2019 年 10 巻 2 号 p. 31-35
The increasing number of international students and researchers in Japanese universities has led to an urgent need for the development of suitable educational materials on environment and safety. However, very few studies have reported on the actual situation of international students and researchers, and necessary discussions about the contents of such educational materials have not yet been held.
We investigated and clarified the educational situation and problems of international students and researchers. The results of the investigation revealed that there are diverse cultural differences within the university. Japanese common sense is not necessarily understood by international students and researchers, and hence, when deciding the contents, we must carefully consider the differences between Japanese and foreign cultures. Everyone must sufficiently learn the necessary safety education contents according to one’s research activity; however, lacking in the unwritten common sense possibly becomes a barrier to learning. Therefore, as an introduction to safety education, incorporating and explaining the key features of “safety in Japan” would seem to promote the learning of essential contents and enhance the understanding of safety issues. We proposed introductory contents that would facilitate the understanding of how to safely and properly conduct research activities in Japan. The contents included Japanese-specific nature, culture, rules, and customs,which are very basic matters known as Japanese common sense. The developed contents were also organized into units, with one topic per unit. This feature enables the international students and researchers to focus on relevant units according to their own needs. This concept of developing educational materials, i.e., introductory contents to aid the learning of required contents, can be extended and applied in other disciplines to develop basic and advanced educational materials for the international students and researchers.
