OKU and German exchange partner Leipzig University held an international symposium “Germany and Japan: Contemporary issues in teacher training” on October 20 at the Kashiwara Campus. Approximately 40 people attended the event.
The symposium began with an opening address by OKU President Sumio Kuribayashi. Master of ceremonies was OKU Professor Toyo Akaki, and Leipzig University Assistant Professor and OKU lecturer Daniel Dieckmann introduced the presentations.
A group of ten professors from Leipzig University visited and made four presentations. The first of these, by Professor Katrin Liebers and Professor Matthias Heimann spoke about how classes made up of heterogeneous groups of children with a variety of languages and backgrounds are run in Germany, a country with many foreign workers and immigrants, and introduced methods used to students of the Teacher Training Course. The second presentation was given by Professor Barbara Drinck and Doctor Makhabbat Kenzhegaliyeva on study guidance policies and the direction of teacher training in Saxony, the federal state where Leipzig University is located. The third presentation, made by Professor Susanne Riegler and Professor Maria Halitzky, focused on the roles and specific tasks carried out by the Centre for Teacher Training that oversees training of all teachers at Leipzig University. Lastly, Professor Petra Wagner and Professor Gunar Senf, in anticipation of the planned partnership between Leipzig University’s Sports Science Faculty with OKU, presented on past and present education and research of the department.
There were two presentations by OKU. First, Professor Yuichi Toda presented the results of an international comparison in relation to bullying issues in Japan. Furthermore, in the area of sports science, health and physical education, Professors Munehiro Tetsuguchi and Takeshi Ogawa and health and life sciences Assistant Professor Taisuke Enoki presented their own areas of research.
A ten-minute question and answer period followed each presentation, and questions and a lively discussion flowed in English, German and Japanese, with interpreting where needed.
The symposium finished with OKU Vice President Yasuhiko Mukai speaking about the university’s expectations for the planned academic and student interaction between Leipzig University and OKU.