of SIG activities.
Something that was challenging● This year was challenging for me in many ways. This is the first year for me to coming back to
the teaching world after a serious illness that I experienced last year. Also, I started a newjob last April. So, definitely balancing job, life events and SIG roles were a challenge.
● While we constantly gain presenters to LD forums at JALT associated conferences such as Pan
SIG, JALT CALL, and the International Conference, I feel that a number of members are notparticipating local events anymore. As Ken wrote in his report for the Tokyo Get-Together,
our local activity, especially the Get-togethers, is a great platform for sharing teaching ideas
and practices, but it has been losing people over the past years. I often wonder about the32019 Learner Development SIG Committee Review●●

causes of the decline. Is that due to the way of promotion, content, or frequency? It will beamazing that we can talk about this at the AGM and reconstruct our local events.
The effect of promotion by using different types of SNS has been minimal.
Communication among officers. Since we have a wide breadth of SIG activities (e.g. Learning
Learning, LD Journal, Get-togethers, grants, web management, and treasury, forums, andmembership etc), keeping some LD SIG activities under the radar was difficult.

What you would like to do in 2020
● Communication: Setting up a SIG calendar, online officers’ meeting (per month) to checkprogress and development of SIG activities.
● Find successors for the co-coordinator positions and pass down our torch.
Envisaged expenditures for 2020
Travel fares and hotel charge which allow successors to join future EBMs in February and June.
¥60,000.

2. Treasury Team - Patrick Kiernan (submitted by Patrick)
What your goals were in 2019
To learn the ropes, submit monthly reports on time with as few mistakes as possible.
What you / your team did 2019
Kept records of SIG expenses
Something that was satisfying
Completing the annual end of year report and moving into a new financial year
Something that was challenging
Taking on the job of treasurer in the first place and setting up the bank account (actually not that
bad)
What you would like to do in 2020
Keep things as convenient and smooth as possible for those for those using SIG funds
I missed the JALT treasurers' workshop last year for personal reasons so if there is another one I
would hope to attend
Envisaged expenditures for 2020
Occasional bank charges for withdrawals and posting forms, though now I am aware of this, will
hopefully keep both of these to an absolute minimum so that money can be used for actual SIG
activities

3. Membership Team - Ann Flanagan (submitted by Ann)
What your goals were in 2019
● Want to send out a questionnaire to the LD SIG members to see how we can improve our
SIG and make it stronger.
● Try to increase the number of members who attend the Kansai Get Together Group.

42019 Learner Development SIG Committee Review●●●●

Revise Welcome, 2 month renewal and 1 month renewal letters.
Continue regular mail-outs, list updates, and personal communication when necessary.
Set a goal of how many members we would like to have join our SIG by a certain date.
Promote the LD SIG at different events.

What you / your team did 2019
See below.
Something that was satisfying
See below.
Something that was challenging
I was unable to fulfill my duties as membership chair every month. It would be good to have morethan one person involved in the future.
What you would like to do in 2020
I am stepping down. The membership list is up to date, so Tetsuko Fukawa should have no problems.
I will transfer the files later this week. It was a pleasure working with everyone these past few years.
I’m sorry that I was unable to keep up with the membership duties this year.
Envisaged expenditures for 2020 - none

4. Grants Team - Kris Sullivan, Sami Yoshimuta & Kio Iwai (submitted by Kris)
What your goals were in 2019
Make any necessary changes (i.e. to grant advertising, application criteria, vetting procedures, etc)
advertise the grants in a timely manner, vet in a timely manner, and be able to support as many of
the SIG’s members as possible through the awarding of grants.
What you / your team did 2019
We made some updates to application criteria and selection criteria based on our reflections andappraisals of other grants offered by JALT. All of this was up on the website and publicized quite early(December). Several reminders were sent out to members via the ML. We communicated withinterested applicants, applicants and successful recipients making sure that all were aware of
expectations as grant recipients (addressing a 2018 issue) and also about how to organize grant
payments. We vetted applications and announced recipients (via the ML but not on the website yet).
We updated past recipients and added links to their LL write ups on the website. We worked with
Treasury to organize grant payments.
Something that was satisfying
Being able to support five members in their professional development. It was also nice that we got
research and project grant applications this year, in addition to conference grant applications, after
only getting conference grant applications in 2018.
Something that was challenging
Team members were often busy at differing times of the year which meant that we got behind invetting and thus announcing the applicants. There was also some confusion about which teammembers would handle what, something common when communication is only via email and many

