NAIST has held the International Faculty Development Program every year since its inception in 2004 to further enhance NAIST's curriculum and promote globalization in education and research, while improving English teaching capacity.

A total of 3 faculty members, 1 from each Division of the graduate school, participated in the 2-week program in late October and early November. During the first week, the participants were exposed to and studied effective techniques for science and technology graduate school education in English at the University of California Davis through lectures, guest speakers, and classroom observation. Following this, each faculty member visited a research laboratory of his choice in the USA to gain insights into styles of laboratory management, mentoring graduate students, and other areas related to graduate education in science and technology.

During the session the faculty members who participated in the program introduced the lecture they felt the most impressive and explained how they will apply what they learned to their teaching style and research. They also suggested new PBL (Project Based Learning) project, new structuring of lectures and more effective usage of TAs (Teaching Assistants).

In the question and answer session, President Yokoya and the executive administrators inquired about research and lab management at each of the labs visited, teaching styles, course evaluation and TA training methods at universities where the participants visited. Participants were encouraged to share what they had learned during the FD program with other faculty members and to improve their teaching and supervision skills.

【FD Program Participants】
Division of Information Science: Associate Prof. Junichiro Yoshimoto
Division of Biological Sciences: Prof. Motomu Endo
Division of Materials Science: Associate Prof. Yalikun Yaxiaer