This paper is a complete student-led, student-edited collective writing project (CWP) conducted virtually in Spring 2022 throughout the course Knowledge Socialism taught by professor Michael Peters for the Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal university. The CWP involves 4 international, 5 domestic Ph.D. students, and 2 senior Western scholars as…

This paper considers the issues facing expatriate instructors teaching English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) graduation seminars (commonly known as the "zemi" in Japan) in Japanese universities and aims to establish better conditions to build Communities of Practice. Since the term "graduation seminar" is widely used…

Design thinking (DT) could provide a viable method to develop 21st-century skills in English as Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms; however, its potential is not clearly understood. To explore this potential, two Japanese university teachers developed a DT course in which students built a creativity measure and wrote academic reflections. Student…

Effective syllabus document design hinges on an alignment between learning objectives, teaching principles and curricular policy. Much of the work on syllabus design in the English Language Teaching (ELT) context focuses on the implementation of language teaching principles, such as those from the Communication Language Teaching (CLT) approach.…

This chapter examines practical issues regarding Virtual Exchanges (VEs) for educational purposes in the university context and covers language use, cultural differences, time management, teacher collaboration, technology-related issues, assessment, and context specific factors. It charts the establishment of three academic collaborations between…

What is the role of the teacher in developing learner autonomy? The limited research in this area is seldom situated in theory and often based on self-reported data. This study is situated in sociocultural theory and draws on two constructs, the zone of proximal development and imitation, to explain the teacher's role in developing autonomy. The…

The following is a review of creativity courses and programs offered at universities in Europe, North America, Japan, and China. Creativity courses and programs occur in a variety of disciplines, but are found most frequently in fields such as business; education and psychology; and engineering, science, and technology. This paper provides…

Although Japanese junior colleges differ from American junior colleges in that they are smaller, more often privately owned, have larger female enrollments, and offer a greater number of home economics and English courses, much can be learned from the Japanese accreditation system. An accreditation self-study eventually takes the form of an…