International Christian University
Mitaka, Tokyo
Submitted to
pursuant to application for program accreditation
July 28, 2005
1. Self-Study Committee and Process
2. History and Mission of the International Christian University
3. Measuring up to the AALE Standards
4. Measuring Student Engagement
5. Assessment at ICU: A New Challenge
6. Addressing our Weaknesses: Academic Reform Plans
1. ICU Self Study Report 2001 (Jiko tenken – hyoka hokokusho 2001-nen) 2 vols. (in Japanese, available on site)
2. “International Christian University Self-Study External Review Report,” November 14, 2000, included in vol. 2 of ICU Self Study Report 2001, pp. 1-11
3. Accreditation Report from the Japan Accreditations Standards Association, English translation.
4. Kiyoko Takeda, Higher Education for Tomorrow: International Christian University and Postwar Japan, ICU Press, 2003. 260 pp. [1 copy]
5. ICU: The Bulletin of the College of Liberal Arts 2005-2006 [3 copies]
6. Student Satisfaction and Problems of University Education, 2004 (Gakusei manzokudo to daigaku kyoiku no mondai-ten, 2004), published by Benesse Education Research Institute, 2004. The Benesse survey results were reported in the influential AERA journal on October 2, 2004 and widely discussed. Professor Mark Langager prepared an English summary of this report.
7. “21st Century Forum,” 1995
8. ICU University Guide, 2005 [3 copies]
9. 2005 Outlines of General Education Courses [3 copies]
12. “ICU Teaching Effectiveness Survey” Spring, Autumn, Winter, 2004. See also “ICU Teaching Effectiveness Survey Summary Report, Spring 2004, compiled by Hiroshi Suzuki, Director of Faculty Development, report dated January 25, 2005
13. Folder: “ICU Liberal Learning Assessment Survey, 2005” and responses (quantitative and narrative)
14. FD Handbook: A Practical Guide to Teaching and Research at ICU [3 copies]
15. Invitation to Japan Studies, American Studies, Asian Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies [3 copies]
17. ICU Guide Fact Book, 2005 [3 copies]
18. ICU nyugaku annai, 2006-nen (Guide for Prospective Students, 2006) [3 copies]
19. “FD Report on Courses, GPA, and Study Hours for AY2004”
20. Mission Statement from University Bulletin, 1953-1955
21. “Doing Liberal Arts” – ICU in the 21st Century: Tasks and Outlook, 1999
22. Proposal for revised mission statement, June 2005 (Jacqueline Wasilewski)
23. Folder: ICU Alumni Open Lecture Series , 1999-2003 [available on site]
24. Senior Exit Survey and preliminary results, March 2004 (in Japanese)
25. Examples of student work relating to improving the University’s mission statement
26. Brochure of Human Rights Advisory Committee
27. “Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” ICU Student Pledge, and Faculty Pledge
28. “The University Counseling Center,” in FD Handbook Document 14
29. Final Report of the Committee for the Study of ICU’s Christian Ideals, 1994 [3 copies]
30. Application materials, including “Information for September Applicants 2006” [3 copies]
31. Course Offerings and Guide to Academic Regulations, AY 2005-2006 [3 copies]
32. “ICU Policy on the Protection of Personal Privacy” 2005
33. ICU – Gateway to the Worlds of Tomorrow (English guide for prospective students) [3 copies]
34. International Christian University, Japanese Language Programs
35. “On ICU’s Exchange Programs 2005-2005” (in Japanese: Kaigai ryugaku puroguramu) and “Study English Abroad (SEA) Program” (in Japanese)
36. Special Issue of FD Newsletter on Testing and Student Evaluation, vol. 9, no. 2 (June 2004)
37. Among other documents, see Special Issue of the FD Newsletter on the TES: vol. 8, no. 1, and vol. 9, no.1
38. “Model Senior Thesis Grading Rubric” (currently under discussion)
39. Retention Rate Data, 1990-2004, compiled by Education Affairs Office
40. Folder: Responses to survey “Writing in the ICU Curriculum” 2005
41. Handbook for Part-Time Lecturers 2005 [3 copies]
42. Folder: List of activities sponsored by the Office of Faculty Development, 2003-2005 [3 copies; see also ICU intranet site: https://w3.icu.ac.jp/fd/activities/]
43. Folder: Back numbers of FD Newsletter, 2002-2005 and other publications
44. Report on Academic and Educational Activities. The latest issue is Volume 10 covering the period April 2002 to March 2004. Earlier issues, going back to 1976, are available for inspection. [3 copies]
45. Special Issue of FD Newsletter on “Active Learning,” vol. 8, no. 2 (November 2003)
46. Folder: Data on GE courses, 2000-2004
47. Folder: Enrollment data for AY 2004, compiled by Education Affairs Office. The total number of courses offered in AY2002 was 1,359, in AY2003, 1,399, and AY2004, 1,475.
48. Handbook for Faculty Members: An Essential and Compact guide to Academic Regulations related to Registration Procedures and Student Evaluation [3 copies]
49. Folder: ICU Library Materials, figures 1 – 9 [hyperlinks in text]
50. Folder: Results of Student Engagement Survey (SES), April 2005
51. Faculty Retreat Report: Designing the Future of ICU, March 15-16, 2004. (Available on ICU website: http://w3.icu.ac.jp/fd/retreat/retreat200403/ See especially special lecture by Michael Shafer, “Living Up to its Promise: ICU in 2010”
52. “Committee for Educational Reform Final Report,” March 2005
53. “ICU Policy on Academic Integrity”
54. Introduction to Service Learning, 2005
1. Self-Study Committee and Process
The International Christian University first indicated its desire to see accreditation from the American Academic of Liberal Education (AALE) in the fall of 2003. In the letter of intent that accompanied ICU’s application for program accreditation (dated December 5, 2003), Dean M. William Steele noted that ICU, since its founding in 1953, has been a pioneer and innovative force in liberal arts education in Japan. Furthermore, ICU is unique as a bilingual institution and has been a recognized leader in the internationalization of education in Japan. ICU is recognized and approved by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and is a long-standing member of the Japan University Accreditation Association. The university’s most recent accreditation review was completed in 2001. An extensive Self Study Report was compiled (in Japanese). [Document 1] An external report by Professor Yasuyuki Owada, Professor Emeritus of the University of Redlands, was compiled in English. [Document 2] In its final report, dated March 3, 2003, the Japan University Accreditation Association awarded ICU impressive marks, noting 14 areas of strengths and 4 areas needing improvement. [Document 3] ICU seeks accreditation from AALE first to strengthen its liberal arts pedagogy and curriculum. ICU wants to be able to say that the education it offers its students conforms to recognized world standards. Furthermore, through international accreditation, ICU seeks to make the university even more attractive to international students, coming to ICU for either one year or for the four years of their undergraduate education.
President Jeffrey D. Wallin formally authorized ICU to begin the process of self-study leading to a review for Program Accreditation by the AALE in a letter dated December 12, 2003. In February 2004, ICU established an “AALE Working Committee” (AALE shinsei jikko i’in-kai) under the leadership of the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. The current composition of the Committee is as follows:
Chair: M. William Steele, Dean, College of Liberal Arts
Members: Shaun Malarney, Director of Faculty Development, Special Assistant
to the Dean
Peter McCagg, Dean of International Affairs
Machiko Tomiyama, Assistant Dean of the College of Liberal Arts*
Shoichiro Iwakiri, Assistant Dean of the College of Liberal Arts (in charge
of College-wide Programs)
Hiroshi Suzuki, Professor, Former Director of Faculty Development
Anri Morimoto, Professor, Division of Humanities
Yoshito Ishio, Associate Professor, Division of Social Sciences
Mark Greenfield, Professor, Division of Natural Sciences
Yasunori Morishima, Assistant Professor, Division of Languages
Toshiaki Sasao, Professor, Division of Education**
Jacqueline Wasilewski, Professor, Division of International Studies***
Tomoyuki Yoshida, Associate Professor, Former Director of English
Language Program
Junko Hibiya, Professor, Former Director of Japanese Language Programs
Nobuyuki Matsuoka, Professor, Head, Department of Health and Physical
Education
Yuki Nagano, Director of the Library
Megumi Tsuburaya, Director of Educational Affairs Division
*replacing Tomoko Koto, Assistant Dean, CLA, April 1, 2005
**replacing David Rackham, Professor, Division of Education, September 1, 2004
***replacing John Maher, Professor, Division of International Studies,
October 21, 2004
Professor Yasunori Morishima represented the committee and attended the AALE Annual Meeting held on June 28-29, 2004. He was able to make contact with AALE officers and help arrange for a preliminary site visit. On September 9 and 10, 2004 President Jeffery Wallin and Jeffery Martineau, the AALE Director of Accreditation, visited ICU and met with President Norihiko Suzuki, Vice-President Mitsuo Morimoto, and several members of the Working Committee. The visit was important to clarify the self-study process and expected contents of the eventual self study report.
From October 2004, the Committee began working in earnest to determine possible ways to measure ICU’s compliance with AALE Standards and Criteria. Six sub-committees were formed to address individual standards and a schedule of monthly meetings was determined, leading to the submission of rough narratives for each standard on June 15, 2005. Professor Shaun Malarney was appointed Special Assistant to the Dean in charge of the Self Study Project. A WebCT site was created for the Working Committee with links to relevant accreditation and assessment sites. Email allowed for good communication among committee members.
Several instruments to assess student engagement and faculty perception of liberal learning at ICU were devised. With the help of members of the Division of Education, a Senior Exit Survey was prepared for members of the graduating class of 2005 (March graduates). Moreover, since the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) was not appropriate for a university in Japan, members of the Working Committee devised our own Student Engagement Survey (SES) written in both Japanese and English. Since several questions on our survey were based on the NSSE, we sought and received permission from the Indiana University Center for Post-Secondary Education to administer our own version of the NSSE, with the understanding that we share the results of our survey. We administered this survey in April 2005 to all third-year students. A later section of the Self Study Report will detail the results of this student engagement survey. In addition, we devised an exit survey for the 2005 graduating class. The results of this survey are also included in a later section of this report. In order to assess the quality and quantity of writing that takes place across the curriculum, in June 2005 we asked all faculty members to fill out a “Writing in the ICU Curriculum Survey.” Finally, we asked the Curriculum Coordinators of all departments and fields of concentration to fill out an “ICU Liberal Learning Assessment” Department Survey. Since the idea and vocabulary of “assessment” is relatively new to Japanese educational institutions, the survey was the cause of much discussion among faculty over the real ability to measure effective reasoning, broad and deep learning, and the inclination to inquire. Well aware of the limitations of the results of this approach, we nonetheless did the best we could to assess our undergraduate liberal learning experience. The results of this survey are also discussed later in this report.
ICU traces its roots to the immediate postwar period. Its founder and first president, Dr. Hachiro Yuasa, believed that Japan’s prewar education system was partly responsible for the country’s drift into militarism and world war. He and other Christians in Japan and North America worked to set up an American-style small liberal arts college in Japan—a new style of education that would emphasize internationalism, democracy, and individualism. According to the founders, the new university should be academically rigorous, international, interracial, intercultural, and coeducational. It would be distinctly Christian, but global, ecumenical, and nonsectarian. Right from the beginning, he envisioned broad exchange relations with Koreans, Chinese, Indians, Russians, and other Europeans as well as Americans. Yuasa’s dream was realized in 1953 with the enrollment of the first class of some 200 “eager youths from the entire world.” (For more details on the history of ICU, please see Charles W. Iglehart, International Christian University: An Adventure in Christian Higher Education in Japan, ICU Press, 1964 and Kiyoko Takeda, Higher Education for tomorrow: international Christian University and Postwar Japan, ICU Press, 1953 [Document 4].)
Since its founding in 1953, ICU has been a pioneer in liberal arts education in Japan and Asia. Its early motto, “To Serve God and Humankind,” gave evidence of a strong desire of the new university to embrace and foster peace. The mission was to realize international mutual understanding and the spirit of Christianity through the highest quality academic training and research. To this end, the ICU curriculum emphasized critical thinking and bilingual communication skills and engagement with real world problems. ICU continues to hold as its mission the establishment of an academic tradition of freedom and reverence based on Christian ideals and the education of individuals of conscience, internationally cultured and with a strong sense of citizenship in a democratic society. (The mission of the university is discussed in a later section of this report; our full mission statement can be found on pages 1 - 4 of The Bulletin of the College of Liberal Arts [Document 5].)
The structure of ICU consists of a College of Liberal Arts, which is organized into six divisions: Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Languages, Education and International Studies. Students who are educated within the Japanese educational system enter in April and are given intensive training in English. Students from educational systems outside of Japan enter in September and are given intensive training in Japanese. Courses are given in both Japanese and English, with the majority of the courses in Japanese. Students are required to take a required number of General Education and Physical Education courses, and major in one of some 28 majors. All students must write a senior thesis. (The requirements for graduation are detailed on pages 16 – 19 of The Bulletin of the College of Liberal Arts [Document 5].)
More than fifty years have passed since the university was established. It has grown in size (in 2005 undergraduate enrollment is 2,934 student) and in diversity (30 percent of the teaching staff is non-Japanese; over 100 foreign student come to ICU on exchange programs and over 300 ICU students go overseas on a one-year or shorter-term programs). Students are satisfied (ICU has consistently been ranked number one in student satisfaction in national higher education surveys for the past 10 years [Document 6] and in 2003 the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology named ICU as one of its “Centers of Good Practice” in recognition of its liberal arts approach to whole person education.
