Active Learning: What About This? Report [8]

Published Date: 2017/10/23

That's a complex purchase!

Chihiro Noda

Dentsu Inc.

#Marketing#Social issue#Insights/Research#Education#Active Learning

The Active Learning Research Institute conducts unique collaborative and practical lessons at various schools nationwide. Rather than one-way knowledge input, we explore lesson formats that excite children to "think" alongside professional educators. Each session yields original methods and compelling stories. This time, we held a collaborative lesson with the online learning center Aoi Zemi.

■2020: University Entrance Exam Reform is Coming

This may seem sudden, and perhaps a bit late, but university entrance exams will undergo significant changes starting in 2020.

The National Center Test for University Admissions will be replaced by the "University Admissions Common Test." Japanese and Mathematics will introduce essay-style questions. English will require all four skills: reading, listening, writing, and speaking, rather than just reading and listening as before.

Individual university exams may also require documents like school records, statements of purpose, short essays, or interviews as needed. University entrance exams are shifting from merely testing knowledge and skills to emphasizing critical thinking, judgment, and expressive abilities.

Alongside these entrance exam reforms, the educational approach known as "active learning" (student-centered, proactive learning) has become a hot topic of discussion in elementary, junior high, and high schools, as well as in cram schools.

■Online cram schools need to become even more active

Amidst this, Aoi Zemi, an online cram school, approached us with the proposal: "Would you like to collaborate on an 'Active Learning Special Class'?"

Aoi Zemi is an online cram school that delivers lessons to junior high and high school students.

In light of the upcoming university entrance exam reforms, Aoi Zemi, as a cram school, began wondering: Beyond just standard subjects, isn't there so much more we could be doing? It was within this context that they reached out to our research institute as one such attempt, one experiment.

■Live Classes

Aoi Zemi's defining feature is its live classes, delivered via "live streaming" to students on weekday evenings.

Because it's live, teachers can pose problems to students on the spot, and students can post questions to the teacher while attending the class. Students can also interact with each other by posting comments.

The relationship between the teacher and students during a live class is akin to that of a radio DJ and their listeners, while the relationship between students themselves is similar to that of Twitter followers.

During live classes, students can participate in posting while watching the live video in this manner.

■That answer gets a "Like!"

From April to June, we held three special active learning classes.

The first session was the "Creative Thinking Boost Test." Mr. Hidetoshi Kurashige (Creative Director) and Ms. Megumi Tatebayashi (Copywriter) from the research institute took the stage.

From left: Researcher Tatebayashi, Director Kurashige, and Aoi Zemi instructor Hiromi Endo

Once the introduction to the research institute and Dentsu Inc. began, the students' vivid reactions emerged.

"Wow! I know this!" "Huh! That commercial!?" "Today's guests are amazing!"

Once the atmosphere warmed up, the topic was announced:

[Self-introduction in 10 characters or less].

"The library committee that hates books," "The art club that can't draw," "The computer club that's mechanically challenged"... and so on.

You could see they were influencing each other a bit too much, but once one person started posting, it sparked a chain reaction, and the students kept posting one after another.

Amidst the stream of posts, one student offered this answer:

"I am me."

Quite a philosophical answer!

Then, from the students who had been rushing to post their own ideas, came voices saying, "Interesting!" and "I like that!"

In response to one student's answer, it wasn't the teacher, but rather the students themselves who started saying "Nice!" one after another, even before the teacher could react.

In regular classes, it's rare for students to evaluate each other's answers. This dynamic continued into the second and third sessions.

■That idea? We'll take it!

Session 2 was "Weird Homework."

"Weird Homework" is a creativity development lesson devised by Mr. Kurashige, the research institute leader. It cultivates imagination, conceptualization skills, integration abilities, and presentation skills by challenging students with unusual assignments that wouldn't appear in regular classes or exams.

The prompt: "If everyone at the school festival food stall decided to sell takoyaki, what kind would you make?"

"Takoyaki slightly cooled for those with sensitive tongues," "Takoyaki shaped like taiyaki but filled with takoyaki"...

And so on. Perhaps because it's a relatively approachable theme, everyone posts their ideas one after another.

Some students even posted images of their own drawings. When pictures appeared, the students' reactions became even more lively . "○○'s takoyaki looks delicious!" "I'd buy that!"

The second session is also buzzing with self-generated excitement. There's barely any room for the teacher to comment, as the students are having a blast engaging with each other's responses.

■When others say "That's great!" about your flaws.

Finally, the last trial session. Session 3 is "The World's First Self-Discovery!"

The theme is a Negative Auction.

Students listed their own complexes. Then, for each complex mentioned, if another student thought, "That complex is great! I'd actually buy it!", they were asked to name a price along with their reason.

First up: "Being half-Japanese is my complex."

A fierce bidding war erupts."Half-Japanese? That's cool!!! I'll buy it for 3 million!" "I'll buy it for 10 million!"

You might want to ask if everyone actually has that much money,

but voices kept saying, "Being half is so enviable!"

The second one: "I hate being seen as a party person (*)."

(*Party people: Short for party people. People who like hanging out and having fun with friends, I guess.)

But the other studentscounter: "Party people are great! You can have fun with anyone. 3,000 yen."

"I kinda want to be a party person~. It looks fun, and being around them seems fun. 1,000,000 yen."

The price went down a bit, but actually, a lot more people said, "I'm jealous."

Finally,"I end up suppressing my emotions."

Thisalso got immediate agreement:"I want mine for ¥10,000 because I explode emotionally so easily!" "Sometimes I feel like laughing when Sensei is angry—can I rent yours for ¥1,000? (lol)"

In the third session, students shared feedback like: "Even when I dislike something about myself, getting complimented by others really boosted my confidence," "It really made me realize everyone is different," and "I wish everyone in the world could take this class!"

The movement that began in the first session, where students affirmed each other's answers with "That's great!", significantly evolved in the third session. It transformed into affirming the students themselves—even those they'd likely never met in person—with "That's great!".

■What is the answer to a question with no right answer?

Finally, I'd like to share a student's feedback that personally made me very happy.

It was: "When there's no right answer, I think respecting the other person's opinion is important. "

I think we could also say that "questions without a single correct answer" mean there isn't just one right answer.

This means that answers and opinions different from your own can also be correct.

Through this Aoi Seminar class, I witnessed students (who might not even know each other's faces) spontaneously engaging with each other's answers, saying things like "That's a great answer!" or "That's interesting!" Seeing this, I glimpsed another form of "active learning" and gained tremendous insight myself.

If we can pursue our own answers and thoughts while simultaneously acknowledging and affirming others' answers and thoughts, I believe we will surely be able to live strongly, joyfully, and resiliently in this coming era without clear-cut answers.