A debriefing session of this year’s International Faculty Development (FD) program was held on November 30, 2017 for participating faculty members to introduce their experiences and discuss them with NAIST executives.

NAIST has held the FD program every year since 2004 to further its mission of globalizing education and enhancing education through effective methods of teaching and learning in English.

Assoc. Prof. Takashi Ishio (Graduate School of Information Science), Prof. Akira Kurisaki (Graduate School of Biological Sciences), Assoc. Prof. Ayako Isotani (Graduate School of Biological Sciences), and Assoc. Prof. Hiroaki Benten (Graduate School of Materials Science) participated in this year’s FD program in early November. In the week of November 6, the group visited the University of California, Davis, (UC Davis) for observations of various undergraduate and graduate science and technology classes, followed by debriefing sessions with leading UC Davis faculty members and their teaching assistants. Afterwards, in the week of November 13, Assoc. Prof. Benten stayed at the laboratory of Dr. David Ginger, the Department of Chemistry of the University of Washington. The FD program provided opportunities for the participating faculty members to gain valuable insight into various creative teaching and learning methods key for effective graduate education in science and technology, as well as styles of laboratory management, graduate student guidance and student supervision.

During the session, the faculty members explained how the program helped broaden their perspectives, not only on effective pedagogical approaches, but also on faculty members’ roles in graduate education. Following the report, President Naokazu Yokoya and the executives shared encouraging opinions on the extent to which the participants’ teaching knowledge and skills obtained through this experience will improve educational performance both at the individual level for the participants and at the graduate school level through the dissemination of what they experienced.

2017 FD Program Participants

Debriefing Session