神戸夙川学院大学

Special features of KSGU (1) Competence for implementation

Improve your competence for implementation

"I am OK, you are OK"

Professor Fumihiko Tanabe

Professor Tanabe has worked on and been involved in management improvement and the regeneration of the Hospitality industry at Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. He also worked for the Cabinet Office as the assistant general manager in charge of economic and budget analysis planning. His motto is "aiming at education that students can not only understand but also apply to real life."

"I am OK, and you are OK." This phrase is useful when we try to simplify and understand the relationship with ourselves and others. In other words, it expresses the mutual understanding of valuing the existence of oneself and others. It also expresses the relationship that starts from acknowledging each other’s differences while relating ones opinion clearly. This is called "assertion."

Expressing individual opinions is one of the three processes in our research study courses and it is also a part of the assertion process. It is the base of the fundamental principle of our university, "acquiring basic manners and spirit of hospitality."

Learning basic "ways of thinking" through three-step processes

It is said that the greatest weakness of Japanese higher education is its non-interactive approach. For example, students learn mainly about theories and principles in most universities. They do not, however, have very much opportunity to use what they have learned in the classroom in real life, to implement it autonomously, or to discuss it through experiences. In the end, their learning tends to become a desk or an abstract theory that is distant from the real world. Student's learning may even be denied if the theories are not understood.

In contrast to the traditional university education, our research study courses emphasize implementation rather than abstract theory. It is based on an "interactive approach," in which students deepen their learning through communication with teachers and other students.
Students learn from easy-to-apply specific examples rather than theories and principles, which are infamously weak subjects for many students. They learn a three-step process of "self-motivated problem finding," "problem solving," and "opinion expressing."

By using this process, students will learn how to obtain the material, how to process it, and how to present it. This three-step process is essential in any field. Students can acquire creative thinning skills by repeating this three-step process.

Students learn the basics of research study, which are reading, writing, listening, and speaking in the first semester of the first year. From the second semester of the first year until the end of the second year, students establish a basic understanding of the three-step process mentioned above through their specialized subject. Furthermore, students actually practice it to be able to use it in their area of expertise in the future.

The class size of the research study courses is small and there are about 15 students in the class. Each student works closely with the professor in the class. Moreover, the 17 professors who teach the research study courses have meetings after the class to discuss the contents of the class they just had, validate the students' intelligibility of the class, and plan the next class.

I can say that there is no university that has as excellent a support system for requisite subjects as Kobe Shukugawa Gakuin University does.

Students talk (in the class)!?

In Japanese schools students usually listen 95% of the time in class and talk for just 5%. Moreover, the majority of that time spent talking is usually a chat that has nothing to do with their opinion regarding the subject matter. In this situation, students cannot express their opinions effectively in public. Students need to practice expressing their opinions. This practice becomes effective when it is done in a practical situation, and it starts in the class room, where students talk and professors listen.

This has the following effects.
1. Students become aware of their opinions and organize their thoughts by talking
2. Students can confirm how their opinions are received by others. This builds students' confidence.
3. Students can expand the capacity of their knowledge.

In the past, educators only crammed knowledge into students' heads and failed to educate students about how to put out their knowledge and express it appropriately. I am proud that the research study courses in our university can provide the best condition for the students.