GEW has been developing dialogue-style education focusing on making students think for themselves and have discussions with each other by listening to other people’s ideas. Through this approach, GEW aims to bring out the students‘ potential.
In dialogue-style education, the class progresses not by a teacher’s one-way talk but by students’ subjective utterances. In Japan, dialogue-style education has become well known by the TV program “Justice with Michael Sandel (Harvard Hakunetsu Kyoshitsu in Japanese)” broadcasted by NHK from April to June in 2010.
Dialogue-style education at Chiba University
In Prof. Kobayashi’s classes such as “Political Philosophy”, “Political Philosophy Special Lecture”, and “Public Philosophy”, he has been developing dialogue-style education since the 2010 academic year. From 2011, seminars were started following the Harvard method, and two young scholars are teaching these classes as part-time lecturers. After Prof. Kobayashi’s classes, some graduate students are involved in supporting the students as teaching assistants.
You can see the syllabus for 2013 academic year.
| First Semester, Tue.２ | A114J2201 Public Philosophy I (Masaya Kobayashi) |
| Second Semester, Tue.２ | A114J2301 Public Philosophy II (Masaya Kobayashi) |
| First Semester, Wed.３ | A114K1402 Public Philosophy Seminar I (Fumihiko Miyazaki) |
| First Semester, Tue.４ | A114K1401 Public Philosophy Seminar I (Yukihiko Kinoshita) |
| Second Semester, Wed.３ | A114K1502 Public Philosophy Seminar II (Fumihiko Miyazaki) |
| Second Semester, Tue.５ | A114K1501 Public Philosophy Seminar II (Yukihiko Kinoshita) |
Additionally, on the website “Sandel Special Page”, students can review a literature list related to the classes and also use the message-board for discussion and receiving feedback.
http://sandel.masaya-kobayashi.net/
Students’ Feedback
- I was interested in how the class progresses. The class was linked to Prof. Sandel’s lectures, and also Pro. Kobayashi was focusing on the outputs from students throughout dialogue-style lectures.
- I could understand the position each philosopher takes on an issue. However, I feel I do not have enough understanding for applying these ideas to the issues that current society faces. It was also difficult for me to distinguish between my feelings and the philosophical ideas. I think one of the reasons is that I missed the series of Prof. Sande’s TV program.
- It was interesting to attend the class dealing with same topics from Prof. Sandel’s TV program. Another good thing about the class was that it was easy to prepare for or review it. I enjoyed seeing how the other students think by viewing the message-board.
- Dialogue-style lectures gives students the initiative to understand the contents of the lectures. I want teachers to use the same method for next year’s class as well.
- Having to participate in discussion forced me to pay more attention in the class, and this I found useful. I want the other teachers to apply this method for many classes.
Dialogical Public Philosophy TV
On the website of Dialogical Public Philosophy TV, you can watch some videos of dialogue-style lectures and symposia which were held outside Chiba University.