52019 Learner Development SIG Committee Review

emails are being passed back and forth, and as a result there was a delay in actually giving the
research and project grant recipients their grants. This will need to be taken into account when
deciding the 6 month and 1 year points when they are meant to report on their progress and submit
their final write-ups. Team member roles could perhaps be made clearer, and communication
improved, but in the end everything seems to have worked out.
What you would like to do in 2020
We have talked about making an application template for grant applicants. Some applicants do notgive a full enough budget explanation, so having a template might help here. Better coordination
with the LL team also seems to be necessary. But this is all for the new team members to decide.
Envisaged expenditures for 2020
It would be nice to be able to give 5 grants of 40,000 yen each again in 2020 (total 200,000 yen).

5. Programmes Team - Blair Barr & Robert Morel (submitted by Blair Barr and Rob Morel)
What your goals were in 2019
(Blair) We were sure to get the call out for the PanSIG forum before the November JALT conference,as we were hoping that we would be able to get more participants in the forum at PanSIG. It seems
to have helped significantly. PanSIG always has a deadline that follows relatively soon after the JALT
conference, and due to change overs at the November conference, we were typically late getting out
the call for presenters in the past.
Also, the JALTCALL Forum got a lot of interest, but that simply may be a result of being held inTokyo. However, we also had more people attending. I specifically made of point of mentioning thetools being discussed in the title of the forum. In the past, we had a very general title, but that did
not attract many interested attendees. We had assumed that is because people are looking to learn
more about specific tools when they attend JALTCALL.
What you / your team did 2019
(Blair) Rob attended and led the preparations for the forum at PanSIG. I did the same for the forum
at JALTCALL and JALT2019. We are both attending the forum at JALT2019.
The Active Learning theme for JALT2019 was extremely popular. We had nearly 20 presentations
at first, before a few people dropped out due to outside concerns. We are thinking of continuingwith this theme for PanSIG 2020.
Something that was satisfying(Blair) As mentioned above, we had a lot of people interested in presenting and attending theforums this year.
Something that was challenging(Blair) It seems to me that many people are not reading email anymore. I often would write an email
with the details of the events, and then later would get questions asking some of the same basic
details that were expressed in the original email. I am wondering if there are any better ways ofcommunicating the details of the forums. Perhaps sharing a Google Calendar event? (I don’t know
how that would work for iPhone people though.)
We were not very successful at getting an academic write up on the forums after the events hadtaken place. Much of the feedback is simply expressing satisfaction rather than academic or practical62019 Learner Development SIG Committee Review

issues or applications.
●
What you would like to do in 2020
(Blair) Ideally, I would like to have a model of an interesting publication shared with the participants
well before the event. This way they can have a good model to follow when it comes to contributing
to the post-conference reflection. For example, I was very proud of the piece published about theforum at JALTCALL 2018. Also, I would like to improve my own level of communication with the
publications team. I would like to have someone from that team on board with a Google Document
even before the forums take place. This way we can get the reflection document out right after theforum finishes.
Envisaged expenditures for 2020
(Blair) We can’t be certain at this point, as it depends on the venue for JALT2020. Our only big
expense tends to be for poster boards at the international conference in November, but this year
they have simply assigned us to the poster presentation room, so they have not charged us for that.

6. Publicity Team (Gretchen Clark) & Illustrator - Rob Moreau (submitted by Gretchen, Rob)
What your goals were in 2019 I (Gretchen) worked on increasing the SIG’s social media presence
through posting information about Tokyo Get Togethers, Call for Papers/editors for the next editionof the journal, and Forum details on Twitter and our Facebook page. If the SIG had organized any
larger events this year, I would’ve posted information about them on Sensei Portal, ELT news and the
JALT calendar. I used the announcements on the ‘ld-news email list’ for the content for thesepublicity items. Our twitter handle is: <at>JALTLDSIG Our email address is:jaltldsig<at>gmail<dot>com * Please let me know how to get the passwords to you for the above
accounts and senseiportal.
(Robert) The goals for 2019 were to be able to provide any logos or other image-oriented publicity
that was required.
What you / your team did 2019
(Gretchen) See above(Robert) This year a new logo was developed for the CCLT conference, which will be held in
December.
Something that was satisfying(Robert) It is always a pleasure to be able to provide graphics when required.
Something that was challenging(Gretchen) To be honest, in the beginning, I really didn’t have a clear picture as to how I could help
out. One example: the Grants Team knows the details of their work for the committee so it madesense for them to publicize their information on their own. If they had included me in their publicity
efforts, I feel a lot of time would be wasted emailing back and forth as they told me what to write to
the membership on ld-news. I think the system as it is now is efficient.
(Robert) There are times when, due to being busy, the graphics work does get delayed. It is very
important to request any such work with plenty of time in advance in case of unforeseen difficulties.
What you would like to do in 2020 (Robert) If possible, I would like to continue in the same capacity

72019 Learner Development SIG Committee Review

as now.
Envisaged expenditures for 2020 none?

