How to Use this Module
This module is designed to be incorporated in courses related to the study of Japan, East Asia, World War II, history, psychology, or sociology.
Whenever the instructor sees the following picture of the Professor on a page, those pages are designed for the instructor only. Pages without the Professor may be used by the instructor in class to help introduce material.
For each discussion, sample questions will be provided for the instructor to pose to their class as prompts. Allow the students to discuss these questions on their own in small groups. During this time, the instructor should move about the room and sit in with each group for a short time. Then, each small group will choose a representative who will be responsible for expressing their group’s thoughts to the class. Give the students the opportunity to run their own class-wide discussion; the instructor should only interject when the discussion is drifting off topic or to provide relevant information. It should be noted that the representatives are not the only students speaking. They will provide their group’s answer to a specific question and then open the floor to the class’s rebuttal or additional commentary. Allow representatives to select who speaks, and in what order, from the class.
If this module is being incorporated into an online course, discussion can be facilitated via breakout rooms in synchronous meeting software such as Adobe Connect or Blackboard Collaborate.
The instructor is encouraged to evaluate the demonstration of acquisition of material by the students.
Evaluation of the students is recommended on four fronts:
- Pre-discussion questions
- Participation in the discussion (both small group and class-wide)
- Post-discussion quizzes on readings and films
- Final essay
In summary, the course flow is:
- Introduce discussion topic and/or film
- Provide discussion prompts and allow for small group discussion (15-20 minutes)
- Have groups select a representative
- Representatives run the class-wide discussion (15-20 minutes)
- Wrap up the class by reiterating major topic points