JASCE Holds Third General Conference

On August 5-6, 2006, JASCE (Japan Association for the Study of Cooperation in Education) successfully held its 3^rd general conference. Under the theme “Cooperation as a Learning Process and Its Own Goal,” about 150 participants gathered at Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan.

On the afternoon of the 5^th, the JASCE general meeting was held, with about 30 members in attendance (JASCE now has over 120 members). Following the meeting, the conference’s keynote speech was given by Prof. Manabu Sato (Tokyo University). He addressed the importance and promising future of cooperative learning by describing two examples of successful implementation of a collaborative learning community approach that he has participated in over the past ten years or so. Prof. Sato encouraged the audience to strive to build a new era of cooperation in education in Japan.

After the keynote session, three forums (roundtables) and two paper sessions took place. In the forum sessions, the three topics were all related to higher education. In each forum, 20 to 40 participants enjoyed listening to the presentation and exchanging their ideas.

In the paper sessions, six papers on a variety of topics were presented. Topics included cooperative learning with special needs students, the effect of cooperative learning in high school reading classes, career education in elementary school, and readiness for cooperative learning in university English courses.

At an evening party on the first day of the JASCE conference, with about 50 participants in attendance, two important pieces of news were announced. One, under the leadership of Prof. Katsuyoshi Suzuki, JASCE’s 4^th conference will be held at Tokoha Gakuen University in Shizuoka, Japan in 2007. Two, JASCE is going to prepare to invite IASCE to hold its 30^th anniversary conference in Japan. Toward that goal, English sessions are planned at the 2007 conference.

On the second day of the JASCE conference, four workshops were offered:

1. Basics of Cooperative Learning

2. Learning through Experience Based on a Laboratory Method Approach

3. Cooperative Learning Basics for English classes

4. Fostering Spontaneous Learning through Cooperative Learning.

The workshops were well received, inspiring some participants to become IASCE members.