7. Publications Team - James Underwood (submitted by James Underwood )What your goals were in 2019
Our goals were to publish LL twice a year and one issue of the Learner Development Journal.
What you / your team did 2019
(James) I think the Learning Learning team did an excellent job of publishing two issues of Learning
Learning. Although the Spring issue was published a little later than usual, due to the communication
issues Andy mentioned below, we were able to publish the Autumn issue two weeks before thenational conference.
The Learner Development Journal Steering group also did well to publish Issue 3 at the end of 2018.
And keep Issue 3 moving closer to publication, while keeping the momentum going with a call for
papers of Issue 4.
Something that was satisfying
It was great to work with a large team of editors and writers in publishing LL, many thanks toeveryone who was involved.
Something that was challenging
When work got busy it was sometimes challenging for me to keep in contact with everyone. Many
thanks to Andy for weathering the storm and steering us towards publication.
What you would like to do in 2020
I would like to build on the success of this year and keep Learning Learning publishing on a regularschedule. It will be great if new editors could join the team and shadow the current members as
Daniel, Sean, Andy and Chika had to step down due to work commitments. Many thanks for all thehard work they put into the previous issues, it was great to work with them.
Envisaged expenditures for 2020

8. Learning Learning Editorial Team - Andy Barfield, Tokiko Hori, Daniel Hougham, Ken
Ikeda, Fumiko Murase, Yoshio Nakai, Hugh Nicoll, Sean Toland, Koki Tomita, & James Underwood(submitted by Andy, Hugh, & Ken)
What your goals were in 2019(Andy) We wanted to produce two issues of Learning Learning, rotate the lead editor position among
different members of editorial team, and be on time in getting each issue of LL to LD members.
James and I were leaふはd editors in 2019, and other editors will hopefully take this role / share thisrole in 2020.
What you / your team did 2019

8

2019 Learner Development SIG Committee Review(Andy) We produced two issues of Learning Learning. We learnt from the 2019 Spring issue that it isdifficult to get much final editing done once the Spring semester has started. We managed to get theediting for the Autumn issue finished by mid-September, which helped with getting it published by
mid-October. That leads to a good break before working on the next issue, which is important for the
LL team to have.
Something that was satisfying(Andy) I would mention: the number of new members of the SIG who have written for Members'
Voices this year, as well as the range of texts (genres) that contributors over two issues haveproduced. That’s been really satisfying as has the development of collaborative editing andresponding among the editorial team, as this is where we learn together, in dialogue with writers,and I hope this long continues. As a team we’ve also got used to logging and updating regularly ourwork in a shared Google doc for Editorial Team Assignments and Notes for each issue of LL. This hashelped us plan together and keep track of how things are going for each issue.
(Ken) Fumiko, Sean, and I served as grant report editors. I think we did an able job, encouraging the
grant awardees to state their experiences and insights gained in tune with the vision set by the LD
editorial community to write with an ‘I’ voice.
Something that was challenging(Andy) We are all terribly busy in our own work commitments, but at times the lack ofcommunication, while understandable, has been a little frustrating. Flies and ointments
acknowledged, we accomplished a lot together as an editorial team with many many different
writers.
I would also like to say a huge thank you to everyone on the editorial team this past year for all theirwork and collaboration, to James for being lead editor on the Spring issue and doing the layout for
both issues, and to Hugh for being the webmaster for LL over both issues. A warm thank you toDaniel and Sean for all their editing too as they step back due to other commitments.
(Ken) Fumiko, Sean, and I worked quite often with the grant awardees on their reports. One lesson
we learned as editors was to temper our respective levels of editorial compunctions on eachawardee’s report, becoming mindful of not overwhelming the writer. We also struggled not having
timely communication with grant writers, as we aimed to have these reports to meet publishable
standards in the newsletter.
(Hugh) Producing an issue of Learning Learning is always challenging, especially as we move fromdiscussions of the issues themes, engage in collaborative communications with authors and othereditors, and get the final drafts edited and proofed. There are always small errors to catch, even after
multiple attempts to get the final version all-but-perfect for upload and publishing. That said, we are
getting better at it, and in the last year our team efforts were generally successful. I will continue as
an editor, occasional contributor, and web administrator (publisher) for the next year, but will needto step back from LL after the publication of LL27.2. Simply time for me to try to understand what
retirement might be like.
What you would like to do in 2020
Envisaged expenditures for 2020

