2012 Volume 21 Pages 140-149
In Japan, there have been growing demands for quality assurance for teacher education programs. Many universities and faculties responsible for teacher preparation have undergone major reform efforts to revise their curriculums and practices for preparing teachers. However, since education is a dialogical practice, institutionally driven systematic reforms have limits in assuring the quality. This study thus emphasizes the fact that education requires two wheels: those who are responsible for teaching carry one side of the wheel, and those who are responsible in pursuing their learning carry another side of the wheel. This study assumes that the major problems in the previous reforms for quality assurance of the teacher preparation programs in Japan is that there is an oblivion on the need for building the learner's agency. This study introduces the organization and delivery of the course that aims to build learner's agency in student teachers. This course takes a model of the ways major land-grant universities in the U.S. organize their introductory courses to situate their first year students to assume their agency in pursuit of advance level of studies. Major characteristics of the course structure is that it requires students to prepare, participate and reflect subject matters to foster critical thinking both curricular and extracurricular environments. Then, students having taken this course were asked to complete a survey in seven to eight months after completing their course work to measure the long-term impacts of this course. The survey result revealed that the students have gained a great sense of accomplishments from the course. Furthermore, students have spent a significant amount of time outside of the classroom to prepare for the class, and the students have shared their deeper understanding in the subject matters introduced in the course.