Much has changed over the past half century, but the mission of the College of Liberal Arts remains to promote a liberal arts education that nurtures responsible citizens in a global society. ICU aims to cultivate qualities of human character and decision making skills that will enable graduates to view global and local issues from a critical perspective and contribute to the solution of real problems. According to the report of the “21st Century ICU Forum” compiled in 1995, “An important objective of liberal arts education is to cultivate responsibility and the power of execution for active involvement in real social problems.” [Document 7] To this end, ICU provides a liberal arts education by:
1) teaching the foundations and basic knowledge in several academic fields thoroughly
2) cultivating an academic mind that can transcend the limits of each specific field, and grasping the universal means for the pursuit of truth through the learning of specific fields
3) clarifying points of criticism and resistance regarding trends in a specific field, and by aiming at the exchange and integration of knowledge
4) freeing oneself from conventional points of view through questioning the roots of knowledge, and by allowing the development of the whole individual
5) developing an understanding and appreciation of art, discovering that effective communication of thoughts and intentions is not necessarily verbal, and exploring ways for self-expression. (Quoted from page 4 of ICU University Guide [Document 8]
The remainder of this report will attempt to give evidence to ICU’s commitment to excellence in liberal education. In separate narratives, the report will show how ICU is attempting to meet the AALE Accreditation Standards. (Section 3) Since methods of assessment long established in the United States are still relatively unfamiliar to the Japanese world of higher education, the report will also discuss our attempt to create a “ICU Student Engagement Survey” comparable to the NSSE and to carry out an ICU Department-level Assessment of Liberal Learning (Sections 4 and 5). The report will conclude with an account of our weaknesses, needs, and future reform plans.
3. Measuring Up to the AALE Standards
Standard One: Effective Reasoning
Similar to other selective liberal arts institutions, ICU is committed to developing critical thinking skills, broad and deep learning, and fostering the inclination to inquire. The university aims at small classes, good advising, the development of critical thinking skills and bi-lingual communication skills, and at the cultivation of responsible global citizens. Through service learning and other internships and practice-oriented classes, students are encouraged to become engaged in activities outside the classroom and beyond graduation. Our curriculum, especially the General Education Program and the English Language Program—the two programs that students encounter during their first year—has been designed specifically to meet these liberal learning needs.
ICU’s General Education Program is basic to the fulfillment of the University’s commitment to a liberal education: “to foster students with a dedication to peace, freedom, mutual understanding and responsibility; to help them grow into global citizens able to reflect on the tragedies of World War II and place not only Japan but the whole world into perspective.” The General Education (GE) Program is central to ICU’s claim to offer a liberal arts education in Japan. An extended quotation from the booklet describing the GE Program makes clear ICU’s commitment to a liberal education:
The unequal distribution of resources, poverty and conflict has long characterized our world. Nevertheless, these sorts of issues did not seem to be acknowledged as deep, public problems in Japan during the many years of high economic growth, especially during its asset-inflated “bubble” economy, an economic climate that notoriously hindered proper value judgment. … Following the end of the bubble, however, in Japan, just like in may other parts of the world, social circumstances began to show signs indicating the unprecedented loss of mutual trust and understanding. Especially in the global, ethnic, religious and ideological confrontations and turmoil that have become even more obvious in the post-September 11 context and possess factors that are ever so multiple, fundamental questions seem to have returned to the center of our thoughts: What is the meaning of life? Why can happiness or peace never be turned into reality at any of the individual, ethnic or national levels? What is happiness, peace, truth or justice to begin with?
The GE Program seeks to enable students to acquire a basis for thinking critically about these sorts of fundamental questions from an integrated viewpoint. While the GE courses are taught by instructors from different disciplines, they are not confined to the introduction or deepening of any particular field of study or discipline. Instead, the courses are designed to help students see what is manifested when a phenomenon is analyzed and interpreted by expertise-based methodology; to see how “truth” comes into sight of interpretation, which could not have emerged without the application of methodology; and to show and have the students think how the new realization produces a more cultivated understanding of the world and humanity. (2005 Outlines of General Education Courses, p. 4 [Document 9])
In addition to the General Education Program, all entering students must take an intensive program (the English Language Program (ELP) for students entering in April and the Japanese Language Program (JLP) for students entering in September). These language programs are essential to give all students the necessary language skills that will allow them to take courses both in Japanese and English. Beyond language education, however, the ELP and JLP provide the first structured introduction to the sorts of thinking and communication skills vital to a liberal education. To quote the ELP Student Handbook: “The primary emphasis in the ELP is English for academic purposes, and therefore, most of the ELP classes focus on the key skills of reading with accuracy and understanding, academic listening and taking notes in lectures, and academic writing. In other words, the ELP stresses both English language skills acquisition and development of basic academic critical thinking and study skills.” (p. 2, [Document 10])
The teaching of critical thinking skills in the ELP focuses on critical reading and writing in the ARW (Academic Reading and Writing) portion of the program. Starting in the Spring term with their first content reading, students in the ARW classes learn to identify a writer’s main points, overall argument, support, evidence, and conclusion. Students are encouraged to question and challenge the writer’s ideas, and their own ideas. Analyzing readings in this way mirrors the process the students undergo as writers—stating their own clear opinion, developing their own argument, and supporting it with good reasons.
The first writing assignment in the Spring term is a simple argumentative essay. Learning to write an argumentative essay effectively prepares students for future classes in the CLA and develops the thinking skills needed for a liberal arts education. The thinking required for such an essay reflects the concepts of critical thinking presented in their first reading, John Meiland’s College Thinking (Signet, 1989). Students clearly see the connection between what they read and what they are asked to produce in writing.
By writing argumentative essays, students also learn that they are members of a larger discourse community. An essential part of a liberal arts education is the ability to recognize, acknowledge, and assimilate the opinions of others. In their class discussions and essays, students learn to look at issues from wider perspectives. Though their first essay is “simple” in content, it lays a foundation that is built upon with more complex essays in the Fall and Winter terms. With the Fall and Winter readings, the students continue to learn critically reading skills and to make connections between different readings, and connections to their own life experiences.
The sorts of critical thinking skills required for a liberal arts university cannot be acquired in three ten-week terms or learned by writing three or four essays. What can be learned, however, is the habit of critical thinking. To develop this habit of critical thinking, reading and writing, ELP students are given repeated practice of the entire process of essay writing throughout the year until this habit of critical thinking becomes second nature. (See Michael Kleindl, “Liberal Arts, Critical Thinking, and the Spring Term in the ELP,” FD News-N-Things, vol. 9, no. 3, March 2005, p. 2, in Document 43.)
Other programs aimed specifically at fostering effective reasoning skills among first-year students include the First-Year Seminar offered by the Division of Social Sciences. These seminars (capped at 15 students) were established in 2003 with the intention to give students an intimate and hand-on learning experience in their first year, especially given the fact that many of the GE courses involve large enrollments (GE courses are capped at 150 students with average enrollment size around 100 students). The First-Year Seminars involve training in reading comprehension, critical thinking, and skills in writing and oral presentation. This year the seminars focus on a critical reading of John Dower’s Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (Norton, 2000).
The quality of ICU faculty and students is also instrumental in the promotion of liberal learning. According to the ICU Faculty Manual, a supremely important factor in the hiring process is the extent to which the candidate can be expected to contribute to the mission of the university:
1) ICU faculty members are expected to be proficient in teaching. They must have a strong interest in assisting students in the development of their personality, beliefs, and thinking skills.
2) Although the research competence of faculty members is to be developed, such competence must be reflected in instruction. With the advent of the global age, the faculty is expected to integrate basic issues from a pluralistic perspective.
3) Faculty members must be psychologically resilient and excel in mental resources. They must be driven to be integrative in their approaches to knowledge based on creativity and thinking with maturity and flexibility.
4) The faculty must be interested in collective thinking and living as well as in ethnicity and globalism, be free from racial prejudice, and show interest in and zeal for the development and maintenance of the university as an academic community while realizing social and civic responsibility. [Document 11]
The prime route for admissions to ICU is through the General Admissions Test (GAT) administered in February of each year. Unlike other entrance examinations in Japan, ICU’s GAT emphasizes reading comprehension and critical thinking skills. Moreover, from 2004 ICU began to admit a limited number of students through a rigorous screening and interview process designed especially to admit students who have the initiative to ask questions, seek answers and engage in active learning. Through its admissions policy, ICU thus seeks to attract students with an insatiable curiosity and with open minds; students who are not satisfied with conventional answers; students with the will to lead and with the desire to make a different in the world around them.
As can be seen, ICU sees the cultivation of critical thinking skills as an important part of its mission. To date, however, the university has not been required to provide evidence that it is, in fact, achieving this or other educational goals. Accreditation procedures in Japan are changing, but the attempt to measure how well a university measures up to recognized standards has not been a major part of the process. ICU accepts the challenge presented by AALE, but we must confess that our assessment procedures are still in their infancy.
One series of survey results that we may point to is the National Survey on Student Satisfaction conducted every four years by the Benesse Corporation, similar to the ranking survey of American Colleges and Universities conducted by U.S. News and World Report. In the three times this ranking survey has been administered, 1997, 2001, and 2004, ICU has consistently ranked Number One in terms of overall student satisfaction. In the most recent survey (2004), ICU was ranked first in terms of the contents of its liberal arts education, first in terms of pedagogy, and first in the category of student commitment to learning. [Document 6]
ICU has been a pioneer in the field of Faculty Development in Japan, and established an Office of Faculty Development in 1995. One of the prime activities of the FD Office has been to carry out a “Teaching Effectiveness Survey” (TES) as a means primarily to improve the quality of teaching at ICU. Initially limited to the General Education courses, the TES is now administered in all ICU classes. Averages of answers to questions that relate to liberal learning for Spring, Autumn, and Winter terms, AY 2004 are presented in Document 12. Below is a list of six representative issues, giving AY 2004 averages of the percentage of students who either strongly agreed or agreed with the question:
The course goals were clearly presented: 88.6 percent
The course stimulated my interest: 81.5 percent
There were sufficient opportunities for student participation: 72.8 percent
The instructor conducted the class with enthusiasm: 93.5 percent
The instructor taught in a way that helped my understanding: 82.5 percent
The instructor responded appropriately to questions and assignments: 88.5 percent
The Self Study Committee devised an “ICU Student Engagement Survey” (SES) [described in detail in Section 4 of this report] based upon questions asked in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). The survey was given to all third-year students in April 2005. The results reveal high levels of student engagement in the ICU learning environment. (SES results are summarized in Document 50). Students report actively participating in classroom discussion, debate, presenting oral reports, working in group projects, although a disturbing 71.9 percent admitting to sometimes sleeping in class. Nonetheless, a total of 80.6 percent of third-years students who completed the survey agreed that ICU had prepared them to become responsible, global citizens. With regard to effective reasoning skills, a total of 94.7 percent of students agreed that their education at ICU had enhanced their ability for critical and analytical thinking, and 72.2 percent agreed that ICU had enhanced their ability to analyze quantitative problems.
The Self Study Committee conducted its own “ICU Liberal Learning Assessment” (discussed in detail in Section 5 of this report) and asked all Curriculum Coordinators to discuss matters relating to effective reasoning, broad and deep learning, and the inclination to inquire in department meetings. This was our first attempt to come up with a realistic assessment of the actual performance of ICU’s liberal arts education. While some members of our faculty found the questions difficult to understand and unscientific in approach (“Is it really possible to measure on a 10 point scale the extent to which each AALE criteria is achieved or satisfied?”), we did manage to raise awareness of the assessment process and come up with some tentative results. Overall, in the area of effective reasoning, departments reported the following averages, on a 10-point scale with 1 being “least satisfactory” and 10 being “completely satisfactory”:
1. Is the curriculum designed to encourage and foster effective reasoning? 8.1
2. Do program and courses descriptions consistently frame the development of students’ reasoning abilities as your department’s principal objectives? 6.7
3. Are course readings and requirements systematically designed to foster the development of these abilities? 7.6
4. Is the curriculum designed to ensure that students attain and demonstrate the necessary foundational abilities in effective reasoning? 8.0
In answer to the question about pedagogical methods and practices employed to encourage effective reasoning, department often noted the use of “comment sheets.” This practice is common in ICU courses. Students are encouraged to ask questions, but in many classes required to turn in comment sheets for each class. Faculty responded to these comments, in writing or as an item of discussion in the next class. Project based learning was also frequently mentioned. Copies of the answers to the Liberal Learning Assessment Survey are available for inspection. [Document 13]
In addition to critical thinking skills, basic logical, mathematical, and scientific reasoning skills are also important. This area in ICU’s curriculum needs to be strengthened, especially among non-science majors. ICU’s General Education Program offers nine courses related to the Natural Sciences of which all graduating students must take at least two to satisfy distribution requirements. A “Senior Integrating Seminar” is also offered in the General Education Program, with the idea that the General Education Program is coherent to the entire four years of undergraduate education. The “Senior Integrating Seminar” is open to all majors, but required of science majors in their senior year. The seminar attempts to show the interrelationships of the different branches of the natural sciences and mathematics, and their relation to other disciplines. Mathematical and scientific reasoning skills are developed in recitation sections of foundation classes in mathematics and in laboratory classes in experimental science. Non-science majors need to be encouraged to take such classes if we are truly to live up to the ideals of a liberal arts education.
Finally, we should note that all course syllabi are published on the ICU intranet (W3) and available for inspection. Faculty are encouraged to explicitly state the course objectives, content, assignments, and policies in syllabus; the Office of Faculty Development holds regular seminars on improving teaching practices, including the creation of an effective syllabus. See pages 96-98 of the FD Handbook: A Practical Guide to Teaching and Research at ICU, for instructions relating to syllabus preparation. [Document 14]
Standard Two: Broad and Deep Learning
ICU students receive a rigorous, solid and coherent academic program that involves both the breadth and depth of liberal learning. Aside from the General Education and Language programs described above, ICU offers some 28 majors in Divisions of Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Languages, Education, and International Studies. ICU is unique in Japan for its organization of all disciplines, including the natural sciences, under the umbrella of one faculty of liberal arts. In addition to traditional discipline-based majors, ICU has several inter-disciplinary (ID) or problem-based majors, including Japan Studies, American Studies, Asian Studies, and Gender Studies. [Document 15] New ID majors are envisioned in Peace Studies and Environmental Studies. In addition to these established majors, students are encouraged to create their own individually-designed grouping of courses that matches their academic interests. This freedom of choice is one of the reasons why ICU is able to meet high levels of student satisfaction.
