Revitalising education through an interuniversity arrangement

Fair, open and inclusive discussions are key to ensuring voices are heard. This is integral to effective human communication, as is actively involving participants in deciding on group discussion rules. Professor Mika Nakano from the Centre for Liberal Arts at Fukuoka Institute of Technology believes that in Japan, the adherence of social norms to traditional, established patterns is hindering society. She believes that entrepreneurship education will empower young people and ultimately improve society. She and her colleagues are creating a network of 18 universities in the Kyushu-Okinawa region. Through this interuniversity arrangement, she wants to revitalise education. Part of this work is developing remote discussion skills in Japanese university students, which Nakano believes is currently lacking. Through her research, she wants to level the playing field when it comes to economic, digital and social disparities between children. Her vision is a society where there are opportunities for everyone and one in which collaboration is inclusive. Nakano is also interested in argumentation as an education method, through which participants can respectfully share ideas and viewpoints. She is developing a curriculum that utilises quantitative and qualitative approaches drawn from psychology and anthropology methodologies. This incorporates observation, questionnaire and interview methods to propose effective learning methods that will be tested to verify their effectiveness.