92019 Learner Development SIG Committee Review

9. Learner Development Journal Steering Group - Tim Ashwell, Darren Elliott, Alison
Stewart (submitted by Tim)
What your goals were in 2019
(Tim) In 2019, we were aiming to see Issue 3 of the LD Journal published, to move Issue 4 forward,
and to get Issue 5 up and running.
What you / your team did 2019
(Tim) In March, we put out a Call for Theme and Editors for Issue 5 of the Journal to be published in
2021 and decided in May to go with the proposal from Andy Barfield, Oana Cusen, Yuri Imamura,
Riitta Kelly,and Jussi Jussila for an issue provisionally entitled “Engaging with the Multilingual

Turn for Learner Development: Practices, Issues, Discourses, and Theorisations”. We kept intouch with the Issue 4 editors, Sabine Little and Michelle Golledge, as they worked with
contributors to produce first drafts on the theme of supervisor/supervisee relationships. Alison is thedesignated contact person for Issue 4. Meanwhile Darren, the designated contact person for Issue 3,
has been liaising with the Issue 3 editors, Jim Ronald, Christina Gkonou and Yoshio Nakai, to help
finalize papers for a projected publication date in December.
Something that was satisfying(Tim) It was fantastic to see Issue 2 of the Journal published at the end of 2018. Masuko Miyahara,
Patrick Kiernan and Chika Hayashi deserve huge credit for guiding the project and the final collectionof papers about qualitative research and learner development will be of immense use to people
embarking on qualitative research for the first time and those wishing to reflect even more carefullyon the methods they already employ.
Something that was challenging(Tim) As always, it has been a challenge to try to steer the Journal in the direction it was originallyintended to go (see: https://ldjournalsite.wordpress.com/aims-and-scope/)! Maybe the name,“Journal”, was a mistake and has led some people to assume that what we are seeking to develop isa traditional academic journal when, in fact, we have always hoped that the Journal would break
new ground and be an open, secure and welcoming environment in which less experienced
writer/researchers can explore their interests. Perhaps over time the Journal will settle more into theoriginal conception of a highly collaborative, supportive, exploratory venture where the writing itself
explores new modes and possibilities.
What you would like to do in 2020
(Tim) We need to see Issue 4 through to publication in late 2020; we need to support the Issue 5
editors; and we need to find a new team to take on Issue 6. In addition, we would like to findsomeone (or two) who could shadow members of the Steering Group with an eye to replacing someof the old fogies (like me) next year.
Envisaged expenditures for 2020
None envisaged.

102019 Learner Development SIG Committee Review

10. Learner Development Journal​​Issue 3 - ​(Christina Gkonou), Yoshio Nakai, & Jim Ronald (submitted by Jim Ronald Jim)​(Jim) After getting a bit lost and getting found, with its total of ten papers plus our Introduction,
Issue 3 is getting close to completion, a little behind schedule. The deliberately non-typical style of
LDJ has been a struggle, but that struggle has been an education, and we are still learning.

Issue 4 - (Sabine Little) & (Michelle Golledge) (submitted by Sabine)(Sabine) Issue 4 of the Learner Development Journal has progressed beyond the peer review stage,
and author teams either already have submitted their revised submissions, or are in the process of
doing so. We are entering the stage of standard reviews, with multiple author teams opting for the
open review system.

Issue 5 - Andy Barfield, Oana Cusen, Yuri Imamura, Jussi Jussila, & Riitta Kelly (submitted by Andy)(Andy) We put together a "Call for Inclusive Practitioner Research and Reviews for Issue 5 of The
Learner Development Journal (LDJ5)" on the theme of "Engaging with the Multilingual Turnfor Learner Development: Practices, Issues, Discourses, and Theorisations", and sent thisin late September to various lists (LD-news, AUTO-L, IATEFL Research SIG, and Fully Inclusive
Practitioner Research Network (FIPR)), with a deadline of Monday 13th January 2020.
LDJ5 focuses on two types of writing - narrative accounts and practice-related reviews, withpublishers generously providing review copies of seven different books. We will send out the Callagain a couple of times ahead of January and are looking forward to seeing what proposals come infor LDJ5. More to follow later ----