Much of the information given to support ICU’s commitment to the cultivation of effective reasoning skills can be used to underscore other aspects of ICU’s liberal arts education. The interdisciplinary nature of ICU’s General Education Program has already been described. At present, all students are required to take at least 27 units of General Education courses, which must include a 3-unit course entitled “Introduction to Christianity” and at least two 3-unit courses in each of the three areas of the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences. The “Introduction to Christianity” course, offered by a variety of specialists in both English and Japanese, illustrates some of the ways in which the Christian tradition relates to contemporary issues and perspectives. [Document 9]
ICU also requires students to take a series of “Foundation Courses” in the student’s Division in addition to courses more specifically related to their major. Thus, a student in any one of the six divisions must take 18 units (20 units in the Division of Natural Sciences) in Division Foundation Courses as well as 15 units of courses in their major field. For example, a student majoring in Political Sciences in the Division of Social Sciences, must take Foundation or 100-level courses in various disciplines of the Social Sciences, including history, economics, social statistics, sociology, anthropology, psychology, legal studies, and political science. See the Bulletin of the College of Liberal Arts 2005-2006 for descriptions of the Foundation Course requirements for the six divisions [Document 5].
The requirement to complete a major is an essential part of an education that has its goal to produce independent, knowledgeable, rigorous, and creative thinkers. ICU seeks to realize these qualities by requiring students to study at least one field in some depth. By completing the requirements for a major, students learn how knowledge is organized, how to conduct research, how to ask questions, and how to construct an extended argument. Rather than specialized knowledge or mastery of a specific discipline, the major is part of ICU's overall goal to produce students who are broadly educated and equipped with rigorous and creative thinking skills. At the same time, ICU expects that work involved in completing the requirements for a major will give students the desire and curiosity to keep learning beyond the requirements, preparing them both for the possibility of further work and study in their chosen field and for productive and creative lives. All majors require 15 units of coursework. See Bulletin of the College of Liberal Arts 2005-2006 for description of requirements of each of the majors and for course offerings in all majors [Document 5]. In addition, all students must write a senior thesis in the area of their major. This capstone experience involves one-year of sustained research and writing under the supervision of a faculty advisor. See the “Senior Thesis Guidelines” for more details on the Senior Thesis requirement. [Document 16]
The breadth of ICU’s curriculum and learning environment has made ICU an attractive alternative to the mainstream of Japanese educational institutions that stress more specialized and vocational training. In the ICU Student Engagement Survey (SES), a total of 93.3 percent of students responding agreed that their learning experience at ICU had helped them acquire a broad and general knowledge base. In contrast, only 32 percent gave high marks to their education at ICU in terms of acquiring job-related knowledge. Other significant learning outcomes relating to the AALE Standard of Broad and Deep Learning include:
●Enhanced ability to use computers and information technology 63.4% agree
●Enhanced ability to work with others 88.3% agree
●Enhanced awareness of civic responsibilities 69.3% agree
●Enhanced desire to learn about real-world problems 83% agree
●Enhanced ability to analyze and understand real-world problems 80.3% agree
●Enhanced desire to participate in solving real-world problems 79.2% agree
●Enhanced understanding of others from different backgrounds 95.2% agree
[See Section 4 below]
Faculty agree that ICU’s approach to teaching and learning provides students with a rich fund of meaningful knowledge as well as the ability to integrate knowledge gained across different fields of study. The results (averages, on a 10-point scale with 1 being “least satisfactory” and 10 being “completely satisfactory”) of the “ICU Liberal Learning Assessment Survey” in this category are as follows:
1. Is your department’s curriculum designed to encourage and foster the ability to relate and integrate the knowledge and methods of study and analysis gained in its different parts? 8.3
2. Are courses and programs in your department designed to facilitate comparative or cooperative projects between different areas of learning? 7.8
3. Does your department’s curriculum feature interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary courses, programs, or requirements? 7.6
4. Do faculty from different disciplines or with different areas of knowledge cooperate in ways that exemplify fruitful relations that are possible between specialists in disparate fields of learning? 7.2
5. Does the faculty effectively encourage and enable students to relate, compare, and integrate knowledge across different disciplines? 8.3
[Document 13]
One faculty member in the Division of Natural Sciences made special reference to a General Education course on “Computers and Human Issues,” noting that the course “bridges the field of humanities and computer science, building on the paradigm of artificial intelligence, data collection, knowledge mining and information processing. While introducing students to the information science major, the main goal of the course is the identification of ethical issues related to the world of machines and challenges in building an open society.” Another faculty member in the Division of Education emphasized the need for “broad learning” in the study of psychology: “Some psychology courses are cross-listed with other divisions/departments, and vice-versa. The subject matter of psychology is not the exclusive domain of the Department of Psychology. Philosophers, theologians, biologists, physicists, and chemists are related to psychology. Recent developments in the study of the human genome and many new non-invasive brain-imaging technologies involve professionals in other fields in the exploration of phenomena that may be described as psychological. It remains important to encourage a sense of the ‘philosophy of psychology.’ In addition, there are many practical applications of psychological theory and methodology to issues of widespread public concern (e.g., environmental issues, health and illness, peace and conflict, human factors engineering, etc.). Psychology students are strongly encouraged to recognize that, given the complexity of their subject matter, it is wise to be aware of the interrelationships of psychology with many other disciplines and professions.” [Document 13]
Standard Three: Inclination to Inquire
ICU, like other liberal arts colleges and universities, seeks to instill in students a love of learning that goes beyond simply fulfilling credit and distribution requirements. Moreover, the goal to cultivate “responsible global citizens” demands that students put the knowledge and skills they gain during their four years at ICU to use in helping to solve real-world problems. A stated goal of ICU’s liberal arts education is “To nurture the ability to raise questions about the world of tomorrow, and to seek after truth, grasp the dynamics of human society and related phenomena from a realistic and historical perspective, and to make efforts to solve economic, social and political problems as a knowledgeable citizen.” [Document 14, p. 76]
Throughout its curriculum, ICU emphasizes internationalism and bilingualism, intellectual frameworks and skills vital to a liberally-educated mind. ICU’s concern with Peace Studies has also had a decisive influence on the professional and non-professional careers of its graduates. ICU graduates are known from their leading role in international organizations such as the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and other international NGOs. They also play an important role in international business and journalism. ICU is also justly proud of the academic careers of many of its graduates, producing, as do many liberal arts institutions in the United States, a disproportionate number of graduates who go on to complete Ph.D. degrees. For example, of the 637 members of the graduating class of 2004, 147 continued into graduate school, 107 entered service institutions such as the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), 68 entered manufacturing industries, 45 went into wholesale and retail companies, 29 into mass communications industries, 45 into banking and insurance, etc. [Document 17 p. 24] The 116 graduates listed in the category of “others” includes persons preparing for license exams and graduate school admissions or waiting for the applications results of graduate schools overseas. The ICU Guidebook for 2006 (in Japanese) includes portraits of representative ICU graduates, complete with individual testimonies to how ICU’s liberal arts education instilled in them the love of learning and the desire to use their skills and knowledge for the betterment of society. [Document 18]
As noted above, the results of the National Survey on Student Satisfaction conducted by the Benesse Corporation and ICU’s own Student Engagement Survey (SES) show ICU students highly satisfied with their education experience. In the SES, some 77 percent of students reported being satisfied with the education and services ICU provided in preparing for a future career, and some 80.6 percent of students felt that ICU had successfully prepared them to become responsible, global citizens. More specifically, in terms of learning outcomes, students reported that their education at ICU had helped them to:
●Become a clear and effective writer 89.3 % agree
●Become a clear and effective speaker 80.3 % agree
●Enhanced ability to learn on one’s own 85.7% agree
●Understand themselves better: 86.2 % agree
●Understand and develop personal ethics and values: 88 % agree
●Enhanced appreciation of religion / spirituality: 77.6 % agree
[See Section 4 below]
The results of the “ICU Liberal Learning Assessment Survey” support the conclusion that teaching and learning at ICU serves to instill students with the inclination to inquire, although several weak areas were pointed out, including the lack of formal mechanisms to monitor and document student’s intellectual enterprise. Knowing full well the problems with trying to measure ideas in statistical format, the results (averages, on a 10-point scale with 1 being “least satisfactory” and 10 being “completely satisfactory”) of the Liberal Learning Assessment Survey in the area of “Inclination to Inquire” are as follows:
1. Is your department’s curriculum designed to encourage and foster individual and cooperative inquiry? 8.3
2. Are courses and programs in your department designed to help students learn to become active inquirers and participants in the search for knowledge? 8.5
3. Are institutional resources and curricular offerings sufficient to allow students to pursue their intellectual inquiries? 7.4
4. Does the faculty regularly use teaching methods and styles designed or likely to encourage students’ intellectual inquisitiveness? 8.3
5. Do teachers exemplify for their students the challenges and reward of a life motivated by the love of inquiry for its own sake and for the food it contributes to self and society? 8.2
In comments, faculty stressed the importance of office hours, advisor-advisee meetings, open house (one-third of the ICU faculty live on campus), chapel service, and casual encounters outside of the classroom as contributing to the development of intellectual curiosity. One faculty member simply noted: “We always teach with enthusiasm and love of academic knowledge.” One faculty member stressed the importance of the senior thesis and other individual or group projects: “Individual or group-oriented course projects are designed to encourage students to pursue insights and knowledge on their own initiative. Once again, the senior thesis process is the best expression of this. Students are required to identify a topic for their thesis, conduct a literature review, identify a research question(s), design a way to answer these questions, implement the research design, collect data, analyze the data, and discuss the results and their implications in light of the questions raised. In addition, they must present the results of their research in public settings as part of the department-wide senior thesis process.”
[Document 13]
One faculty member stressed the importance of the Teaching Effectiveness Survey (TES) as ICU main instrument to monitor and document student learning. Aside from the questions on course content and pedagogy (as noted above in Standard No. 1), the TES asks several questions to the students about their approach to learning in individual courses. The AY2004 results show areas in which ICU needs to seek improvement in its endeavor to cultivate a love of learning:
●How long did you study per week outside of class for this course?
>6 hrs. 3.1 percent
4-6 hrs. 5.4 percent
2-6 hrs. 19.3 percent
1 hr. 29.1 percent
0-30 mins. 39.1 percent
●How frequently did you attend this course on time?
100 – 90% 57.3 percent
89 – 80% 19.8 percent
79 – 70% 9.7 percent
69 – 60% 5.1 percent
< 59% 4.1 percent
●What final grade do you expect to receive?
A 35.5 percent
B 41.5 percent
C 14.8 percent
D 3.0 percent
E 0.2 percent
[Document 12; see also Document 19]
Finally, to end on a positive note, perhaps one way to measure student inclination to inquire is a count of the number of books students check out from the library (on average) during an academic year. This particular statistic clearly differentiates ICU from other universities in Japan. According to a survey conducted in 2004, for example, ICU students checked out an average of 66.1 books in contrast to the Japan national average or a mere 8.1 books. This figure in itself should give some indication of the nature of teaching and learning that takes place on the ICU campus.
ICU holds as its mission the establishment of an academic tradition of freedom and reverence based on Christian ideals, and the education of individuals of conscience, internationally cultured and with a strong sense of citizenship in a democratic society. The university’s mission statement may be found in the first pages of the Bulletin of the College of Liberal Arts [Document 5 , pp. 1-2]. A modified version of the mission statement may be found in the ICU University Guide [Document 8, pp. 2-3]. The mission statement outlines the three commitments of the International Christian University, an International Commitment, a Christian Commitment and a Commitment to the Liberal Arts.
This Mission Statement was developed incrementally over time, beginning with a meeting held in Gotemba in June 1949 that resulted in the establishment of the university. The initial mission statement was printed in the first University Bulletin 1953-1955 [Document 20, pp. 14-19] The mission statement has been reviewed several times over the course of the past 50 years, but not as the result of any periodic review process. Episodes of student unrest in the1960s, increase in the number of students in the 1970s and 1980s, changes in economic conditions in the 1990s, and recent declines in the size of the Japanese student population, have all contributed to periods of self-reflection. In 1995, as the new century approach and ICU’s 50th anniversary approached, a major review of ICU’s mission and curriculum and administrative structure was undertaken, resulting in new buildings, programs, and policies. A comprehensive vision of ICU for the twenty-first century was published as the report of the 21st Century ICU Forum [Document 7]. This document reaffirmed the importance of liberal arts and internationalism and Christian ideals in education and research, and added dimensions of action and responsibility: “An important objective of liberal arts education is to cultivate responsibility and the power of execution for active involvement in real social problems.” (p. 28) Later, in 1999, the University adopted a new motto: “Doing Liberal Arts” to show its concern that education involve both active learning in the classroom, and active involvement in society after graduation. It published a prospectus for ICU in the twenty-first century entitled “Doing Liberal Arts” [Document 21] and outlines several projects in commemoration of ICU’s 50th anniversary: 1) The construction of a new international student dormitory, the Global House; 2) The construction of a new Media Library, the Othsmer Library, as a center of knowledge in the 21st century; 3) The creation of new programs in Peace and Human Rights Studies, Asian Studies, STS (Science, Technology and Society) Research, and Gender Studies; 4) The establishment of a new program in Service Learning, that would allow ICU student to move beyond the classroom into local, national, or international communities where they become engaged with real problems and the people and organizations who try to solve them.
There has been no self-conscious attempt to measure the extent to which ICU’s educational experience actually meets the goals outlined in its mission statement. We thank the AALE for requiring us to look critically at our mission statement. Since in fact several versions of the mission statement exist, our committee will recommend to the ICU Faculty Meeting and ultimately to the Board of the Trustees that one document be declared the official mission statement, and that a periodic review process be instituted. (One committee member has compiled a revised mission statement for this purpose [Document 22]). We will also propose that familiarity with the mission statement be more formally part of the orientation process for new students and new faculty and new staff members. Finally, we must accept the challenge by the AALE to be able to produce evidence that the university is achieving the goals set forth in the mission statement.
