Abstract
In the contemporary era, when individuals may live for 100 years or more, they are required to acquire new skills and continually update them to not only live a long life but also lead a more fulfilling life. Therefore, in recent years, the importance of fundamental competencies for working person has been attracting renewed attention, and it is meaningful to provide classes that encourage the acquisition of such skills in university education. For this purpose, this study presented a design process for a kendo class for university students that employs problembased learning (PBL). The improvements of the PBL kendo classes over conventional kendo classes were examined from three perspectives: goals to be achieved, implementation content, and grade evaluation methods. The results revealed that conventional kendo classes were insufficient in promoting the improvement of students’ fundamental competencies for working person. Thus, this research attempted to design a PBL kendo class that could improve on these aspects. In particular, the PBL kendo classes were improved by increasing the number of group study sessions, improving grouping, introducing the “Training Method for Fundamental Kendo Techniques with a Bokuto”, changing the content of reflection sessions, and changing the roles of the teachers in charge of the classes. This process will be useful for designing not only kendo classes at universities but also PBL classes in other disciplines.