11. Web Maintenance Team - Hugh Nicoll (main LD website), Darren Elliott (LD Journal
website) (submitted by Hugh, Darren)

Hugh Nicoll (LD website)
What your goals were in 2019
My primary goals, more or less unchanged over 20+ years, are to maintain and update the SIG
website in a timely fashion, and to maintain the SIG’s mailing lists. I had also discussed moving the
LD-SIG site from my server account to the JALT site, but have found it difficult to set aside the time to
manage that task.
What you / your team did 2019
In 2019, I continued to wear two primary hats as a SIG officer, maintaining the web site, mailing lists,
etc. and working with the LL Editorial team to edit, proofread, and publish our two issues of Learning
Learning (26.1 and 26.2) in a timely fashion. I also coordinate with other officer teams in making surethat news announcements regarding conference events, grants proposal deadlines, Get-togethers,
etc. are announced in our newsletters, mailing lists, and published on our Facebook page.

11

2019 Learner Development SIG Committee Review

Something that was satisfying
Keeping things more or less on track throughout the year.
Something that was challenging
Keeping up and juggling personal and professional aspirations is an ongoing challenge: nature of thegame (?)
What you would like to do in 2020
Find a new lead IT person to help me move the LD-SIG web site and mailing lists to the jalt.org
server, and step down as primary web administrator. I’ve been doing this job for the SIG for 25 years
or so. I also need to coordinate with Paul Collett (jalt.org lead developer & web administrator) andwith Darren to integrate the ld-sig.org site and the LD Journal site, and move them to the jalt.org
domain.
Envisaged expenditures for 2020
I received two lump sum payments in 2018 and 2019 to cover the costs I’ve shouldered in hosting
the LD web site these many years, but it is well past time to move to the jalt.org site. I suspect
Darren and I may need some technical help in integrating the LD & LDJ Wordpress sites, but need tocheck with Paul Collett on timing and technical issues. It would be good for the SIG if we could get
this done in the next two months. Tech support estimate: ¥20,000 (max). Web support
reimbursement request (2019) ¥6,000 (6 mos. Hosting on the ld-sig.org domain I currently maintain)+ 1 year ld-sig.org domain renewal (¥2,111) paid 10/31/19

Darren Elliott (LD Journal website)
What your goals were in 2019
What you / your team did 2019
Something that was satisfying
Something that was challenging
What you would like to do in 2020
This is a very low key maintenance job. The only goal I have is to move the website off my own
personal wordpress suite onto the LD-SIG managed site, once the whole LD-SIG site is set up on the
JALT server.
Envisaged expenditures for 2020
None

12. Kansai Get-Togethers - Gretchen Clark (submitted by Gretchen)
What your goals were in 2019 We had hoped to team up with Kyoto JALT and run another student
conference like ‘Kansai to the World’ but this plan was postponed for several reasons. I ran the
Programming for Kyoto JALT so it would be natural for me to wear two hats for this event, however,there are other members of the Kyoto JALT Programming team who had other ideas for our chapter
so I thought it better to support them and their aspirations this time.
What you / your team did 2019 Unfortunately, nothing.

122019 Learner Development SIG Committee Review

Something that was satisfying
Something that was challenging I am heavily involved with Kyoto JALT so planning local Get
Togethers was never possible for me. I stated this when I ‘took over’ this role at the AGM last year.
At that time, my primary goal was to reprise the student conference with Kyoto JALT but that plan
did not get off the ground for the above reason.
What you would like to do in 2020 I hope another local SIG member revitalizes this group. We were
small, but mighty a few years ago under Agi Patko.
Envisaged expenditures for 2020 None, assuming the group uses a community center for meetings
like we did in the past/ the group doesn’t plan on hosting a student conference.

