Memoirs of the Muroran Institute of Technology No. 74

個々の収録アイテムdepartmental bulletin pape

Using PAC analysis to decipher an instructor's own impressions of the teacher license renewal courses

From 2009 to 2022, a teacher license renewal system was implemented in Japan. Teachers were required to take the courses once every 10 years. Previous studies have revealed that teachers who took the courses positively evaluated the courses, but also expressed dissatisfaction with the heavy burden of taking the courses. However, there has been little discussion of the impressions of university teachers who lecture on the courses. In this paper, we used PAC analysis to listen to a university teacher’s impressions of the renewal courses and obtain advice from other university teachers to make the interpretation more multifaceted. University teachers made efforts to improve the renewal courses, but because participation in the courses were compulsory, it was difficult for their efforts to be rewarded. It has emerged that the new training system should ensure the autonomy of teachers and the autonomy of university teachers.departmental bulletin pape

Improvement and Future Issues in “Basics of Economy” and “Economy Today”

This report discusses improvements and issues in the lectures of the liberal arts courses " Basics of Economy" and "Economy Today". Improvements in "Basics of Economy" include the promotion of communication with students and the implementation of group discussions among students. Problems with "Basics of Economy" include issues that occur in group discussions, the adverse effects of large classes, time constraints, and fairness among classes. Improvements of "Economy Today" include teachers' understanding of students' level of understanding due to the face-to-face teaching, renewal of lecture contents, and inviting new outside lecturers. The issue unique to "Economy Today" is the selection and appointment of appropriate external lecturers.departmental bulletin pape

An Analysis of Student Responses to English Communication Classes during COVID

This paper presents the results from a study focused specifically on EFL classes that used a communicative language teaching (CLT) approach. The aim of the study was to explore students’ attitudes to both online and in-classroom communicative English language learning, and subsequently consider what implications these would have for student learning and teacher pedagogy. As part of a questionnaire survey administered to 327 non-English major students at a science and engineering university, an open response section was included in the survey. Participants were asked to write about their overall experience of learning communicative English both online and in the classroom. A total of 43 valid responses were received. Summative content analysis was used to identify eight main themes from the written data: Technical issues; Worksheets; Breakout rooms – benefits; Breakout rooms – problems; Online advantages; Classroom advantages; Health; and Preferences. As with the questionnaire data, analysis of the written responses showed that students clearly prefer in-class language learning. Students considered the classroom-based pedagogy to be more effective, particularly in terms of peer involvement and interaction. Findings from this study have significant implications for how students experience communicative language learning and how teachers can best enhance this experience.departmental bulletin pape

Sound Materials of the Uilta Language

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International Academic Exchange with University of Johannesburg from the Viewpoint of Research and Education regarding Family System and Human Rights

The purpose of this report is to summarize the current progress of the international joint research on the protection of minorities in Japan and South Africa. South Africa has enacted the world's longest Constitution (1996), which enshrines the rights of all people in the state and affirms the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom. The history of and situation after Apartheid, as well as the reconstruction of the social system to guarantee these values, are highly suggestive for Japanese policy regarding the protection of children, women, sexual minorities, and indigenous people (such as the Ainu people).departmental bulletin pape

Generating Keyword Sentences : An investigation into student preferences

This paper reports on the results of an exploratory study into the vocabulary-strategy preferences of 2nd-year students at a national university in Japan. At the end of a 15-week English Communication course, 65 students completed a questionnaire related to the strategies they had used to remember ten words from the TOEIC Service List. A mnemonic technique known as the Keyword Method was by far the most popular, with 556 (85.5%) of the 650 possible responses. Rote repetition, the dominant paradigm in the Japanese educational system, only accounted for 12.5% (81) of the responses. Of the three possible Keyword Method generation techniques, experimenter-provided (276) and self-generated keyword sentences (243) were popular, but peer-generated keyword sentences (33) were found to be seldom used.departmental bulletin pape

Evaluating the Impact of Illustrated Activities on Student Engagement and Learning Outcomes

This article investigates the influence of a hand-drawn illustrated vocabulary activity on student engagement and learning outcomes in a university English Communication classroom. Conducted at Muroran Institute of Technology, the study involved 27 second-year undergraduate students participating in a modified Pictionary-style activity. The research aims to understand how drawn visual elements can enhance vocabulary retention and overall learning experiences from the student perspective. Survey responses, based on a Likert scale, revealed that students found these illustrated activities more effective for vocabulary retention compared to traditional methods, increased their confidence in using new words, encouraged active class participation, and made learning more enjoyable. These results suggest that hand-drawn illustrated vocabulary activities could be a valuable addition to English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instruction, promoting a more engaging, interactive, and supportive learning environment.departmental bulletin pape

Trends in the racehorse industry in the Iburi Area As an example of Iburiology

Today, the Iburi and Hidaka areas are the center of racehorse production in Japan. After the war, the Hidaka area increased its production of racehorses while the horse industry declined nationwide. This was due to a combination of geographical, historical, and economic reasons. Currently, the Hidaka area is the leading producer in terms of the number of horses, but good horses that win races are produced in the Iburi area. Now the center of the racehorse industry is in the Iburi area. Since the popularity of horse racing is affected by economic fluctuations, small farmers in the Hidaka area have stopped producing racehorses, and larger farmers in the Iburi area have successfully invested in the area. Good horses produced in the Iburi area have become the focus of attention around the world. When Select sales are held, they are crowded with many buyers from inside and outside of Japan. This research is being conducted as an example of one of the Iburiology studies.departmental bulletin pape

A topology optimization of on-chip planar inductor based on evolutional on/off method and CMA-ES

This paper presents a topology optimization of on-chip planar inductor based on the normalized Gaussian network-based evolutional on/off topology optimization method (NGnet-TO) and the covariance matrix adaptation evolution strategy (CMA-ES). This method is relatively suitable for the conductor optimization problems in which connectivity of the shapes is strongly required because NGnet-TO can easily find spatially smooth shapes in comparison with classical on/off-based topology optimization methods. This paper also introduces a multi-objective NGnet-TO based on a modified CMA-ES for multi-objective problems. These methods are applied to a conductor design problem with an on-chip inductor. From the single- and multi-objective optimization results of the on-chip inductor, it is shown that the connected conductor geometry can be obtained. Moreover, performance of NGnet-TO for conductor design problems is discussed.journal articl