[G-02] Outreach of Geoscience: Practice and Theory

[G02-02] Practices and challenges of multi-institutional collaborative education in elementary school and junior high school

*Yasuhiko TAMURA¹, Takuro Ogura², Hiroyuki Yamauchi³ (1.The Executive Committee for the Preservation of TAYA CAVERN , 2.Graduate School of Education, Hyogo University of Teacher Education, 3.The Kinugasa Research Organization Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University)

Keywords:Multi-institutional collaborative education, Education of geography, Collaborative education in elementary school and universities, Collaborative education in high school and universities, Inquiry Learning of Regional Education

Elementary school teachers leading “Period for Inquiry-Based Cross-Disciplinary Study” and High school “Geography” teachers are required to design cross-curricular inquiry-based learning plans in collaboration with the regional community. The Japanese national curriculum requires school teachers to create flexible teaching plans that educate students about the features of their living region. However, many of them struggle to find time to prepare such plans. “The multi-institutional collaborative education” is one of the solutions for this situation, but numerous teachers say, "How do we start?" and "What are the advantages and disadvantages?" Consequently, many teachers feel that implementing “the multi-institutional collaborative education” is quite difficult. In this presentation, we will introduce cases of regional education practices that the speakers have implemented, such as elementary-university collaboration at Senshu Elementary School in Yokohama and high-school-university collaboration at Kumon International School, and introduce efficient methods of implementing multi-institutional collaborative education, educational effects, and challenges. For multi-institutional collaborative education, it is important to follow these steps: 1) establishing links between teachers and extramural partners, 2) formulating a teaching plan, 3) conducting a class, and 4) planning future collaborations based on the educational effects of the practice. In the first, teachers are encouraged to obtain useful information for their classrooms from the local area, while researchers and activists are required to provide such information to teachers during workshops and symposiums. In the second, external partners suggest a detailed class plan describing the purpose of a class, educational goals, and teaching procedure. If the plan is provided, teachers can easily express their opinions to external partners. As a result, the plan and class may be enhanced from both perspectives and experiences. In the third (actual class), teachers may have the opportunity to find that even pupils and students who receive low evaluations in regular classes are improving their learning motivation and enriching their interests through external partners' lectures. In the fourth (after the class), it is possible to consider collaborations for the next year or with other schools. Based on our experience with the steps, we will explain details of our collaborations, educational impacts, and challenges. In this presentation, our aim is to discuss effective methods of multi-institutional collaborative education involving school teachers and external partners.