Active Learning How about this? [6]The "Concept" and "Failure" of Advertising Elementary School
Masashi Okuma
Counseling Training Center Schoolhouse "Brave"
Masahiro Makiguchi
Advisor, Yoshida Hideo Memorial Foundation
Megumi Tatebayashi
Dentsu Inc.
DENTSU SOKEN INC.'s "Active Learning: What About This? Research Institute " was established in October 2015, ahead of the full-scale introduction of active learning in school education. The institute provides know-how for active learning, which aims to cultivate versatile abilities for identifying and solving problems independently and applying them in the real world. It is committed to supporting the "activation of learning."
This series features columns by the institute's Kirillova Nadezhda and dialogues with Professor Masashi Okuma, a member of the institute and co-researcher for the Advertising Elementary School, along with other members.
The theme of the first dialogue is "Advertising Elementary School." This is a social contribution activity conducted by Dentsu Inc., for which it has developed a curriculum with Tokyo Gakugei University. It is a teaching program that aims to cultivate communication skills through the creation of commercials. To date, approximately 27,000 students from 240 schools nationwide have participated.
Professor Okuma, Masahiro Makiguchi, Director of Dentsu Inc. 1CRP Bureau (the program's originator), and Megumi Tatebayashi from the same research institute served as facilitators. They discussed the key elements from "Advertising Elementary School" that could be applied to active learning.
The Methodology of "Think Deeply" Existed in the Advertising Industry
Tatebayashi: 2016 marks the 10th year of the Advertising Elementary School. Today, I'd like us to consider aspects of the Advertising Elementary School's initiatives that connect to "active learning." First, Mr. Makiguchi, could you share again the background behind launching the Advertising Elementary School nine years ago? That was before the term "active learning" was even being used, right?
Makiguchi: Dentsu Inc. constantly creates and disseminates advertising, but our starting point was a sense of unconsciousness and irresponsibility regarding the situation of those receiving the ads. Advertising doesn't only have positive effects, and we hadn't done anything about how recipients should engage with that information. We began developing this awareness of the issue before 2005. That's when I conceived a system where elementary school students learn communication through creating advertisements.
Tatebayashi: So you turned that into a company project.
Makiguchi: We found organizations overseas doing similar things, so after conducting interviews and such, I thought, "Our company could create an even better program." I immediately brought it up with a senior in the Social Contribution Department. They told me, "It's Dentsu Inc.'s tradition that the person who brings up an idea like this is the one who carries it out."
Well, I started thinking it could be done quickly back then. But we had absolutely no idea how the children in the classrooms would react. In the end, it took a year to complete "Unit 1" (※1), which I had thought would be finished in two or three months.
※1) The Advertising Elementary School program consists of three stages: "Unit 1: Introductory CM," "Unit 2: Self-Discovery CM," and "Unit 3: Public Service CM." It is not delivered through employee outreach classes but provides a complete set of materials—including DVD teaching materials, lesson plans, and classroom tools—free of charge to schools nationwide.
Tatebayashi: I've been involved in developing materials for the Advertising Elementary School since its inception. Over the past year or two, Professor Okuma has frequently remarked that "The Advertising Elementary School embodies the essence of active learning." Could you share what insights you gained while working on the materials?
Ōkuma: I've been involved with the Advertising Elementary School for over eight years now. What was truly shocking was how the Advertising Elementary School taught children "how to think." In our lessons, we've always told children to "think carefully," "think thoroughly," "think it through to the end," but we never actually taught them specific ways of thinking.
For example, how would you communicate a product like "super-sweet chocolate"? Simply handing out sticky notes and saying "Write down your thoughts" isn't enough.
That's why we teach specific ways of thinking. One method is "shifting perspectives." The Advertising Elementary School offers concrete hints for perspective shifts, like "What if we change the person eating it?", "What if we change the scene?", or "What if we exaggerate it?" By following these, children can broaden and deepen their thinking.
Makiguchi: It's like using your mind in a multiple-personality way. When one idea gets rejected, instead of getting stuck, you quickly move on to the next idea. The switching is fast, and you have many drawers.