13. Tokyo Get-Togethers - James Underwood, Ken Ikeda & Ian Hurrell (submitted by Ian,James, and Ken)

Tokyo get-together report
What your goals were in 2019(Ken) Hold meetings with other LD-SIG members, new and current, to discuss relevant topics andissues related to learner development, probing the need and possibility of holding our year-end
conference Creating Community: Learning Together (CCLT) with a bonenkai. We’ve issued a call of
proposals for this year’s CCLT5 due Nov. 22nd.
What you / your team did 2019(Ken) We held meetings on these dates from 14:30-17:00: February 10th, April 21st, May 26th, June
23rd, Sept. 29th, Oct. 27th, and have scheduled for Nov. 24th and Dec. 15th, which will be CCLT5.
Attendance has fluctuated throughout the year from 3 to 10 participants.
Something that was satisfying(Ken) Meeting and discussing with a few members each meeting.
Of particular distinction were our discussions on active learning, which led Tim Ashwell, James
Underwood, and myself to produce our reflections on active learning published in Learning Learning
Volume 26, Issue 2, which has been very well received by the larger LD community.
(Ian) Having taken some time off participating in LD SIG activities, it was nice to help out withorganizing the get-togethers again in whatever small way I could. It was also nice to meet anddiscuss various issues with the other members.
(James) As Ken has mentioned before it was great to see our discussion with Tim and others to beformally written up and published in Learning Learning volume 26 Issue 2. It was also good to seesome of the reflections from CCLT4 being published in Learning Learning volume 26 Issue 1.
Something that was challenging

132019 Learner Development SIG Committee Review(Ken) Continuity. Considering that the LD-SIG has a ready resources space, courtesy of my office, it’ssort of sad that members aren’t taking opportunity to come and share how they are viewing andimplementing learner development in their respective environments, which is why community
development is so vital. I realize lots of us have moved on and have different interests and priorities(particularly our families), but these Tokyo get-togethers provide that time and place for respite,reflection, and re-invigoration for moving onward.
The year-end CCLT5 mini-conference seems to have evolved to feature ‘armies’ of university students
organized by their respective professors as a means to present their term projects. While it is theconference’s policy to accept all proposals, accountability between students, their supervisors, andthe conference organizers is a highly desirable must.
(Ian) Echoing Ken’s comments, it has been a growing struggle to encourage people to attend themonthly meetings. It would be nice to hear from our members what they would like to use thesemeetings for and what would make the meeting a more rewarding experience.
(James) I agree with both Ken and Ian. We have experimented with giving the Get-togethers a focus
for discussion: "Active Learning." And have given the participants a chance to give their input on
CCLT5. But it is sometimes hard to organise things when we are not sure how many will members
will come.
What you would like to do in 2020(Ken) Continue these meetings, though the frequency in a year (at least 6, this 2019 year) is one toconsider. Carrying on the theme of active learning (since it remains on the forefront of educational
policy in schools in Japan) is one, as being on the outlook for other developing trends and interests.
(Ian) I would also like to continue the meetings, and I hope that I will have more time to take a more
active role in organising and help encourage more participation in the meetings from our members.
(James) I would also like to continue the meetings and perhaps have an ongoing research projectthat could provide focus to the meetings. This could perhaps culminate presentations at the JALT
national forum or CCLT6, or more...
Envisaged expenditures for 2020(Ken) Less than 50,000 yen, for a future CCLT6. Barring an actual schedule conflict, I think we canhold our get-togethers in my department’s big meeting room at no extra cost. Until this year, I had
feared that my university entrance exams would take precedence on the dates of our get-togethers,so I scheduled other rooms on those dates, but it seems to have come to naught.

14. Committee Members at large - Lee Arnold, Mathew Coomber, Dexter Da Silva, Oana
Cusen, Bill Mboutsiadis, & Mike Nix
Please feel free to make any observations or comments about how the committee has been doing
this last year, and/or share recommendations or questions for the coming year.
Bill - Over here in Toronto, Canada I still enjoy keeping up with my favourite SIG and professionalorganization. Your work keeps me motivated to continue to be an action research practitioner in myprofession. The LD SIG’s past year’s published work, conferences and get-togethers are all very
impressive and interesting to read. Please keep me informed and connected. Remember you have a142019 Learner Development SIG Committee Review

friend across the pond in Toronto. All the best for the coming year.
Lee - While I’m late to the party, as is my wont, and I know I’m behind the curve as far as replying, I
have not abandoned LD and wish to get back into the swing of it for 2020. As some of you may know,
I had a major issue with lower back pain in late 2018 and overall, while I am better, I have never feltthat I have truly recovered 100% from it - hence my absence from the get-togethers, to my regret - I
currently am working six days a week and need to rest when I can, but will cut down to five from
April 2020, which may help somewhat with me getting back into LD and back into active
presentation, JALT conference participation (including CCLT!), and such.
I’ve always felt that LD is a great SIG and while I unfortunately can’t make it to Nagoya this time, will
follow and wish for the best for LD’s endeavors.
Dexter Mike Matthew Oana -