Efforts to Institutionalize Active Learning in Japanese Higher Education

Abstract

In 2012, the Central Council for Education (cce) issued a report concerning the introduction of active learning (al) and educational management into higher education. Its main object was to foster students’ ability of active learning (or active study [as]) to enable them not only to fulfill the outcome required by the dp (Diploma Policy) but also to respond to an unpredictable future in a knowledge-based society. In order to enhance students’ al, it is necessary to innovate educational methods, such as High Impact Practice (hip) and Institutional Research (ir), to establish educational management, including dp, cp (curriculum policy), and ap (admission policy), and to promote the Research-Teaching-Service (r-t-s) nexus. Based on the cce’s report, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (mext) started a nationwide program in 2013 to pursue active learning. As a result, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (jsps) selected a project of a four-university collaboration as one of the projects related to the programs in which the author of this paper conducted a national survey with a focus on the institutionalization of academic learning in academia.