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Partnerships in Creative Communication
Partnerships in Creative Communication
May 25, 2023
May 22, 2025
Exercises in Intercultural Education
In this special event and creative workshop, visiting students from Western Carolina University in the United States engaged in intercultural communication via interactive discussions and design thinking tasks with students from Hiroshima University.
Collaborative Brainstorming
Collaborative Brainstorming
Facilitating Interactions
Facilitating Interactions
Designing Prototypes
Designing Prototypes
Team Teaching Workshop for English Education Professionals in Japan
Team Teaching Workshop for English Education Professionals in Japan
May 13, 2023, Experiences and Reflections in Intercultural Communication
Led by the Lab Director and Dr. Brett Walter, this unique workshop with a total of 10 in-service and pre-service educators focused on completing the team teaching cycle with post-instructional reflective practices.
Interactive discussions centered on real problems and potential solutions for facilitating the teamwork process between homeroom teachers and assistant language teachers in Japan.
Teacher efficacy and cultural competence were emphasized with a workbook of materials featuring a list of training needs written by a local instructor and constructive feedback and information sharing strategies provided in East Meets West: Understanding Misunderstandings between JTEs and ALTs by Todd Jay Leonard (1999) and ALT tono Team Teaching Nyumon (2022) by Eiko Kedoin, Nozomi Takano, and Junko Kanbara.
Future workshops are planned to integrate development plans for improving indicators of cultural intelligence as they connect to beliefs and practices about team teaching in Japan.
Keynote Lectures at Hiroshima JET ALT Orientation
Keynote Lectures at Hiroshima JET ALT Orientation
September 27, 2022, Building Self-Efficacy in Intercultural Communication in Japan: Transferable Skills for Teacher Education and Professional Development
This keynote emphasized research on building cultural intelligence and recognizing the challenges that ALTs face in team teaching and cross-cultural adjustment processes in Japan. The intercultural teamwork exercise, "Broken Squares", was used for ALTs to experience and reflect upon collaboration under communication constraints.
August 30, 2023, Cases at the Crossroads: Planning for Student Engagement and Intercultural Interactions in the Design of English Team Teaching
This keynote focused on identifying lesson formats based on task-based language teaching and presentation-practice-production in team teaching activities. In addition, case scenarios written and submitted by local ALTs were evaluated and discussed using "Crossroads", a disaster preparedness simulation format developed by Dr. Toshiko Kikkawa at Keio University.
August 28, 2024, Fostering Creative Thinking Skills with Lesson Designs Targeting Classroom Engagement and Communicative Output
This keynote focused on tapping into our creativity as teachers by applying divergent and convergent thinking skills to choices in instructional design. We reviewed the concept of lower and higher order thinking skills in education and introduced the 5E instructional model. Using activities from the U.S. Department of State’s "Critical Creativity in Action" card decks that were graciously provided by their division for English Language Programs, ALTs were challenged to integrate the concepts into an ideal lesson or learning experience of their own design.
Creative proposals are currently under evaluation for winning the card decks used in the workshop!
As invited lectures held at the Hiroshima City International House, the lab director has delivered three guest speaker talks for the community of ALT educators in Hiroshima Prefecture.
Resources Promoted (2022)
Planet Eigo (link) by AJET (2010)
Using Graphic Novels to Teach English and American Culture in Japanese Middle Schools (link) by Jenna Pollack (2020)
Professional Development Activities: Teaching EFL in Japan (link) by Peter Rom
A summary of research on ALTs by Samuell (2021)
Resources Promoted (2023)
Engaging Education: The Foundation for Wellbeing and Academic Achievement by Ledertoug and Paarup (2021)
Reflection and Planning Sheets by Taishukan Publishing [link]
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications ALT cases and Best Practices in Japanese [link]
Prodigy’s 20 Classroom Management Strategies (UNESCO online module materials)
Resources Promoted (2024)
Critical Creativity Action Cards and Kit: U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs [link]
November 11, 2023: Strategic Competence and Resources for International Student Support in Japan: Insights from Intercultural Learning Research and Applications
Using resources available here (button links), this talk reported on the MIPEX 2020 results for Japan's progress on multicultural coexistence policies and ways to gain intercultural awareness by engaging in interactions that build strategic competence and cultural intelligence.
The critical incident, "The Difficult Landlord", was used, and international student committee members were encouraged to apply intercultural awareness through communication that recognizes social support needs and leads to the provision of concrete resources.
Bowling Event with ALTs
Bowling Event with ALTs
November 25, 2023
November 16, 2024
As a fun social event for the lab, we had the opportunity to go bowling with ALTs from Hiroshima Prefecture! A total of 26 bowlers were in attendance for three games. Our lab mates had a great time and wanted to express their appreciation to the ALTs for their coordination and for including us in their exciting event!
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