Tatebayashi: Exactly. While this approach happens fairly naturally in everyday advertising work, collaborating with Professor Okuma allowed us to systematize it.
Concept development elevates overall satisfaction
Ōkuma: Advertising Elementary School has been embraced by nearly 30,000 children and is still growing. I believe it's expanding precisely because it conveys new ways of thinking that schools haven't been able to provide until now.
Among these, "creating a concept" is an element entirely absent from traditional school education.
Makiguchi: That was the most challenging part.
Okuma: When we held a workshop for Advertising Elementary School instructors in Kumamoto, I witnessed the actual process of creating concepts. It starts with generating lots of ideas, writing them on sticky notes, and then categorizing and organizing them. Next, for each categorized group, they assign a "title" to the underlying idea. That becomes the concept. However, right there, Mr. Makiguchi sternly instructed, "Your way of summarizing is wrong." Sitting next to him, I was dumbfounded, wondering, "What's wrong?"
Makiguchi: Teachers work incredibly fast. So, before they even have time to consolidate their ideas, the conversation shifts toward "how to express them." That's why I pointed out, "Isn't that wrong?"
To deepen an idea, the discussion shouldn't immediately jump to the means of expression – whether to "convey it through dance," "convey it through song," or "convey it with puns."
I said, "Before discussing methods, first decide on the core of the idea. You find defining that core difficult, so you skip it and jump straight to 'how to express it.'"
Okuma: That's right, that's right.
Makiguchi: When creating an ad, you absolutely must solidify this "core" part—the concept. Even if you come up with ten expression methods and they all fail, as long as you have the concept, you can always return to it and generate countless new expression methods from there.
For example, if the concept for an ad about "super sweet chocolate" is distilled to "so sweet it changes your personality," then figuring out the execution afterward isn't that difficult.
Ōkuma: You just need to consider whose personality changes to effectively convey "super sweet" to the audience. Is it a police officer? A nagging father? A constantly complaining mother? If the concept is firmly established, you can elevate it into the strongest possible idea within that framework.
Indeed, without a concept, problems arise. For instance, in meetings, the loudest person's expression method often gets decided. When someone says, "My idea is the best, right? Let's go with this," and the loudest voice prevails, everyone else feels empty. This results in 100% satisfaction for the loudest person and 0% for everyone else.
However, if you can gather everyone's ideas, establish a concept, and then expand on that concept, you can increase everyone's satisfaction with the final decision.
Makiguchi: That's absolutely right. At the Advertising Elementary School, some children initially sulked because their ideas weren't chosen, and some teachers, frustrated their ideas weren't accepted, would rush out the moment class ended. But by going through the process of thoroughly developing a concept, we created a system where everyone felt involved.
Tatebayashi: Concept development wasn't just a method of thinking; it was also a crucial process for how people interacted in group work, right?
The "Koma Dog" Failure Lowered the Bar
Tatebayashi: The Advertising Elementary School has a character called "Koma-inu." Initially, we planned to make Koma-inu the teacher. But that approach completely failed. It didn't create DVD materials that would really grab the children's attention. So, we revised the character's setting. We made it someone who learns alongside the children, just half a step ahead, and immediately fails – a somewhat unreliable personality.
I also voice Koma-inu, and during recording, Creative Director Motohisa Tanaka gave me strict direction: "Make it more pathetic! More foolish!" (laughs).
Okuma: When teaching, there's that moment when you think, "Today's lesson is going well." It's when you see the kids burst out laughing at Koma-inu's failures.
Tatebayashi: Koma-inu absolutely loves making commercials—so much so that his nose and mouth even spell out "CM." He gets commissioned by a company called ABC Corporation and proudly presents his own commercial ideas, only to get rejected every single time and get crushed.
Koma-inu goes "Gah!" The kids laugh. They relax. And then they think, "Okay, let's give it a shot."
For kids, coming up with ideas that don't have a single right answer takes courage, right? I think showing Koma-inu's big failures is a crucial point for lowering the hurdle when they're brainstorming.
Okuma: If the kids don't laugh at Koma-inu's failure, I adjust the lesson approach—like softening my tone when explaining.