The extent to which ICU is able to live up to the goals it outlines in its mission statement is difficult to evaluate, primarily because our current mission statement does not lend itself easy assessment. As noted above, external and internal surveys show strong areas of student satisfaction with university life, both before and after graduation. The testimonies of members of the ICU Alumni Association, the Japan ICU Foundation in New York, and other networks and groups of ICU graduates provide strong evidence that ICU is indeed accomplishing its mission to produce responsible, global citizens. [Talks given by prominent ICU alumni have been published as part of an ICU Alumni Open Lecture Series Document 23]
A Senior Exit Survey was prepared by Professor Yoko Kuriyama and other members of the Division of Education. It was distributed to the 526 members of graduating class of 2005 in March. The return rate of 194 valid replies was not spectacular, but provided valuable information and a base on which to build future surveys. A copy of the survey (in Japanese) and a summary of the results may be found in Document 24. The survey was divided into 4 secions: 1) Future Plans; 2) University Experience; 3) Tuition; 4) Educational Activities. In the first category, some 35.6 percent of graduates replied that they intened to continue their education at graduate school and 52.6 percent said they intended to go on to full time employment after graduation. In the second category, a total of 78.3 percent expressed their satisfaction with the educational experience received at ICU and 89.9 percent said they would encourage high school seniors to apply to ICU. The following are satisfaction levels with regard to quality and quantity of various educational services and opportunities:
1) Academic advise given before selection of major: 35.1% satisfied
2) Academic advise given within major: 63.4% satisfied
3) Time spent with faculty members outside classroom: 79.9% satisfied
4) Opportunities to work together with faculty members: 56.7% satisfied
5) Individualized guidance or instruction: 75.7% satisfied
6) Study abroad opportunities: 64.2% satisfied
7) Ability to take desired coures: 69.1% satisfied
8) Class size: 85.5% satisfied
9) English Language Program: 88.6% satisfied
10) Coures with one’s major: 66.7% satisfied
11) Computer access and support: 67% satisfied
12) Libriary facilities: 81.4% satisfied
13) Sports facilities: 70.6% satisfied
14) Student cafeteria: 29.4% satisfied
15) Campus security: 83.2% satisfied
[Document 24 includes analysis of satisfaction levels, in Japanese]
Another
set of questions concerned the level to which students
felt they had achieved certain learning goals during their four years at
ICU. Students
were first asked how important they felt a certain skill to be (on a scale of 1-4) and then
asked them to rate how their experience at ICU had actually given
them that knowledge or skill (also on a scale of 1-4 from “I did not change
much over 4 years” to “I feel strongly that I changed over 4 years.”). Results
are given as averages of 177
valid responses.
|
Learning Goals |
Significance |
Change |
|
1) Writing skills |
2.95 |
3.22 |
|
2) Spoken communication skills |
2.79 |
3.55 |
|
3) Ability to get new skills and knowledge |
2.92 |
3.33 |
|
4) Argument skills |
2.65 |
3.10 |
|
5) Critical thinking skills |
3.03 |
3.19 |
|
6) Analytical thinking skills |
2.95 |
3.34 |
|
7) Creativity and originality |
2.61 |
3.25 |
|
8) Ability to evaluate and make decisions |
2.68 |
3.14 |
|
9) Leadership skills |
2.53 |
2.75 |
|
10) Knowledge of foreign peoples/cultures |
2.88 |
3.03 |
|
11) Abilities to work together with peoles from different national/cultural/religious background |
2.77 |
2.96 |
|
12) Function well within a group |
2.70 |
3.12 |
|
13) Quantitative skills |
2.48 |
2.74 |
|
14) Computer skills |
2.92 |
3.23 |
|
15) Understanding of contemporary issues |
2.66 |
2.78 |
|
16) Understanding of issues faced by one’s country |
2.74 |
3.08 |
|
17) Understanding of global issues |
2.66 |
2.94 |
|
18) Awareness of moral/ethical issues |
2.65 |
2.94 |
|
19) Understanding of self |
2.95 |
3.23 |
|
20) Ability to work without instructions |
2.78 |
3.27 |
|
21) Ability to plan/execute complex projects |
2.53 |
2.85 |
|
22) Specialized knowledge |
2.75 |
3.03 |
|
23) English language skills |
3.00 |
3.24 |
|
24) Other foreign language skills |
2.47 |
2.59 |
|
25) Appreciation of the arts |
2.72 |
2.68 |
|
26) Broad knowledge of the arts and sciences |
2.66 |
2.79 |
|
27) Awareness of social problems |
2.84 |
3.04 |
|
28) Self respect and confidence |
2.51 |
2.84 |
|
29) Religious beliefs and convictions |
2.19 |
2.10 |
|
30) Scientific knowledge |
2.41 |
2.54 |
|
31) Understand the role of technology in society |
2.46 |
2.61 |
|
32) Ability to organize ideas and information |
2.70 |
3.02 |
［Document 24 includes tabulations of answers to Question 9, above, in Japanese］
From these and other results of the Senior Exit Survey it is clear that, at least from student self-assessment, learning, sometimes dramatic learning, is taking place in accordance with the University’s mission statement. While students rate highly their acquisition of critical thinking skills, English language skills, analytical abilities and intercultural skills, it is instructive to note lower values placed on scientific knowledge, understanding of the role of technology in society, appreciation of the arts and religious beliefs. Given the importance of Christianity in the University’s mission statement, more attention should be placed on giving students the opportunity to become familiar with religion and spirituality. At the same time, the survey reveals a basic weakness in the weight given to the sciences and the mastery of quantitative skills in the ICU liberal arts curriculum.
Beyond the Senior Exit Survey, (which will be improved and repeated annually) our committee discussed ways in which the University could generate additional measurable data. One project would be to involve students in the process. For example, as a project students could evaluate and compare the sought after knowledge and skills that were evident in the 1953 Bulletin, the 1995 Reform Plan, and what they consider to be important now in 2005. [See Document 25 for a student generated profile of “the ideal student” taken from 1953, 1995 and 2005 ICU publications. Document 25 also contains samples of student work done in an Intercultural Communication and Relations foundation course to an assignment by one of the Self Study committee members to develop ideas for the improvement of ICU’s Mission Statement and creating an Orientation to ICU Website]. Such an endeavor would be consistent with the conclusion reached by the 21st Century Forum in 1995:
Outstanding ideas are usually not born from the analysis of the status quo. The mission of ICU in the 21st century should be the pursuit of a totally new societal ideal determined through free and open discussion, and the university should educate young people who are able to give shape to and undertake the attainment of this new ideal in society. [Document 7]
Standard Five: Freedom of Thought and Speech
Freedom of thought and speech are fundamental to the educational philosophy at ICU. The mission statement clearly states: “The commitment of this University to a Christian philosophy or ethos, explicit in our name, means that we are free to explore and develop all the dimensions of human existence, including the religious.” [Document 5] Official ICU publications carry the statement: “ICU does not discriminate on the basis of race, color or national origin in the administration of its educational policies, admission policies, financial aid, employment or any other University programs or activities.” Moreover, a Human Rights Committee set up an Advisory Body to help prevent sexual harassment and other violations of human rights. [Document 26] However, the main avenue through which ICU declares its commitment to human rights and freedom of Thought and Speech is the signing of a student pledge to uphold the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948. [Document 27] This practice began with the first entering class in 1953 and continues to the present day. ICU views the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as basic to the realization of its ideals. Members of the faculty also, at an induction ceremony of new faculty, pledge their support of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
ICU thus has a strong tradition of academic freedom. Problems, unfortunately, do exist, some of which have their origin outside the boundaries of the campus community. Issues of sexual harassment are subject to strict punishment, but the university needs to pay attention to other violations of personal autonomy, including hazing by senior students. When personal problem arise, students have access to their academic advisors and to the services of the University Counseling Center [Document 28]; however, there needs to be more opportunities and venues for heart to heart conversation.
ICU, similar to other liberal arts institutions, aims to “cultivate humanity” as part of its educating mission. It necessarily seeks to maintain open intellectual space for free debate and criticism and at the same time insure that social spaces (dorms, clubs, common spaces, classrooms) foster interaction in alignment with the three commitments of the university.
As an institution dedicated to truth and freedom, the University holds as an ideal that administrative processes are democratic, transparent, inclusive, and participatory. One major weakness in this regard, especially in an institution which seeks to educate future global leaders, is the lack of a comprehensive student governance structure. Students have no common meeting to discuss student life or academics at ICU.
Finally, Standard 5.2 notes that any limitation vis a vis an institution’s recruitment and informational materials for students, faculty and administrative personnel must be clearly described and stated. Employment practices at ICU require that all full time faculty members be Christian, although in many cases exceptions are permitted. [See the Final Report of the Committee for the Study of ICU’s Christian Ideals, Document 29] This requirement is often not stated clearly in job advertisements; the University should more straightforward in this regard.
ICU is a competitive university. In order to make it possible for both Japanese students entering through the Japanese education system and international students, entering from abroad to come to ICU, the university conducts admissions procedures leading to entrance both in April and in September. The procedures and entrance requirements are clearly stated in the university’s publications for potential applicants. These materials exist in Japanese, for Japanese-speaking April applicants and in English for English-speaking September applicants. [Document 30]
Candidates for April admissions may apply under any one (or more) of four (from 2005, five) procedures: They may take ICU’s General Admissions Examinations; they may be recommended by a group of select Christian High Schools in Japan; they may be recommended by the ICU High School; they may apply through a documentary screening process by submitting transcripts, letters of recommendation and a personal essay, and standing for interview. From 2005, students may also apply for admission by taking the Common University Examination prepared by the Japan National Test Center. Candidates for September admissions may apply through a documentary screening process, similar to systems employed by most US-based liberal arts colleges.
All applicants for admissions are reviewed by the University’s Admissions Decisions Committee (ADC), under the direction of the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. The committee includes two representatives from each of ICU’s six undergraduate divisions.
In the case of “Recommendee” and “Mature Student” admissions, candidates are interviewed by a panel of faculty members. Essays written by these candidates and letters of recommendation are read by other faculty. The combined screening results are deliberated in the ADC.
In the case of “Documentary Screening” admissions (both April and September), the application package must include a completed ICU application form, a personal statement about study and career plans, official transcripts from the high school(s) and other educational institutions previously attended, a certificate of graduation (or prospective graduation), standardized test scores (for overseas or September applicants). The required tests vary according to the country where secondary education is received. Please refer to “Information for September Applicants,” pages 11-13 [Document 30] for details. September applicants must also provide proof of English language proficiency. All documentary screening applicants must provide 3 letters of recommendation. All applications are reviewed by divisional representatives. The reviewers’ comments and recommendation are sent to the ADC for final decision.
The Bulletin of the College of Liberal Arts and the Course Offerings and Guide to Academic Regulations booklets provide details about academic requirements and responsibilities, as well as policies regarding academic dismissal, suspension, probation, and readmission. [Document 5 and 31]
In accordance with Japan’s laws on protection of personal privacy, ICU has a clear and detailed statement on the keeping and handling of students’ academic records. [Document 32] Complaints, appeals or petitions are to be addressed to the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts.
In order to attract the sorts of students who will thrive in ICU’s liberal arts environment, the university has established a Subcommittee on Admissions policies (SCA). This committee meets regularly to assess the university’s admissions procedures and to consider ideas for improvement in these procedures. Based on deliberation and decisions made by this committee, the university implemented the documentary screening system for April applicants in 2004-2005, and in 2005-2006, ICU will join the national “Center” examination system to allow ICU to attract additional qualified students.
Additionally, all of the entrance exams that ICU produces each year are examined by a testing expert whose item analyses, reports and advice are shared with constructors of the following year’s tests. Test construction manuals also are distributed to those persons responsible for making the tests. Moreover, periodically ICU conducts a survey of educational system of various country in the world in order to make sure assessment standards are well understood and comparable to ICU standards..
Staff in ICU’s Admissions Office, Public Relations Center, Office of International Educational Exchange and the Dean of International Affairs are active in student recruitment. These people meet regularly to make sure that their presentations to prospective students and their teachers and guidance counselors reflect as accurately as possible the academic opportunities and requirements of the university.
ICU’s promotional literature [Documents 18 and 33], to the best of our ability, is clear and accurate with regard to admissions requirements and requirements for enrolled students. Data on enrollment, retention, graduation are shared with the faculty on a term-by-term basis. This data is available to outside auditors upon request. Information on graduate school acceptance and on job placement is also shared in detail with faculty and is included in the university’s bilingual document titled ICU University Guide Fact Book [Document 17] The ICU Job Placement Office provides detailed information to upper-class students on trends and opportunities.
Standard Seven: General Education Requirements
General Education at ICU consists of three parts: 1) English Language Programs (ELP) for April students and Japanese Language Programs (JLP) for September students; 2) Physical Education courses and exercises; and 3) courses in the General Education Program (described above).
The required units of each category are as follows:
ELP 22 units (45 units for September students taking the JLP)
Physical Education 4 units (2 units for September students)
General Education courses 27 units. (15 for September students)
Total for April students: 53 units (out of 136 units required for graduation=38%)
Total for September students: 62 units (out of 140 units required for graduation=44%)
Note: Graduation requirements will modified according to the competence of students. In many cases, September students will already have substantial Japanese language skills and therefore be excused from much of the JLP program, depending upon the results of a placement test.
English Language Programs (ELP)
All April students must take 20~22 units in the English Language Program (ELP) depending on their English proficiency. Only those who demonstrate a high level of English proficiency may be excused from part of the ELP. These regulations and policies are described in ICU Bulletin of the College of Liberal Arts [Document 5] and ELP Student Handbook [Document 10], both distributed to all students. Grading criteria are also described in ELP Staff Handbook.
