Our laboratory is founded on the principle of “addressing social and individual challenges through education.” Education is not merely the transmission of knowledge and skills, but a human endeavor that connects personal growth, interpersonal relationships, and social structures.
In particular, effective education for healthcare professionals directly contributes to the improvement of people’s health and well-being. At the same time, from the perspective of Evidence-Based Education (EBE), there remain many issues to be addressed in the pedagogy of health professional education.
To elucidate the multilayered nature of education, we explore educational practice from the following three perspectives, grounded in the resolution of real-world problems.
Main themes: Student motivation, understanding diverse sources of learning drive, development of non-cognitive skills
Keywords: Self-determination theory, resilience, intrinsic growth of learners, self-regulated learning
Learning motivation is shaped by complex psychological factors such as self-understanding, social relationships, and prior experiences of success.
In today’s era of universal university enrollment in Japan, higher education requires not only the delivery of intellectual content but also the ability of educators to accurately assess students’ psychological states and provide appropriate guidance.
Our research focuses primarily on physical therapy students in Japan, tracking changes in admission motives, learning motivation, and subjective satisfaction over time.
By examining how students answer the question “Why do I learn?”, we aim to clarify the psychological mechanisms that support their growth. These insights are used to design educational approaches that effectively nurture intrinsic motivation in professional education.
Representative work
坂本祐太,藤田大輔,玉木徹,駒形純也,三科貴博,髙村浩司. 臨床実習実後の主観的満足度は学生のMotivationのタイプにより関連する尺度が異なる－主観的満足度とAcademic motivation scaleを用いた縦断的観察研究－. リハビリテーション教育研究,2020;26,72-77.
Main themes: Peer assessment, visualization of contribution, analysis of collaborative learning, reflective learning
Keywords: Educational assessment, active learning, group dynamics, visualization of learning outcomes
Visualizing how students learn and how they contribute to group activities is the starting point for educational improvement.
This research develops the Contribution-PAAS (Peer Assessment Among Students) system, which utilizes a dot-voting method to make students’ perceived contributions visible within group-based learning. Through quantitative analysis, we investigate both individual contribution levels and the overall dynamics of collaboration.
Our goal is not merely to assign numerical scores but to foster mutual learning—a culture where students support each other’s development through cooperation and reflection.
Representative work
Sakamoto Y, Komagata J, Otsuka A, Fukuda K
Visualizing contribution levels in group programs: a dot-voting peer-assessment approach.
Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education. 2025: on line. https://doi.org/10.1108/JARHE-07-2025-0556.
These two pillars—Educational Psychology and Educational Evaluation—represent interconnected dimensions of our research. While each explores different levels of human learning, together they share a common foundation: the pursuit of educational practices that connect individual growth, collective learning, and social well-being.
Through the integration of psychological, evaluative, and cultural perspectives, our laboratory seeks to design education that fosters both professional competence and human flourishing.