Project members

Project leader

Tsukasa YamanakaProfessor at the College of Life Sciences, Ritsumeikan University

Project members

Tomomi SenooLecturer at Language Education Center, Ritsumeikan University

Jun SakaueLecturer, Ritsumeikan University

《Special research assistance/Joint research》 Noriko Yamagishi Research Group

Research project summary (Objectives/goals (results))

With the full support of the Yamagishi Group, this research will visually track changes in research subjects during an extremely short international study program lasting around one week. It aims to verify the significance of international study activities, even those with short durations, and show how the effectiveness of such can be made even more significant through the application of methodology based on an altruistic spirit.

This research is in response to the arrival of a genuinely globalized age, leading calls for Japanese universities to better develop students and their abilities during the period of their studies to better cultivate human resources with a fully formed global outlook. Up to now the International Department at Ritsumeikan University has actively encouraged participation in overseas study programs by students of all disciplines, and has provided various opportunities, both on and off campus, contributing to the development of globally-oriented human resources. Amidst this backdrop, there is an awareness of the need to visualize the ‘global responsiveness (provisional name)’ skills developed through schooling at the university, and for ‘educational assessment mechanisms’ that allow students themselves to reflect on their own achievements in this area and set their own goals, and that the development of such is a matter of the utmost urgency. It is hard to imagine that simply studying overseas for a week will result in dramatic improvements in English language abilities, and the acquisition of increased resilience and non-cognitive skills to any sufficient degree. Therefore, there is a need to build new measures and models for evaluation. This prototype model should have a level of versatility that allows for its application across all study abroad programs, and visualizing what is achieved through these overseas study activities, both in terms of tangible and intangible learning experiences, and clearly shows the significance of such in terms of guaranteeing results, and, above all else, the significance felt from the perspective of the students participating in the program.

This research looks at how leaving one’s daily life behind to experience the unusual, even if for just a week, can have a meaningful impact on course participants using the ‘Global Fieldwork Project (Vietnamese Course, Malaysian Course, Cambodian Course)’ implemented by Ritsumeikan University for all students as a case study. We will also attempt to demonstrate how activities leading to the forming of an altruistic spirit through the use of a ‘gratitude diary’ can accentuate the effectiveness of such short-term international study experiences.

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