Japanese Language Programs (JLP)
September students who do not know Japanese are required to take 45 units in the JLP. Those who have native fluency in spoken Japanese but lack the required proficiency in reading and writing must fulfill the Japanese language requirements by taking Special Japanese Program (19 units). Those who demonstrate a high level of Japanese proficiency may be excused from part of the JLP. These regulations and policies are described in International Christian University, Japanese Language Programs [Document 34] and the Japanese Language Programs’ own homepage at http://subsite.icu.ac.jp/jlp/index.eng.html .
All students are required to take 2 units of physical education exercises and 2 units of lecture courses. September students are exempted from the latter requirements. The regulations and policies are described in ICU Bulletin of the College of Liberal Arts [Document 5]
All students must take 27 units of General Education courses. For September Students taking Japanese Language, the minimal requirement is 15 units. For those who are exempted from parts of language requirement, the General Education courses requirement may be modified. The regulations and policies are described in ICU Bulletin of the College of Liberal Arts [Document 5].
Policies concerning the transfer of general education credit are described in ICU Bulletin of the College of Liberal Arts [p. 23, Document 5] The main points that it indicates are as follows:
No credit transfer is allowed from other (Japanese) institutions. Only those who demonstrate a high level of English proficiency may be excused from part of the ELP.
All students entering in September with previous knowledge of Japanese must take a placement test for enrollment in the proper course. If they are placed at a level other than beginning (Intensive 1 or Japanese 1), they are exempted from some of the courses.
The transfer credit can be obtained for 4 units of Physical Education.
The transfer credit can be obtained for up to18 units of General Education courses.
The total amount of credit awarded as transfer credit for study abroad, study at another university under credit auditor status, etc., is not to exceed 30 units.
Standard Eight: Basic Knowledge Requirements
ICU’s General Education Program, as described above, requires students to take a broad distribution of classes in four areas: Humanities; Social Sciences; Natural Sciences, and College-wide Perspective Courses. The only course that all students are required to take is “Introduction to Christianity.” Distribution requirements, however, require students to take courses across the curriculum: natural sciences, humanities, and social sciences. The bi-lingual requirement of the school insures that all students are fluent in both Japanese and English. Many students develop third language skills in Korean, Chinese, French, German, Spanish, and Russian. Within the Japanese educational context, ICU stands out for its positive integration of the natural sciences into the overall curriculum of a liberal arts education.
The diverse nature of the curriculum of the General Education Program has already been mentioned. Courses are offered in the Western and Asian classics, in Information Technology, Music and Society, Peace Research, Environmental Psychology, History and Historiography, Economy and Society, Science Technology and Society, Cultural, Gender, and Health, the World of Mathematics, and the Philosophy of Science—to name but a few.
Apart from the General Education Program, it should be noted that students who study in the English Language Programs and the Japanese Language Programs are exposed to a variety of academic fields of inquiry. The language programs go far beyond the simple teaching of language. In AY2005, for example, the Sophomore English Program included the following course offerings: Youth Culture: Fear and Loathing in 1950s America; Dreaming of a Better World: Utopian Thinkers in History; What’s So Funny: Humor and its Role in Society; An Introduction to Quantitative Research Methods; Who Am I? Modern and Post-Modern Conceptions of Identity; Detective Fiction: The New American Hero; Film Studies: an Introduction; Current Business Issues; and Female Icons of the Hollywood Screen. [http://subsite.icu.ac.jp/elp/ELP_SE_List.html]
As mentioned above, a major at ICU consists of 15 units of course work in one specific field. In addition, students are required to take 18 units of Divisional Foundation Courses. This mean, for example, that a student majoring in History will have to take at least five 3-unit courses in History and six 3-units Foundations Courses in Economics, Political Sciences, Sociology, and Anthropology. In addition, students have the General Education requirement to take a broad offering of courses in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences. Finally, students are expected to take up some 26 units as electives—that is, courses that do not necessarily relate to major or distribution requirements. In this way, students are guaranteed a broad education that will serve them well in their future life work.
Finally, ICU students are encouraged to participate in the University’s Study Abroad opportunities, including the Study English Abroad (SEA) Program, Summer School programs at the University of California at Berkeley and Los Angeles, and one year programs during the Junior year at more than 50 possible overseas schools. In AY2005, for example, over 300 students participated in one of these international enriching programs. For more details on International Programs at ICU, see Documents 8 and 35.
ICU’s Bulletin and other promotion and information materials describe these commitments to intellectual breadth and diversity in a clear and accurate manner. Curricular matters are handled in a transparent fashion with the participation of Chairs of the all six Division and the final concurrence of members of the Faculty Meeting.
Standard Nine: Assessment
Assessment is an area when ICU is admittedly weak. All ICU courses, including course in the general education category, are necessarily subject to rigorous assessment procedures. Every term the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts reports grade distribution statistics to members of the faculty, and cautions against grade inflation.
The examination system, grading system, and computation of grade point average is described in the Bulletin of the College of Liberal Arts and in the FD Handbook［Documents 5 and 14]. ICU utilizes the grade point (GPA) average system common in American colleges and universities. Students achieving a 3.75 grade point average or above are placed on the Dean’s List and commended for their academic excellence. Students scoring less than a 1.0 grade point average for three consecutive terms or four non-consecutive terms are subject to dismissal. The Office of Faculty Development advises faculty of good practices associated with assessment. [Document 14 and 36]
Student achievement in General Education courses is based on exams, reports and other class assignments. Assignments are returned with grades and written comments; faculty must be able to account for and explain student evaluations. Faculty are requested to include information on course grading policy on the syllabus; all course syllabi are published on the University’s intranet and are available for inspection.
In broader terms, assessment of departments, divisions, and the undergraduate program as a whole is underdeveloped. ICU has, as described above, carried out Teaching Effectiveness Surveys (TES) since 1994 with the explicit intention to improve teaching and learning. The TES results are published on the University’s intranet and play an important role in course quality control. The Office of Faculty Development has published several reports on the importance of the TES results. [Document 37, vol. 9, no. 1 and vol. 8, no. 1]
This year, aware of the need to be able to provide qualitative and quantitative evaluations of student achievement, the Self Study committee devised its own ICU Student Engagement Survey, based on and used under license with the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). The results of this first survey, conducted in April among all third-year students, have been reported in the first three sections and are available for inspection. [see Section 4]. A Senior Exit Survey was also devised and administered to graduating seniors in March. The results of this survey are also available for inspection [Document 24]. We expect to repeat these assessment surveys annually and use the results to improve the educational experience offered to our students. In order to assess the quality and quantity of writing that takes place across the curriculum, in June 2005 all faculty members were requested to fill out a “Writing in the ICU Curriculum Survey.” The results of this survey are discussed under Standard 11. Finally, plans are underway to examine portfolios of student writing, beginning with a representative sample of senior theses. All students devise, research, and write a senior thesis as part of their graduation requirements. In order to allow assessment of senior theses across the curriculum, standard senior thesis guidelines [Document 16] and a model grading rubric have been devised. [Documents 38] Two members of the faculty were sent in March to Washington State University to observe and participate in their writing portfolio project. We hope to be able to initiate our own assessment of student writing in AY2006.
Finally, ICU has a high retention rate (over 90 percent) and, as noted above, significant statistical and anecdotal data on levels of student satisfaction. (See Document 39 for data on retention rates for students entering 1990 – 2000).
Standard Ten: Orderly Progression of Courses
ICU’s undergraduate curriculum is structured on a traditional progression of “general education” (00 level), “foundation” (100 level), intermediate, often lecture-style classes (200 level), and advanced, often seminar-style classes. Students with third-year standing or above are able to take 400 level graduate classes in the ICU Graduate School if they obtain the permission of the instructor. The structure of the curriculum is clearly explained in the Bulletin of the College of Liberal Arts [Document 5]
ICU’s curriculum is further divided between “College-Wide Programs” (Languages: ELP & JLP, General Education, Health and Physical Education, Interdisciplinary Programs, Regional Studies, Basic Readings, Special Courses, and Certification Programs) and “Divisional Course Offerings” (Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Languages, Education, and International Studies). All students are admitted to one of the six divisions and while students may take classes from all divisions, there are divisional requirements as well as major requirements that students must fulfill. Students are able to change their division upon petition.
Finally, the language of instruction is indicated for all courses, with roughly 70 percent of the courses offered in Japanese and around 30 percent offered in English. (Some courses are taught in both Japanese and English, making the above figure difficult to calculate exactly). All April students must take at least 3 courses or 9 units of courses taught in English and all September students must take at least 3 courses or 9 units of courses taught in Japanese. Language requirements are described in the Bulletin of the College of Liberal Arts [Document 5].
In general, the number of units assigned to a course corresponds to the number of class hours per week. ICU is organized into three terms (Spring, Autumn, Winter), each 11 weeks long including 10 weeks of instruction. The class hour is 70 minutes; recitation and laboratory periods are from 140 to 210 minutes. It is assumed that the student will spend two hours in outside preparation for each hour in class. Thus, a 3 unit class meets for three 70-minute sessions each week for 10 weeks and a 2 unit class meets for two 70-minute sessions for 10 weeks. Details on the course language policy and timetable are available in the Bulletin of the College of Liberal Arts and the Course Offerings and Guide to Academic Regulations [Documents 5 and 31].
The Bulletin of the College of Liberal Arts lists the requirements for all majors. Each department is responsible for reviewing the set of requirements for the major as well as the formulation of model curricula. Students are required to take at least 30 units of coursework from the division in which they are enrolled; of those 30 units, at least 15 units from a specific department are necessary to constitute a major. In many cases, cross-listed courses from other departments can be used to fulfill requirements for a specific major. In addition to this minimum of 15 units of coursework, each department advises students in a major to take a number of strongly recommended courses and if possible, take courses in a certain sequence.
In connection with this Self Study Report, all Curriculum Coordinators have been asked to review the content and learning goals of each major and consider possible re-structuring and revision of concentration requirement. While the Bulletin of the College of Liberal Arts lists the requirements of the majors, it does not include a descriptive statement of the major and its learning goals. This important information, available elsewhere (on the university website, for example), will be included in the future issues of the Bulletin.
Some majors provide extensive information about the content, learning goals, requirements, faculty, and learning resources on a special website. See, for example the site of the History Department (http://subsite.icu.ac.jp/ss/history/index.html). ICU is currently in the process of reviewing its internal and external website to insure that all information is accurate and clearly presented.
Standard Eleven: Student Writing
Standard Eleven examines the question of whether, “Students write substantial essays during every stage of progress as undergraduates and thereby demonstrate their proficiency in written English.” As a bilingual university, ICU faculty members require their students to submit written work in either English or Japanese, depending upon the language(s) in which a course is taught. It is also important to note that during their undergraduate years, many students will submit written work in both Japanese and English. With these caveats in mind, this narrative will address the question of to what extent students are required to “demonstrate their proficiency in writing.”
ICU’s undergraduate curriculum addresses the issue of writing proficiency in three main stages. The first stage begins during the first year when students are screened for their abilities in English for April students and Japanese for September students. This screening will determine the level of ability in that language and which courses they will need to take in order to refine key skills of reading with accuracy and understanding, academic listening and taking notes in lectures, and academic writing. The majority of ICU students enter in April and therefore take the English Language Programs (ELP); September students have received their secondary education outside of Japan and must prove proficiency in Japanese in the Japanese Language Program (JLP). Many so-called “returnee students” (Japanese by nationality but educated outside of Japan) enter special Advanced Japanese courses that place particular stress on Japanese character acquisition and writing skills. In order to complete either of these programs, students must demonstrate the ability to write substantial research-based essays in the language of instruction. This is particularly true of the ELP curriculum wherein students take a series of courses to refine their writing and critical thinking skills and then conclude the program with the Sophomore Theme Writing course in which they must submit a lengthy (10-15 page) argumentative essay. Both ELP and JLP have standardized programs that enforce similar requirements in courses across their curriculum. [Documents 10 and 34].
The second stage of ICU’s approach to writing in the curriculum consists of various writing assignments in the courses taught by faculty in the College of Liberal Arts (CLA). In order to develop a sense of how writing is assigned and taught in the CLA, a “Writing in the ICU Curriculum” survey was devised and distributed to all full-time CLA faculty members that asked them to describe the type, length, and number of writing assignments in the courses in which they assign writing. [Document 40] Compliance with the survey was regrettably low, with only 59 faculty members returning the survey for a total 217 courses, and there were a number of mistakes made by faculty members completing the survey. Nevertheless, the preliminary results indicated that ICU faculty assign a wide variety of writing assignments, the most common of which are short reaction papers, short argumentative essays, and long research papers, though a wide variety of other writing assignments, such as journals, diaries, book reports, group papers, lab reports, comment sheets submitted after class, and online submissions, are also assigned. Faculty members in the Division of Natural Sciences objected that survey was weighted toward the humanities and social sciences and failed to take into account the different sorts of writing skills required of science majors.
The final stage of ICU’s approach to writing in the curriculum is the Senior Thesis that all students must complete in order to graduate. The Senior Thesis is regarded as a capstone course in which students must formulate a research problem, conduct independent research upon it, analyze the data gathered during research, and then write up the results in a thesis that tends to average at least 50 pages. The thesis is written in either Japanese or English. [See Senior Thesis Guidelines, Document 16] Students are required to work with an advisor on their topic for an entire academic year. During this time, the advisor helps the student formulate the research problem and reviews thesis drafts until the thesis is submitted to fulfill graduation requirements. Critical writing skills are required and form an important part of the grading process. [See “Senior Thesis Grading Rubric” (proposed), Document 38].
ICU’s writing program has a number of strengths. The greatest strengths lay in the book-ending of the undergraduate curriculum with the ELP/JLP courses and the Senior Thesis. Through participation in these courses, students are challenged to improve their writing skills. Another strength of ICU’s writing program is that it is varied and up to date. An examination of the surveys demonstrates that CLA faculty members are sensitive to the unique requirements of writing according to their disciplines and, judging by the numerous references to online and IT writing requirements, a number of faculty members seek to employ new approaches to writing in order to achieve their educational goals. In addition, as the survey indicated, almost all faculty members return graded papers with comments. Overall, there is an awareness of the importance of writing in liberal arts education across CLA. The Division of Natural Sciences takes pride in its training of students to write precise laboratory reports and proofs in mathematics. Moreover, it should be noted that the University has a clear policy on Academic Integrity [Document 53] and is a member of the Center for Academic Integrity. All faculty members are encouraged to make note of the University policy on Academic Integrity on their syllabi.