Makiguchi: Koma-inu is like a litmus test. It shows whether the kids are relaxed and fully engaged. The most important thing is for them to feel comfortable coming up with ideas.
Ōkuma: That's right. At Advertising Elementary School, there are no set answers, so we should be able to make full use of all the children's free thinking. However, sometimes the teachers themselves hold them back.
When making commercials, one teacher probably thought their own ideas were better than the kids'.
They'd say things like, "This idea might be better," or "How about this one?" And it wasn't just one person.
Tatebayashi: Sometimes teachers steer the children toward their own ideas. When that happens, instead of thinking for themselves, the children try to find the "right answer" within the teacher.
Ōkuma: When teachers steer the children's conclusions toward their own preferences, the children's eyes glaze over. They end up presenting while sighing.
How do we counter that? The Dentsu Inc. person told us, "The lesson plan is flawed." That was the first time I'd ever heard that.
Makiguchi: The lesson plans we gave teachers—meant to be like a script for the class—were hard to follow.
Ōkuma: At one point, I looked at Dentsu Inc.'s event operation instructions. They were so clear that it was impossible to make mistakes. Even if the person in charge got sick and took a day off, anyone could step in with those instructions. So, I decided to incorporate that essence into the lesson plans.
As the Advertising Elementary School program spread, content varied widely across locations, and lessons tended to become disjointed. By reworking the lesson plans, we ensured they met standards wherever they were implemented.
The Weakening of Problem-Finding Skills
Okuma: Why is active learning gaining attention now? Because in modern times, there are no remaining challenges that can be solved by a single genius emerging.
Even Einstein couldn't solve the nuclear power plant problem. What's needed now is a collaborative approach where many people—nuclear experts, concrete specialists, water quality experts, soil scientists—contribute ideas and pool their knowledge.
Education that merely teaches pre-existing answers is no longer adequate for our times. What's needed now is the ability to generate ideas collectively for problems without clear-cut solutions. We also need versatile skills to apply what we learn in school to real-world situations and our own lives. Through activities like gathering diverse opinions within the Advertising Elementary School, synthesizing them, and delving deeper, both the teachers and students are learning active learning.
Makiguchi: Before even considering whether we can solve problems, the real issue now is the ability to identify problems in the first place.
Ōkuma: When I first became a teacher, I could simply hand out forms saying, "If you have a school problem, write it on this form," and gather various issues. Eventually, the children couldn't write down problems anymore, so I had to set aside time once a week for them to write. But now, even when I make time, they can't write them down.
Children who only receive instructions like "Do this" or "Do that" from teachers, and who have lost opportunities to discover problems, have become unable to identify issues and put them into words.
Tatebayashi: Within the Advertising Elementary School program, Unit 3's "Public Service Announcement" relates directly to this. It's a lesson where students discover societal problems and turn them into commercials. First, they use a "Discovery Notebook" to identify problems around them. Then, they use a "Solution Notebook" to devise their own solutions. Finally, they use an "Expression Notebook" to plan the commercial's message that communicates that solution.
Ōkuma: Exactly. That's the point. When creating public service commercials, we have the children identify the problem. The notebooks provide concrete methods for "how to find it." That was brilliant.
While teaching, I noticed something: the Discovery Notebook is red, the Solution Notebook is yellow, and the Expression Notebook is blue. It's just like traffic signals.
Tatebayashi: We designed it so stopping to discover is red, carefully considering the cause is yellow, and moving forward to communicate it to many people is blue.
Makiguchi: The crucial part is making discoveries in the red notebook. At this stage, teachers absolutely must not give unnecessary examples like "global warming." Children need the freedom to make their own discoveries.
To avoid creating active learning refugees
Ōkuma: Even when it comes to identifying problems, simply telling children to "think carefully" isn't enough. You must provide concrete thinking methods and approaches. If you tell kids to "think," but they can't, they get stuck there. That's an "active learning refugee." Merely telling children to "think carefully" or "discuss thoroughly" leads to failure.
