Learning in, and Giving Back to the Community-Toyama National College of Technology

Learning in, and Giving Back to the Community
Toyama National College of Technology Students, school & Community Learning Chain-Toyama National College of Technology

Toyama National College of Technology boasts a very intriguing class called, 'Problem-Based Learning' (hereafter referred to as PBL).
The concept of this lesson was 'User-friendly Inventions, Useful to the Community.' Nineteen students worked in the community to actually create various inventions. School is not the only place for learning.

This course started with the passion of the teacher in charge who questioned whether there was 'some kind of learning process by which the voices of the community and what they need may be heard?'

Sensing the lack of communication skills of the technically oriented students, and the difficulty in suddenly introducing a participatory style class/workshop, at first, several issues were presented to the students. 'What problems does the community face? What exactly can we do with our technical skills to help?' This was an unprecedented concept and approach, and at first the students were rather confused. However, by talking to the students and providing them with opportunities to meet with the locals, and understand their attachment to the area, the students discovered a sense of self worth. Their outlook changed and their motivation to study was increased as they realized 'their technical skills and study could be of use to others.'

Towards a Participation-based Community-Linked Style of Education
This is the third year of this course and it continues to evolve. In its first year, there were many unknowns, and things did not even get to the production stage. With these results and issues, the teachers in charge developed a new style of education. 'Whether there were concrete results or not, everything was left up to the students.¡¡The teachers devoted themselves to being facilitators and to coordinating between the students and the community. This course was built on trust between the students and teachers.' Also, whenever things did not go smoothly, the sincere desire of the students to 'somehow do something' about it seemed to increase their learning motivation and sense of responsibility as technicians. It was not easy shifting from the conventional information-cramming education style, to a participation-based community-linked style. However, the progress of the students and the feedback from the community gave the teachers confidence. The students, teachers and community all grew closer, and this learning chain is gradually spreading through the region. A more detailed report of this case study can be found in the ESD introductory text book - Raising 'Future-Builders' http://www.esd-j.org/esd-text/

Equipment made by Amateur Technicians (extract Aug 2006 includes incomplete inventions)

Voices of participants - students
'Until now, with just ordinary one-sided lessons¡¡I didn't think that studying was interesting, but with this course, we can decide the direction of our studies depending on our interests. We can interact with local people thus broadening our horizons, so it is very motivating. We actually feel like we are being of some 'use' and can see who we are dealing with and their actual reactions. So it feels good. Of course, there are disagreements within the team, but we somehow get over them. We didn't care the lack of communication skills, but have now come to realize their importance.'

(Reported by Ms. Yoko Shinkai, ESD-J Board Member¡Ë