A number of weaknesses are also evident in ICU’s writing program. One of the first derives from cultural reasons as many faculty members who trained in Japan have less exposure to the argumentative essay format and as such are less likely to assign it. A second, as pointed out in some survey comments, is that while ICU prioritizes the ELP/JLP and Senior Thesis component of the undergraduate curriculum, the role of writing in other CLA courses is insufficiently elaborated and therefore subject to either too great a degree of variation or outright neglect. Both of these comments were tentatively substantiated in the survey results, which indicated that some faculty members assign a great deal of writing while others assign very little. For example, some faculty have graded writing assignments in all of their undergraduate courses, while some only grade writing in none or only one or two. Another point of disparity is the length of assignments. To give an example, based on the limited survey data, the average 300 level course research paper in the Division of International Studies (IS) was 13 pages while in the Division of Humanities (H) it was 5.3 pages. Another problem relates to the overall ratio of pages per assignment. Comparing the two divisions again, there was noticeable variation between course levels [Document 40]. Furthermore, an examination of the length of many of these writing assignments indicates that some do not constitute “substantial essays.” In fact, there are perhaps too many reaction papers and not enough argumentative essays. Two final weaknesses evident in the limited survey results are that neither departments, divisions, nor college have clarified what standards should exist across the institution regarding the role of writing in the curriculum or the definition of a “substantial essay,” nor is there a mechanism for consistently defining and reviewing both those standards and student work.
The solutions to these problems are simple. The starting point is to conduct a thorough survey of the writing that is required in all courses. The “Writing in the ICU Curriculum” survey will be repeated with better explanation and follow-up. Departments and divisions should be informed of the practices in other divisions and a common set of standards must be created. As with the Senior Thesis Grading Rubric, it may be possible to create a critical writing rubric that can be adapted to different sections of the University. When doing so, however, a shared definition of “substantial essay” as well as a quality “substantial essay” should be agreed upon for all levels of the curriculum so that faculty members can implement it in their courses. Moreover, we plan to implement a Writing Portfolio project, beginning with an examination of a representative sample of senior theses. Finally, much discussion has existed in the past concerning the need to establish a Writing Center (for academic work done both in Japanese and in English). Our tentative survey results underscore this need.
Standard Twelve: Active Learning and Faculty Development
At ICU, as with other liberal arts institutions, teaching is the prime responsibility of the faculty. Research, of course, is also encouraged, but with the understanding that good research will contribute to good teaching. ICU has a small graduate school, and many faculty members teach up to 3 units of the normal 18-unit teaching load in the graduate school. Nonetheless, the faculty primary responsibility remains in undergraduate instruction.
The teaching faculty (as of May 2005) consists of 151 full-time members (Professors 65; Associate Professors: 23; Assistant Professors: 19; Tenured Instructors: 41; Visiting Professors: 8; Graduate School Professors (who also teach undergraduate courses): 3. [Document 17] The Bulletin of the College of Liberal Arts (pp. 176-189) includes a list of full-time faculty and their credentials.[Document 5]. In addition, in there were 138 part-time instructors, most of whom are full-time faculty members in other colleges and universities. Their names and affiliations are listed in the Bulletin of the College of Liberal Arts. The University issues a special Handbook for Part-time Instructors with basic information about teaching, grading and other university-wide policies. [Document 41] Graduate students and teaching assistants are not considered qualified to teach a course by themselves.
According to the Faculty Manual [Document 11], the qualifications for full-time members of the ICU faculty include the following:
The following outline of qualifications provides a standard by which candidates will be considered:
1. Positive interest and conviction concerning the purposes and programs of ICU.
2. Scholastic training and standing
3. Christian character and spirit
a. Positive Christian convictions expressed in personal and family life.
b. Christian convictions expressed in attitudes and activities in social and civic welfare.
c. A liberal philosophy of life, generous and intensive Christian approach to human values.
4. Teaching competence
a. Demonstrated quality as a teacher, including concern with the development of each student’s character and convictions. Ability to develop students’ powers of critical thought.
b. Ability to guide students in the acquisition of knowledge and skills.
c. Interest in the improvement of teaching.
d. Interest in guiding and helping students as individuals.
5. Research competence
a. Demonstrated competence in conducting research and in guiding the research of students.
b. Interest in cooperative inter-disciplinary research on complex vital problems.
6. Mental qualities
a. A mind capable of sound creative thinking.
b. Maturing flexibility of thought and interest.
c. Interest and ability in the interrelationship of knowledge.
d. Interest in group thinking and corporate living.
e. Sensitivity to national and international needs of Japan and her people.
f. Eagerness to participate in a cooperative pioneer effort to build an educational program for a new age.
g. Ability to live and learn in an international community with no sense of superiority and with appreciation of and a desire to conserve the best in the cultures of the East and the West.
h. Freedom from race prejudice.
i. Competence in the English or Japanese language or both.
7. Social and civic competence
a. Capable of developing and maintaining wholesome relations with colleagues, students, and members of the community.
b. Broad interests and understandings that make for enlightened, constructive, and responsible citizenship in the spiritual, cultural and economic life of the community.
At ICU, great care is taken when recruiting faculty for new or vacant positions since the quality of the faculty is of utmost importance in a liberal arts institution. When a position falls open, members of a special committee headed by the Vice President for Academic Affairs and consisting of the Dean and all six Division Chairs discuss the nature of the new search from a university-wide point of view. Once a position is officially declared the Faculty Meeting is informed and the Chair of the Division is invited to form a search committee. All searches are, in principle, open and public and world-wide in scope; ICU attempts to find the best candidate for its positions from applicants throughout the world.
The Candidacy Committee consists of five members, three from the division concerned and two from other divisions. One of the key roles of these two members is to help the committee with the selection of a candidate who would effectively contribute to the university ideal of liberal education as well as the quality teaching and research in the major field.
When a short list is made, each candidate is invited to the campus and requested to give a lecture for students to demonstrate teaching ability. Responses to students’ questions at the lecture together with pedagogy are observed and assessed by candidacy committee members. The final candidate or short-listed candidates are requested to write statements on the following topics:
- Concerning liberal arts education
- Concerning the proper relationship between research and education
- Your thoughts on how you, as a Christian, can contribute to ICU
ICU has been a pioneer in the use of regular procedures to monitoring teaching effectiveness. As noted above (Standard Two narrative), an Office of Faculty Development was established in 1994. One of its prime activities has been the administration of a Teaching Effectiveness Survey (TES).
The Teaching Effectiveness Survey (TES) is carried out at the end of every term. It plays three roles, i.e., course evaluation, teaching evaluation of instructors and learning evaluation of students, to monitor and assess the effectiveness of each class. The TES consists of multiple choice questions and open-ended questions. A multiple choice question asks the study hours of students in a week for the course, and open-ended questions include “What specific aspects of the course were stimulating to you, and why?” along with questions asking, “What needs to be improved.”
The statistical results together with student comments are publicized at internal web site and are shared with students and instructors. Instructors’ comments can also be posted in addition. While the TES results have made faculty aware of problems in their course structure and pedagogy, admittedly institutional efforts have not been sufficient to take full advantage of the results to monitor teaching effectiveness, or to assess whether a course is appropriate to the curriculum, or appropriate to attain the goals of a liberal education. Improvement is necessary in their area as will be described later.
The Office of Faculty Development holds special symposia, seminars, open lectures, and brown-bag lunch talks with the aim to publicize good practices in teaching. (See Document 42 for a list of events held over the past three years). The Office of Faculty Development publishes a newsletter three-times a year (See Document 43 for samples of issues of the FD Newsletter published over the past three years). The office also publishes the FD Handbook: A Practical Guide to Teaching and Research at ICU [Document 14] and maintains a library on good teaching practices; the FD website also contains useful information and links to sites helpful to improve teaching (https://w3.icu.ac.jp/fd/).
As noted above, procedures for the declaration of a position, appointment, and promotion of full-time faculty are discussed and decided at the Faculty Meeting, held each month during term time and involving the participation of all full-time Professors, Associate Professors, and Assistant Professors. In such cases, excellence in teaching and scholarship is honored. The Faculty Manual makes the following statement regarding qualifications for promotion: “Criteria for promotion shall be based on additional academic achievement in one or more of the following areas combined with high quality teaching: professional publications, academic degrees, recognition from professional organizations, service to the University, and professional service to the community outside the University.” [Document 11] Details on the procedures involved in promotion are also included in the Faculty Manual.
Moreover, as part of the promotion process, each candidate is requested to thoroughly revise his or her curriculum vitae and write statements concerning educational activities, research activities, cooperation in university management, and civic activities.
With regard to part-time teaching staff, credentials are assessed both at divisional meetings and at the division chairs meeting. The procedure is simplified extensively compared with that of full-time teaching staff. The TES results of part-time teaching staff are monitored but rarely used to evaluate the part-time teaching staff for the renewal of appointments or as supporting evidence.
The faculty, both full time and part time, are listed in the Bulletin of the College of Liberal Arts [Document 5] and in other publications, giving full information regarding status and credentials. In addition, the University publishes a Report on Academic and Educational Activities on a biannual basis. [Document 44] This report includes full information on the research activities and publications of all full-time staff, including a report on faculty educational activities. No counterpart exists for part-time teaching staff.
ICU prides itself not only on its spacious campus (406 acres) but on its small classes and close student-faculty interactions. The University attempts to keep class size appropriate to subject matter and, in cases where larger classes are unavoidable, it encourages teaching practices that allow for active learning to take place. [Document 45]
The University does enforce class size limits in certain programs. Enrollment in General Education courses, for example, is capped at 150. ELP (English Language Program) for first-year students are capped at about 25 students and JLP (Japanese Language Program) classes are set at15 students. There are also limits to enrollment in physical exercise classes and courses with lab and recitation components. A lottery system (random selection) is used to re-distribute students when enrollment exceeds 150 students. (See Document 31 for details on lottery system). Since many General Education courses have enrollments exceeding 100, the General Education Committee is currently discussing ways to deal with this problem.
Enrollments and average class size of General Education Program courses over the past five years are as follows:
|
Academic Year |
Number of Courses |
Average Class Size |
|
2004 |
73 |
104.1 |
|
2003 |
65 |
110.5 |
|
2002 |
66 |
108.4 |
|
2001 |
63 |
102.8 |
|
2000 |
63 |
102.7 |
[Document 46]
Current (AY 2004) class sizes, excluding ELP, JLP, and PE classes: 40 percent of classes are less than 20, 66 percent are less than 40, and 87 percent less than 80.
[Document 12, Summary Report] Document 47 lists enrollment figures for all 1,474 courses (including PE classes) offered in the College of Liberal Arts in AY2004.
Classes with enrollments over 100 are marked in the summary report of the TES, but this information has not been used to review class size and enrollment policies.
When enrollment in foundation courses exceeds 200 enrollments, an informal policy is to have another class of the same course offered in a different language. Similar efforts are made to keep the enrollment at manageable levels for other courses, but not systematically.
As noted above, all ICU classes are taught by regular ICU faculty or by part-time lecturers who are themselves regular faculty members at other colleges and universities. No course is taught by a teaching assistant, as is sometimes the case in the United States. Moreover, each ICU faculty member is strongly recommended (and, if appointed after 2001, required) to teach at least one General Education course or one college-wide program course. All courses taught in ICU’s General Education Program are, in principle, taught only by full-time regular ICU faculty. In 2004, for example, of the 73 courses taught in the GE Program, only one course (Gender Issues and Christian Spirituality) was taught by a part-time lecturer. Faculty are also strongly encouraged to offer one foundation course each year in their major. It should be noted that members of the administration, including the Dean, regularly offer courses in the General Education Program. Moreover, each year a request is made to increase the number of General Education courses offered in the following academic year.
Advising is central to ICU’s liberal arts education. ICU wishes its students to challenge various academic fields as well as develop expertise in at least one discipline and thereby develop powers of critical thinking. Advisors help students from becoming overly specialized or overly general; they remind students of the need to fulfill various requirements and help them develop a coherent academic program suited to their own interests. Moreover, they watch out for signs of personal stress or mental problems and offer support and advice, and if problems appear serious, refer students to the University Counseling Center. The FD Handbook issued by the Office of Faculty Development contains an explanation of the duties and responsibilities of faculty members as academic advisors [Document 14, pp. 111-113]. See also a similar set of guidelines for advisors in the Handbook for Faculty Members. [Document 48]
All new students are assigned a faculty member who will serve as their academic advisor assisting them in the planning their programs of studies. The faculty advisor may also give guidance on personal matters or may refer troubled students to other counselors. Students are encouraged to consult any member of the faculty or staff for help when they need it. On the registration day, students receive their grade report from their academic advisors and receive academic guidance and the approval of course registration. In AY 2004, each faculty member was assigned to an average of 34 advisees. All faculty members are required to hold office hours for at least two hours each week. In addition to these regular meeting times, faculty members are urged to interact with students both inside and outside of the classroom, including inviting groups of students into their homes.
University counselors regularly hold meetings to monitor and help to deal with mental and physical problems of students with the Dean of Students, the Head of the Student Services Division, University Pastors, representatives from English Language Program, Physical Education, International Educational Exchange Program, and other groups that have regular contact with students. The University counselors make a yearly report to the Faculty Meeting and offer advice to faculty on how best to deal with students under stress. The FD Handbook [Document 14] contains basic information about the Student Counseling Center (pp. 114-116). See also essay by Professor Noriaki Tomabeshi, Chief University Counselor, on “The Basics of Student Counseling” in the FD newsletter, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 3-6.