Makiguchi: If we consider why the term "active" emerged, I think it's because learning was "passive" – that is, a passive activity. As Professor Okuma says, even though we call it active learning, it easily slips back into passive learning.
I recently read in a book by Takashi Saito that "new academic ability means discovering new meaning and value." We shouldn't just demand answers from children; we need them to think for themselves, make discoveries, and uncover new meaning and value. That's where the value of active learning lies.
The know-how to discover what doesn't exist
Makiguchi: Active learning boils down to "how to discover what doesn't exist." Until we start moving in 2020, when the education system undergoes major changes, we're still at the stage of organizing the issues and considering what can be done. Focusing on the Advertising Elementary School initiative within this context, we see that companies and schools are collaborating effectively.
Within Dentsu Inc., the unique qualities cultivated over time exist as "intangible knowledge." We want to leverage this, bringing companies and schools together through "industry-academia collaboration" to build the know-how for active learning.
Ōkuma: That's right. Traditional school education has focused on finding established answers, but the Advertising Elementary School has no predetermined solutions. Children need to learn new ways of using their brains.
Tatebayashi: Thank you. At the Active Learning "What About This?" Research Institute, we will systematize know-how applicable to active learning and propose it to schools. We plan to start projects with three research schools in Tokyo, listen to their challenges, and jointly develop active learning lessons tailored to each school.
Our core stance is "accepting everything." Since we're pursuing education without fixed answers, we don't want to impose a single tool. Instead, with a "What about this?" spirit, we aim to support the activation of learning.
Advertisement Elementary School
http://www.dentsu.co.jp/komainu/
DENTSU SOKEN INC. Active Learning "How About This?" Laboratory
http://dii.dentsu.jp/activelearning/
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Masashi Okuma
Counseling Training Center Schoolhouse "Brave"
After serving as a public elementary school teacher and then as a district/city instructional supervisor, he became the Chief Instructional Supervisor at the Tokyo Metropolitan Teachers' Center. Subsequently, he served as a teacher at Tokyo Gakugei University Setagaya Elementary School and as a Specially Appointed Professor at Tokyo Gakugei University's Graduate School of Education. He retired in March 2014 and established the NPO Genki Program Development Committee, where he currently serves. Participated in curriculum development as a member of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's Curriculum Development Committee. Co-researcher for Dentsu Inc.'s social contribution initiative "Advertising Elementary School." Immersed in research on special activities, developing and studying methods accessible to children such as brainstorming, KJ method, roundtable discussions, Six Hats, and World Café.
Masahiro Makiguchi
Advisor, Yoshida Hideo Memorial Foundation
Graduated from the University of Tokyo Faculty of Law in 1990 and joined Dentsu Inc. Assigned to the Marketing Bureau, subsequently served as Director of the IMC Planning Center, Director of the 1CR Planning Bureau, Director of the Corporate Planning Bureau, Director of the Corporate Communications Bureau, and Director of the Public Relations Bureau. Appointed Managing Executive Officer of PR Consulting Dentsu Inc. in January 2020. Appointed President and Representative Director, Executive Officer of PR Consulting Dentsu Inc. in March of the same year. In 2021, selected as one of the Asia Pacific Innovators 25 by PRovoke Media. In 2022, appointed Chairman of the Japan Public Relations Association (Public Interest Incorporated Association). Assumed current position in April 2024. His publications include: "Advertising Elementary School: Learn to Communicate Through Creating Commercials" (Sendenkaigi) "Why Do You All Start Talking About the Same Things When It Comes to Job Hunting?" (Sendenkaigi) His translations include: "Account Planning: How It Changes Advertising" (Diamond Inc.) "Participatory Ownership Management" (Diamond Inc.)
Megumi Tatebayashi
Dentsu Inc.
While enrolled in the Masahiko Sato Laboratory at Keio University, participated in the planning and production of the NHK educational program "Pythagora Switch." Joined Dentsu Inc. in 2002. Responsible for developing teaching materials for Dentsu Inc.'s social contribution initiative "Advertising Elementary School." Member of the DENTSU SOKEN INC. Active Learning "How About This?" Research Lab.
