The International Faculty Development (FD)/
Staff Development (SD) Program 2019 debriefing session was held on March 5, 2020.

Part 1: FD training program

 NAIST has held the International Faculty Development Program every year since its inception in 2004 to promote the development of internationally applicable curriculum education and research while improving English teaching abilities. As a new part of the program, this year a lecturer from University of California Davis (UC Davis) was invited to NAIST to give an international seminar (September 30), which was attended by NAIST faculty and staff and 13 master's and doctoral students who are considering careers in academia. Also, 4 faculty members participated in the 2-week overseas FD training in early and mid-November held in the US.
Over 3 days, from November 3rd - 6th, the 4 faculty participants took part in training through classroom observations at UC Davis about teaching methodology science and technology undergraduate and graduate school education. Following this, faculty members visited a research laboratory of their choice for 5-7 days to investigate areas such as laboratory operation and management and mentoring and instructing graduate students.

 During the debriefing session, the faculty members who participated in the program introduced student-led learning methods, class instruction methods using project based learning, and class design and teaching methods to increase students motivation and drive, and closed the talks describing how they can apply what they learned through program to their individual styles of teaching and instruction.

 After their presentations, Dr. KAWAICHI Masashi, the Division for Educational Development Director, gave a brief presentation on class evaluations performed by an international advisor.
The first part of the session ended with closing remarks from President YOKOYA Naokazu.

【FD Program Participants】

Division of Information Science: Assist. Prof. Doudou Fall (No lab stay)
Division of Information Science: Assist. Prof. Tran Thi Hong (Lab stay: Southern California University, Nov. 11th - 12th)
Division of Information Science: Assist. Prof. Keichi Takahashi (Lab stay: University of Florida, Nov. 8th - 14th)
Division of Information Science: Assoc. Prof. MD. Altaf-Ul-Amin (Lab stay: Wichita State University, Nov. 8th - 14th)

Part 2: SD training program

 Implemented in 2007 to systematically promote the internationalization of education and research activities, this program sends administrative and technical staff to overseas institutions to experience language training, on-site surveys, discussions, etc. so the participants can improve their global understanding and overall planning skills.

 In this year's program, NAIST sent two administrative staff members to the Hawaii Tokai International College (HTIC) from November 4th - 15th, 2019. In addition to taking part in English classes, a practical English training program was held where the program participants visited various universities, including University of Hawaii at Manoa, to survey staff about different topics they had prepared.

 In the dedebriefing session, the trainees reported about the English class contents and explained what found out through their individual training surveys such as Industry-academia collaboration and intellectual property in the US and details of international student support offered there. In relation to Industry-academia collaboration and intellectual property in the US, patent income through participating in exhibitions, holding workshops, and releasing information by SNS was explained. It was noted that in international student support, university staff actively tried to understand international students' cultures and backgrounds, and they stressed the importance of kindness, patience and flexibility.

 After the final question and answer session, Executive Director WATANABE Goro gave encouraging remarks expressing that while it is challenging to improve language skills in a short time, he hopes the trainees will continue to strive for excellence in the internationalization of Japanese universities, ending this beneficial debriefing session.