The Director of Faculty Development organizes a new faculty seminar during the term of new appointment. Academic counseling of students is one of the main concerns of this seminar. Regular faculty should also be regularly reminded of the importance of academic advising in the lives of our students.
Standard Fifteen: Library Resources
The ICU Library consists of two buildings, the Main Library Building built in 1960, and the Mildred Topp Othmer Library, completed in 2000 as the 50th Anniversary project for digital library services. The two buildings are connected by bridges on each floor and provide a state-of the-art environment for library services. An overview of the Library and its services is available on the Library website: http://www-lib.icu.ac.jp/index-e.html
A basic goal in the construction of the Mildred Topp Othmer Library was not simply to increase holding capacity but also to upgrade library services in a digital environment. It was the consensus reached by the Planning Committee that the new building should be a central place for students’ computer use, while the Integrated Learning Center should concentrate on the support of teaching and classes. It was especially emphasized that the new building would be a place to support learning technologies in the 21st century.
Two floors of the Mildred Topp Othmer Library are open as a Study Area, where 120 workstations allow students to use PCs for self-study, course work, word-processing, e-mail communication or other study-related activities. Facilities also include a Multimedia Room, three Group Study Rooms, an Information and Services Counter, a Reference Service Center, and the Audio Visual Section. The Multimedia Room has two large screens, a presentation desk and 50 PCs. Fig. 1 shows the variety of classes taught in this building. [Document 49] Group Study Rooms are used for teaching, as well as for seminars and presentations. Teaching and library services have become more closely linked by these new facilities.
The Main Building houses books and printed materials. It has a Reference Room, reading space in the stacks, a Special Collection Room, Microfilm Room, Special Study Room for students with special needs, Special Collection Exhibition space and the Library Office, which handles technical services. All shelves are open-stack and have the capacity to hold 300,000 books. Newly arrived and frequently used books are kept on the shelves. Journal back issues and research materials are kept in automated storage in the basement of the Othmer Library, which has a holding capacity of 500,000 volumes. Figs. 2 and 3 show the space and number of seats, sufficient to accommodate all users even at the busiest times. [Document 49]
Education in the use of library resources is an important part of ICU’s liberal arts curriculum. In order to encourage active use of the library as an academic and intellectual center for all students, ICU has developed a number of library features unusual in Japan, including a bilingual collection, bilingual catalog and user services, open-stack shelves, a reserve book system, and a circulation policy that allows an unlimited number of books to be checked out by individual students and faculty.
Since the opening of the new building in 2000, library usage has gone up by 30 percent, averaging a total 350,000 entries annually. During term time, the average daily entry is 1,400, half of the total student population. The check-out rate has also gone up by 30 percent because the 120 PCs provide search opportunities and shelves are easy to access. Software, network access, facilities and equipment are constantly reviewed and updated. Close coordination with ILC, including technical supervision, assistance and support, are key factors in the Library’s ability to integrate traditional library services with digital library services.
The present collection consists of 640,000 volumes, with an average annual increase of 13,000 volumes. [Document 49, fig. 4] The book budget accounts for 56 percent of the total materials budget, printed journals 31 percent, and electronic resources 12 percent. CD-ROMs, videos and DVDs are purchased with the book budget. The per-student library budget is ranked among the highest of nearly 800 national and private university libraries in Japan, including junior colleges.
The collection development policy was revised in 1999 with the aim of increasing digital resources [Document 49, fig. 5], placing emphasis on the acquisition of library materials in the most appropriate format. Book selection responsibility is divided between faculty members (for teaching and research materials) and the library staff (for reference materials, general reading, and some of the college-wide program courses). The University’s bilingual policy is reflected in the composition of library holdings, which are 48 percent in English or other non-Japanese languages and 52 percent in Japanese. [Document 49, fig. 6]
Document 49, fig. 3, shows the composition of holdings classified by subject according to Nippon Decimal Classification, the Japanese classification system. Reference material databases in Japanese and English are now replacing printed versions.
Because ICU is a liberal arts college covering a broad range of subjects, its collection of academic journals must be well balanced among the disciplines. Balance must also be kept between Japanese and non-Japanese titles. Current fee-based printed journal subscription titles total 1,259 [Document 49, fig. 8] and the Library receives another 1,400 titles as gifts or by exchange. Japanese-language journals account for 33 percent of the titles, and 20 percent in terms of cost. The subject coverage in both languages is shown in Document 49 fig. 7.
Japanese language journals are still mainly in printed form. However, to deal with the rapid progress of digitization of English and other language journals and the continuing rise in costs, the journal collection is under constant review. Some journals have been cancelled or replaced by subscription to bibliographic or full-text databases. A comprehensive review will be proposed to the faculty by the end of 2005.
E-journals are those published in digital format with subscriptions paid to so-called aggregators, who offer a package of e-journals at certain rate. Currently ICU subscribes to 7,417 e-journal titles in various databases; this number exceeds by far the total for printed titles. An alphabetical title list of printed and digital journals in Western languages is available on the Library’s website.
The term “E-Resources” is used to describe academically valuable databases available in many disciplines on the Internet, some of them fee-based. E-Resources are selected and organized into a Database List, which is offered on Library’s Homepage. The fee-based databases are shown in Document 49, fig. 9.
Since there is no limit on the number of books students may check out at a time, the checkout record has been high since the foundation of the Library. The highest checkout rate was in 2004 when per-student book figure was 66.1 for the year [Document 49, fig. 3]. Contributing factors include: 1) 120 terminals in the new building, enabling easy catalogue search; 2) easy access to open stack shelves; and 3) the automatic checkout system after office hours.
The use of databases is also high, especially the general databases such as Lexis-Nexis, ProQuest, and databases of Japanese magazines and newspapers. Students have no difficulty in using English databases.
The Library opens at 8:30am and closes at 10:30pm on weekdays during the term, and 9:00am to 4:30pm on Saturdays. It has a different schedule for the examination period and for holidays. The extended hours serve about 300 students who live on campus and provide a place for study and computer use after other buildings are closed. There are constant requests to extend the opening hours until late at night, but so far, the University has maintained a policy of offering services and managing buildings and facilities to accord with the availability of public transportation for commuting students.
The Reference Counter Service has been reviewed constantly since the opening of the Othmer Library. Various changes have been observed in user behavior since students gained access to the vast amount of information available on the Internet. The Reference Service Center, with a staff of five, has been established to consolidate help desk and reference desk functions. The staff answer technical and content-based questions, give group or individual instruction and guidance on databases, support course work, plan library orientations, manage the Library website and perform other duties related to the Othmer Library. Several PCs, scanners, and color printers for making presentation material are also available, and support is provided.
Library orientations are included in regular classes in the English Language Program: two classes in the first year, and another in the second year. Document 49 fig.9 shows the number of classes given in 2004. The purpose of these orientations is: first, to give guidance in search methods; second, to practice searches in subjects of interest using OPAC and other bibliographic databases; third, to give instruction in resources and upper-level search methods. More advanced library orientations are given as requested by the faculty in their respective areas such as psychology, economics and chemistry.
Japanese universities follow practices in library organization that differ from those common in American and European institutions. Usually the Library Director is appointed from among the senior faculty, and library staff members are assigned library duties periods during their service to the university. Recognizing the professional contribution of librarians, ICU has taken a different path. University Regulations stipulate that the Library Director must be a professionally and academically trained librarian. The library staff have librarianship diplomas and their expertise is valued as being essential to effective library services. This change has contributed significantly to the high level of services offered by the ICU Library in support of liberal arts education.
The staff consists of a Library Director, 13 full-time staff, 22 part-time staff and 5 part-time night attendants. The total work hours of part-time staff, including the night attendants, are equivalent to those of 10 full-time staff. A total of approximately 7,600 hours of student assistant work is required per year for circulation, shelving and other daily tasks; one third of this work is technical assistance offered after regular office hours.
Eleven of the 13 full-time staff members hold librarianship diplomas. The Library Director holds an MA in information and library sciences. As part of ICU’s program for staff development, three staff members are now enrolled in postgraduate courses in library and information sciences. Frequent seminars, study groups, and visits are essential parts of the training. Many staff members are invited to act as lecturers at library seminars.
The ICU Library was a founding member of Japan’s first library consortium, the Western Tokyo Library Consortium of national and private university libraries. More recently, another consortium has been created with four neighboring colleges. Inter-library lending, whereby students can visit libraries and borrow or return books at any one of the consortium members, is active. ICU Library is eager to participate in these activities to expand opportunities for library use.
Workshops for Asian librarians were held in 2002 and 2004 with the sponsorship of the Japan ICU Foundation in New York to promote better understanding and cooperation among Asian libraries. A total of 12 librarians from six countries were invited. The workshops were successful for both participants and host in exploring new opportunities for using digital library technology.
With the completion of Othmer Library in 2000, the ICU Library is providing state-of-the art facilities and equipment to its users, and its services are evaluated highly by ICU students, faculty and outside users. It has successfully made the transition from traditional library services to hybrid services, namely printed and digital resources. The Library’s services are constantly reviewed and updated to meet changing user needs and the particular demands of a liberal arts education.
4. Measuring Student Engagement
The ICU Student Engagement Survey (SES) was distributed at the beginning of Spring Term in April 2005. This was the first time that such a survey had been distributed at ICU and the university has decided that the survey will continue to be distributed annually. As part of its efforts to have its educational program conform to international standards, the survey’s design was conceived of after the study of several existing student engagement surveys. After reviewing these surveys, ICU decided to contact the designers of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) at Indiana University in order to seek their permission to design a survey that would meet some of the unique needs of ICU while simultaneously allowing ICU to compare the results of its survey with one that is employed at hundreds of American colleges and universities. The staff at NSSE were amenable to this approach, with the provision that they would review the final survey and be appropriately acknowledged on the survey form. The final survey instrument, a bilingual survey with 88 questions written in both English and Japanese, was approved by the staff at NSSE in March 2005.
The survey was distributed to the mailboxes of 640 students. The group surveyed was composed of students who were beginning their third year of study or concluding their second year of study in the Spring Term. This sample size was chosen because of its manageability size as well as having the benefit of obtaining information from students who had significant exposure to the ICU educational program after two years of undergraduate study. The response rate for the survey was less than desired, with only 273 students returning the survey. The majority of responses came from Japanese female students who entered ICU in April of 2003, had lived less than one year overseas, and GPA of 3.0 or higher. Male students were under-represented in the survey compared to their percentage of the student body. ICU colleagues with survey experience felt that this compliance rate was within a normal range. Some results of the SES have already been discussed in sections above dealing with Standards One, Two and Three. The complete results of the survey are included in Document 50.
Strengths of the ICU Liberal Arts Education
The analysis of the SES indicated a number of strengths regarding the ICU educational program. Overall, as indicated in Section 8 of the survey, students felt positive about the education they are receiving (8.1, 8.2). More significantly, the students felt that the ICU education was preparing them well for their future career as well as fulfilling the goal of the university’s mission to make them “responsible, global citizens” (8.3, 8.4). In terms of the defining points of a liberal arts education, the surveyed students felt that their ICU education places a strong emphasis on such mental activities as analysis (1.2.2), synthesis (1.2.3), critique (1.2.4), and a less strong emphasis on real world testing (1.2.5). Contrary to a standing critique of Japanese education, they did not feel that memorization was a strongly emphasized part of their education (1.2.1).
The ICU classroom environment pointed to significant student engagement with regard to participation in classroom discussions (1.3), in-class debates (1.4), giving presentations (1.5), and the integration of ideas or concepts from different courses to complete course assignments (1.8). Students also generally saw themselves as making a good effort to participate in class (1.16) and were generally comfortable making comments in class (1.15). With regard to the learning outcomes, the vast majority of students felt that the ICU education helped them acquire a broad and general knowledge base (3.1), improve their writing skills (3.4), enhance their critical thinking skills (3.6), and help them better understand themselves, their personal ethics (3.16) and people of different backgrounds (3.15). It also enhanced their ability to work with others (3.9), learn on their own (3.10), learn more about and analyze real world problems (3.12 and 3.12) and their desire to participate in the latter’s solution (3.14). The survey students also indicated an interest in the university’s special educational opportunities (Section 2), notably interest in the Study English Abroad (SEA) Program (2.2). The vast majority of surveyed students are also involved in ICU-sponsored extracurricular activities (6.1) and have a part-time job (6.5). They also feel that ICU’s extracurricular activities provide them important life skills (6.2 and 6.6).
Weaknesses of the ICU Liberal Arts Education
A number of problematic points were evident from the survey analysis. Regarding the classroom, there were no major problems, but it appeared that students could be more engaged with regard to asking questions about course readings (1.1), asking for in-class explanations of lecture points (1.2), and being comfortable making in-class comments (1.15). This latter point, however, is obviated somewhat by the preference of students to use in-class comment sheets (1.9). The results regarding skipping class, arriving late or unprepared, or sleeping in class (1.10 - 1.14) were disappointing.
A second area of weakness was the experience with teachers. Although students were generally pleased with the quality of their academic advising (4.10), it was clear that students could be more engaged with their teachers through greater use of office hours (4.1) as well as consulting teachers more about assignments (4.2), grades (4.3), course topics (4.4), and study and career plans (4.5 and 4.6)
A third problem area was relations among students. Although these are generally positive (7.1, 7.2, 7.4, and 7.8), students of different backgrounds do not engage with each other as much as they could (7.3) and there are obvious issues between April and September students (7.6 and 7.7). Students are also minimally involved in volunteer and community service work (6.6), though there are structural explanations for that. Finally, ICU is not significantly enhancing student awareness of their civic responsibilities (3.11) nor is it providing enough in terms of quantitative skills (3.7) or computer or information technology training (3.8).
Proposed Reforms
Given the aforementioned weaknesses, ICU should consider reforms designed to strengthen its Liberal Arts program (see Section 6). In particular, the University needs to popularize methods among faculty and students to make the classroom a more active environment in which students are comfortable and prepared to participate. Faculty members need to explore new ways to help students take better advantage of assistance in their intellectual and professional growth. This is a mandate for the Office of Faculty Development. Moreover, programs to improve integration of the student body should be developed by the Dean of Students. Finally, the university needs to improve its IT program.
