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The Japan 2001 Science, Creativity and the Young Mind Workshop was the outcome of a continuing contact by the Clifton Scientific Trust with Japan over more than a decade. Three UK-Japan Workshops had previously been the outcome in 1994, 1996 and 1998.
The Japan 2001 Workshop built on this but was different in that rather than focusing primarily on dialogue between teachers in our two countries... although it did that too... it was concerned to explore the potential of young scientists themselves working together.
The initial inspiration came from the Rt Hon the Lord Jenkin of Roding more than a decade ago who saw that there is work to be done in this area. He has been a friend, supporter and patron ever since and we are very grateful to him.
Some further information can be found inter alia in
Tokyo April 1998
The 1998 Tokyo Workshop, the first in Japan, was part of Festival UK'98.
The Workshop was organised by the Science ECHOES Group under the leadership of Professor Shousuke Teratani of the Tokyo Gakugei University, Dr Akira Takaesu of Musashi Senior High School, Tokyo, and their colleagues in collaboration with the Clifton Scientific Trust in the UK. It followed the model of the 1994 and 1996 UK Workshops.
The Workshop set as its objectives to
18 UK participants representing all phases of science education, as well as teacher training and the world of drama, together with similar number of participants from Japan formed the core of the Workshop. Virtually all made presentations of their own work promoting a creative approach to science education where students are encouraged to think for themselves and to experience "science for real". All meetings were open and most had an attendance in excess of 50 and up to 90 people.
In both Britain and Japan, many felt that the other holds an important key to a better, more relevant science education. In Japan many are impressed by the achievements of British Scientists and particularly the number of British Nobel Prizes, while in the UK many envy the performance of Japanese students in science and mathematics.
The Workshop came to see more clearly that each nation possesses its own excellence and that both share urgent common concerns. In both, there was real concern that too many young people find the version of science they encounter in school boring, difficult and irrelevant. In Japan many were aware of the need to stimulate creativity and diversity in education, but are unsure how to achieve it. In Britain, we are concerned to raise basic standards. In reality, we are moving towards each other, and there is much we can offer each other where it really counts, at grass roots level.
In his opening address, Professor Michinori Oki (Professor Emeritus, Tokyo University and Vice President, Okayama University of Science) reflected,
"Because we had to catch up in the development of science and technology, the policy was that theory should be used for developing new useful things, but the ways of developing theory were largely neglected... thinking in science education was almost completely neglected... memorisation of facts was the main part... young people have come to think that thinking is old fashioned and is silly because it is time consuming... we should come to find better ways of teaching..."Keys to the success of the Workshop were the openness and trust which had been established between participants as the result of earlier Workshops so that all were prepared to discuss openly their failures and frustrations as much as their successes. Also that the Workshop centred on the sharing of first hand grass-roots experience.
The Workshop was welcomed by the Minister of Education, Mr Nobutaka Machimura, by Professor Akito Arima, Special Adviser to Monbusho, and by Admiral Sir James Eberle, Director of the UK-Japan 2000 Group. It was sponsored by the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, the Institute of Physics Publishing, and the British Council. It was endorsed by the UK-Japan 2000 Group, the Royal Society, the British Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association for Science Education, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science London Office, the Japan Society for Science Education, the Science and Technology Agency, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Gaimusho), The Ministry of Education (Monbusho),and MITI and supported personally by the Rt Hon the Lord Jenkin of Roding, Professor Takeshi Kinoshita, Mr Ken-ichiro Oohara, Professor Michinori Oki, and Professor Hiroaki Yanagida.
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Bristol 1996
"The pupils showed us around. They were well behaved and confident. In Japan teachers would do this, and I noticed that teachers here regard pupils as grown ups... Creativity, which is the theme of this workshop, and thinking processes are highly regarded in British Education. This is very important. In Japan, obtaining the correct data is more important than the thinking process... Japan has many things to learn from Britain."These are some of the differences which struck a party of 20 science educators who traveled from Japan to Britain to attend Science, Creativity and the Young Mind 2.
One science educator, Dr Osamu Kamei, was moved to write down his immediate reaction on visiting a British state secondary school. In comparison with his experience in Japan, Dr Osamu wrote under the heading of "students":| In Japan | In UK | |
|---|---|---|
Pupils (Students) |
"I like my school" given waiting others orders they wear indifference they never permit failure looking far future want to be a group |
"I like my class" choose demand to other they show their interest they permit failure enjoy today want to be unique |
British participants were similarly impressed by what our Japanese friends reported over the four days of wide-ranging workshop.
The Purpose of the Workshop was to build on the achievement of UK-Japan Science, Creativity and the Young Mind 1, which had been held in Bristol in 1994 and to begin to establish a network of science teachers in Britain and Japan who are committed to sharing experiences of seeking to bring excellence and relevance to the encounter pupils of all ages and abilities have with science in and outside the school curriculum;
From both countries real worry was expressed that although science and technology are profoundly transforming our lives and the ways we think, many young people find their experience of school science uninspiring and irrelevant. What then constitutes a meaningful science education? And what can a British-Japanese dimension contribute? In both countries, major curricular changes are in progress and, indeed, it seems that each country values highly, perhaps too highly, what it sees as the virtues of the other's system. The Workshop showed clearly that grass roots practitioners have much to offer each other, that dialogue is invaluable, and that this beginning should be pursued in the future.
Science, Creativity and the Young Mind 2 was sponsored by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation and the Oohara Foundation for Agricultural Sciences, and supported by the Rt Hon the Lord Jenkin of Roding and Admiral Sir James Eberle of the UK-Japan 2000 Group, Professor Michinori Oki of Okayama University of Science, and Professor Hiroaki Yanagida, formerly Director the London Liaison Officer of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. It was endorsed by the Association for Science Education, the British Association for the Advancement of Science, the Embassy of Japan and the Royal Society.
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Japanese delegates were fascinated to visit a class in progress at St.
Bernadette's Comprehensive School, Bristol.
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