Regular members can freely belong to any special interest group (SIG). Each SIG has its own mailing list and conducts its own activities. You can register with SIGs you find interesting as well as those related to your own field of research. Registration for SIGs is accepted by the secretariat. Please apply from “Inquiries”.
Japanese SIG
The Japanese SIG conducts activities related to the training in Japanese language ability necessary for studying at university. Since around 2005, when the Japan Association of Developmental Education was established, the decline in the Japanese language ability of Japanese college students has been regarded as a serious problem and there have been strong demands for countermeasures. The Japanese SIG was established at the same time as the inauguration of the association, and its activities have continued until today. According to conventional thinking, students coming into university have already acquired the Japanese ability necessary for studying at university and there is no need for Japanese-language education at university. Therefore, even though there are faculty members who conduct Japanese-language education for international students, there are few teachers who can provide Japanese-language education to university students who are native speakers of Japanese. Japanese-language education for university students who are native speakers of Japanese is a new field of research. A student’s Japanese language ability reflects his/her life, from birth to university entrance, and is considered difficult to improve overnight, but we would like to share thoughts about how to improve students’ Japanese ability. If you are interested, please join us.
Learning Support SIG
The Learning Support SIG concerns itself with general support activities related to student learning. The support activities cover a wide range, including the support and programs offered both by educational institutes in an organized manner and by individuals, methods of learning support, organizational management, evaluation methods, staff training, and matters related to students who need special learning assistance. Learning support activities initiated by local communities and companies are also in this SIG’s field of interest. Currently, the background of students is very diverse, and finely tuned student support services are desired. Therefore, it can be said that efforts to support learning both inside and outside the classroom are urgently required. The goal of this SIG is to share information and experiences among members, and to reflect this in activities to provide students with better learning support. As a SIG, we provide support for dynamic conference presentations, the submission of papers, proposals for project planning, and information provision. If you are interested, please join this SIG.
ICT Education SIG
ICT utilization in higher education is attracting a lot of attention, and cases of education using LMS (Learning Management Systems) and e-learning content development are increasing. The ICT Education SIG also focuses on how to use developed contents in class, as well as tips on lesson design aimed at improving the learning effect of the lesson. Moreover, this SIG promotes activities on a variety of themes related to educational practice, such as research on the methods and effects of learning assistance using portfolios, practical reports on the systematic use of ICT, blended learning using ICT, active-learning-type lessons, and the construction of learning commons. Through activities based on the sharing of day-to-day examples of educational practice using ICT, we strive to make this SIG useful for those who would like to utilize ICT in the future to improve learning effect. We welcome research presentations and practical reports from everyone.
Academic Language SIG
Our group is concerned with ‘Academic Language’ or ‘Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency’ (CALP). Academic Language is the language we use when we learn about some academic field or subject, and is usually contrasted with ‘Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills’ (BICS), which we use in our daily lives. When we learn something about an academic field, we need to understand some key concepts of the field, and these concepts are defined with meta-language, which can also be called ‘Academic Language’. The purpose of our group is to provide both intensional and extensional definitions of technical terms in each field of higher education.
High School / University Connection SIG
Our group is concerned with the problems of connecting higher education and secondary (mainly high school level) education, which occur mostly at non-prestigious schools. In Japan, because of several reasons, such as a sharp decline in the number of 18-year-olds, and the admission reform of the 1990s, teachers at universities and colleges are facing the problem of teaching students who do not have the necessary knowledge for higher education. The purpose of our group is to share information and reports on the practice of teaching students with lower academic skills at member’s schools.