5. Assessing Learning and Teaching at ICU: A New Challenge
Assessment in liberal arts institutions is difficult to say the least. Can one objectively measure thinking skills or demonstrate that a student has become a compassionate, inquisitive, and responsible global citizen? For our self-study report, we have devised surveys to help us measure learning and teaching at ICU. We developed our own Senior Exit Survey, Student Engagement Survey, Liberal Learning Assessment Survey, and Writing Across the Curriculum Survey and we intend to improve on these survey instruments and administer them annually. We intend to develop a writing portfolio survey, beginning with a sample of senior theses. Although we are aware of the limitations of such surveys, we are nonetheless committed to assessment and accept it as a challenge, knowing that it will not only lead to accreditation with the AALE, but also contribute to a better educational experience for our students.
One strategy we used for assessing the campus-wide level of our students’ learning entailed the evaluation of both learning and teaching with a carefully constructed survey (“ICU Liberal Learning Assessment – AALE Department Survey 2005, referred to as the Liberal Learning Survey hereafter) with our faculty members. [Document 13] We realize that assessment of this kind is not commonly used in Japanese universities, and as such, we were somewhat apprehensive about the feasibility of this strategy. (It should be noted that assessment has become common, if not ubiquitous in American colleges and universities, but the practice is relatively rare in Japanese universities. ICU has several advantages over other Japanese institutions because its admissions standards, grading policies, curriculum structure, and faculty development activities including course evaluations, are based on American models; nonetheless the very vocabulary and institutional practices involved with assessment are unfamiliar to most ICU faculty members). Our committee was convinced that this form of assessment can help us identify strengths and weaknesses and give us a new glimpse into student learning. Unlike the evaluation of learning at the individual classroom level, the Liberal Learning Survey was designed to assess the quality of liberal learning at each academic unit or department. At the same time, we realize that survey results must be tempered by the fact that quantitative information (i.e., rating scales) gives only a partial view of learning. This means that we must supplement quantitative information with qualitative information or narratives.
The Liberal Learning Survey. Drawing on the materials describing the first three AALE Standards (Effective Reasoning, Broad and Deep Learning, and the Inclination to Inquire), a 38-item survey was constructed in English, and distributed to all 28 department heads or coordinators in the College of Liberal Arts. Document 13 includes a copy of the survey and responses. As can be seen, all items were organized by each of the three liberal learning areas. The survey asked for each department’s self-ratings on some of the items on 10-point Likert-type scales. The ratings are summarized in Table 1 included in Document 13. Results derived from the Liberal Learning Survey have already been noted in sections above dealing with Standards One, Two, and Three The narrative components of the survey are also included in Document 13 in Table 2.
Issues in Educational Assessment at ICU. As with any assessment procedures, a few methodological issues must be discussed since we plan to improve the survey instrument and conduct it on an annual basis. First is the issue that the survey form was prepared and distributed in English, rather than in Japanese. We fear that the intent of the survey and/or fine nuances inherent in some questions might not have been completely understood. This language issue must be addressed especially for item comprehension in the future planning of the survey. We will prepare and distribute a bi-lingual version of the Survey next year. Language problems also contributed to inadequate explanation of how the survey was to be completed. This is the first time the Curriculum Coordinators were asked to carry out assessment activities, resulting in some confusion. For example, some departments distributed copies of the survey to all department members, who returned them individually. Our committee had hoped for the survey to represent the deliberations of the department as a group. Some departments objected to the short about of time allowed for to complete the survey (one month) and were given extra time. Others objected to the quantitative nature of the questions (asking for an impossible rating) but once the project was explained better (in person), managed to turn in some of the best and most thoughtful results. Other departments did not turn in results, despite repeated reminders, and some curriculum coordinators carefully canvassed all department faculty members and completed the survey form for the department. This means that the survey lacks uniform quality across the various departments, leaving much room for improvement next year. The survey results for the Department of Psychology provide a good model for future reference.
Second, the Liberal Learning Survey was developed on the basis of the AALE Standards as provided in the application protocol. As such, several of the items were not relevant to the Japanese context, thereby leading to some misunderstanding of survey content and intent. In next year’s Liberal Learning Survey, careful pilot-testing on wording and content must be examined not only by department representatives but also by experts in educational assessment. It is advisable to delegate the survey administration and implementation including subsequent analyses to an in-house (on-campus) office where experts well-versed in psychometrics may be consulted. The Office of Faculty Development perhaps should be expanded to deal with the increasingly important task of assessment.
6. Addressing our Weaknesses: Academic Reform Plans
We live in difficult times; change is everywhere and as educators, our response to change cannot be timid. What sorts of problems confront people throughout the world now at the outset of the twenty-first century? First, there is the insecurity that has followed the terrorist attacks of September 11. This great age of globalization has seen the rise of neo-nationalism, religious fundamentalism, and a resurgence of racial and ethnic tensions. Second, we can point to the relentless march of global environmental destruction. Third, we can point to a “hollowing-out” of humanity, involving a loss of physical and mental health. What does it mean to be human, and to cultivate humanity in the twenty-first century? Fourth, despite advances in technology, we suffer from a lack of common spaces where people can come together to in conversation with each other. There is a crisis in communication that impels us desperately to seek a shared sense of participation, connection, and responsibility. Given these trends, an education that promotes the idea of global citizenship and cultivates compassionate, inquisitive learners is essential if we are to transcend divisions created by distance, cultural difference, and mistrust. Preparing students for service and equipping them to solve problems – big problems – has become the hallmark of liberal arts colleges. Advancing this ideal is perhaps the most urgent task we can undertake as educators.
In 2002, the American Association of Colleges and Universities issued an urgent call for reform of undergraduate education in order to promote the kind of learning students need to meet new challenges in the workplace, in a diverse democracy, and in an interconnected world. According to the Greater Expectations report, the key to successful reform is a clear focus on the kinds of learning that students need for an increasingly complex world. A practical liberal education was singled out as the most empowering form of learning for the twenty-first century. Students will of course continue to pursue different specializations, but across all fields, the report called for higher education to help college students become intentional learners who can adapt to new environments, integrate knowledge from different sources, and continue learning throughout their lives. This is a model of the education ICU seeks to offer its students.
ICU is not new to the academic reform process. Since 1996 a Working Committee for Academic Reform (WCAR) has attempted to carry out a series of reforms aiming at bettering our undergraduate education. In March 2004 a faculty retreat was held on the theme “Designing the Future of ICU” [Document 51] that reflected back over earlier attempts a reform and attempted to envision what ICU should be like in the year 2010. Professor Michael Shafer (JICUF Visiting Scholar from Rutgers University) gave an eye-opening speech on the strengths and weaknesses of ICU’s liberal arts education, and pointed out essential directions for reform. (“Living Up To Its Promise: ICU in 2010”). Immediately thereafter, the ICU Board of Trustees formed a committee that spent one year gathering data and laying out some of the basic framework for reform. This committee issued a report in March 2005 [Document 52]. Immediately thereafter, a University Academic Reform Committee (ARC) was set and currently carrying out regular meetings. During these reform deliberations, the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts constantly argued on behalf of seeking accreditation through the American Academy of Liberal Education. Such accreditation is essential not only to attract student applications from outside Japan, but more importantly because it involving measuring existing teaching and learning practices against recognized global standards.
Indeed the process of preparing this Self-Study Report that has given ICU’s on-going reform plans a new sense of urgency. Are we really practicing what we preach? Are there areas in our curriculum and administration that we can improve to make ICU better live up to our slogan, “The University of Tomorrow,” and provide the sort of liberal learning urgently needed in the twenty-first century? ICU’s application for accreditation from the American Academy for Liberal Education has been our most important step toward reforming our curriculum and organization with this purpose in mind. ICU is recognized as one of the best private schools in Japan, but while we offer our students a good education now, we want to make it even better.
Our Self Study Report has made us aware that immediate reforms are necessary in the curriculum, organization, and administration of the university. In particular, as a conclusion to our self-study project we see the need to enhance academic excellence, improve opportunities for service and “active” learning, strengthen ICU’s international character, and institute what might be called “quality control” through more aggressive assessment of learning outcomes.
1. Strengthen Cooperative Learning
A liberal arts education is dependent upon small size and close student-faculty interaction. ICU prides itself on its small classes and close student-teacher interactions, but the experience of first year student is dominated by large General Education classes with enrollments over 100 students. Moreover, although we pride ourselves on good student advising, advising sessions in which one faculty person meets with an average of 35 students in a six-hour period leave much to be desired. We know that a liberal arts education demands active and cooperative learning. We know that close student-faculty interactions are the key to a quality liberal-arts education. Many selective liberal arts institutions have a student-faculty ratio of around 1:10 or 1:12. ICU’s student-faculty ration at 1:20 is good within the Japanese context, but not up to global standards. ICU needs to strengthen efforts to keep classroom size small, improve the advisee system to allow more and regular contact, and enhance opportunities to meet with students outside of the classroom. The Dean’s Office will prepare a new advising manual to give provide guidelines for advising students. The Dean will also propose special advising sessions toward the end of each term that are linked with on-line registration for the next term’s courses, and reserve what is currently “registration day” to take care of problems.
2. Strengthen Interdisciplinary Learning
ICU, as noted above, has clear distribution requirements, a well-developed General Education Program, several unique interdisciplinary majors (Japan Studies, Asian Studies, American Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies) and encourages students to design their own interdisciplinary major. Nonetheless, the number of students who sign up for interdisciplinary majors is small and perhaps even declining. Moreover, there is little disciplinary mixing between the Natural Sciences and the Humanities and Social Sciences. Some reorganization of existing ID majors and the creation of new ID Majors (for example, Peace Studies, Environmental Studies, Science, Technology, and Society) should be considered. Plans to transcend existing discipline-based administrative structures and create new interdisciplinary “Enhancement Areas” are discussed below.
3. Strengthen Internationalism
As an international university, ICU needs more faculty who are able to teach well in English, more courses taught in English, and more students from non-Japanese backgrounds. We say we are a bilingual university, but only 30 percent of our classes are taught in English and less than 6 percent of our full-time student body is from a non-Japanese background. We need to set up goals; for example, 40 percent of the courses offered in English and 20 percent of the student body should be international. We should also consider increasing the number of courses in English that student must take in order to graduate.
4. Strengthen Language and Writing Skills
Currently students who enter in April are required to undertake an intensive program in English and students who enter in September are required to study Japanese. The ELP and JLP programs are excellent and succeed in providing students with reading, writing, and critical thinking skills in a foreign language. The curriculum does not, however, require similar sorts of reading, writing, and critical thinking skills in one’s native language. We propose to establish a Writing Center and writing requirements for all students in both Japanese and English. A writing portfolio project will help up monitor student writing. We also need to recognize and cultivate the writing skills required by science and non-science majors alike and impress upon the student body in general the ability to write in clear, logical prose.
5. Strengthen Service/Active Learning
Education no longer takes place solely in the classroom. ICU’s concern with “Doing Liberal Arts” places emphasis on active learning strategies: in-class writing, group projects, collaborative learning, problem-based learning, case methods, role playing, simulations, peer teaching, and other activities that encourage greater student engagement with critical thinking. In particular, “Service Learning,” by taking the class out of the classroom, is becoming an integral part of the curriculum in liberal arts institutions. Our service learning programs are good, but lack the human and financial resources necessary to make them attractive and accessible to the entire student body. [Document 54 Introduction to Service Learning, see especially essay by Florence McCarthy, “Elements of a Successful Service Learning Experience.”]
6. Strengthen Assessment of Learning Outcomes
ICU (as do other institutions of higher learning) needs to be able to demonstrate that students are actually learning. This was the major conclusion we drew from our Self Study project. ICU’s mission commits the faculty to imparting critical thinking skills, skills in written and oral communication, the development of high ethical standards and responsibility as a global citizen, and of course breadth of knowledge and commitment to lifelong learning. However, do we have evidence that the university is actually succeeding in imparting these skills and values? That is the task of assessment. In attempting to measure how well the university measure up to the AALE standards, ICU has begun a process will be on-going process that aims continually to improve the quality of learning and teaching at ICU. We will continue the Student Engagement Survey and the Department Liberal Learning Assessment survey on a yearly basis. In addition, as mentioned above, the establishment of a writing center and a writing portfolio project will give us more information about the quality of student writing in all disciplines, including the Natural Sciences, and the tools to deal with students who are in need of help.
Of course, even without these surveys we have several ways to assess faculty performance and student achievement. Our Teaching Effective Surveys provides a wealth of information. We have term-by-term GPA data for the entire College of Liberal Arts and broken down by Division. We have the tangible results of individual senior thesis projects completed by all graduating students. In addition, we can learn from the educational and professional careers of our graduates. We have had information at our disposal, but we have not taken full advantage of it. This is perhaps our greatest weakness.
In addition to these general areas of academic reform, the Self Study Report has revealed the need for several areas of structural reform.
1. Establishment of a coherent system of Majors, Double Majors, and Minors
The requirement to complete a major is an essential part of an education that has its goal to produce independent, knowledgeable, rigorous, and creative thinkers. Our committee’s Liberal Learning Survey and discussions with Department Curriculum Coordinators has revealed weaknesses in how we define our majors, describe the learning goals of individual majors, and advise students of major requirements and course sequence. At present students do not formally declare their major until the end of their third year; moreover, in several majors there is only a weak sense of belonging to a group of students with similar academic interests. In other words, with some important exceptions, especially in the Natural Sciences, majors do not form learning communities of students. Moreover, the structure of requirements makes it difficult for students to declare a “double major,” nor is there any administrative provision for “minors.” In light of the need to clarify the structure of majors within the ICU curriculum, the Dean will propose the following reforms:
a. Timing of concentration choice
Students at ICU are encouraged to explore several fields of study during their first two years, but all students must sign up for a major or field of concentration at some point between the end of the second term of the Sophomore year and the end of the second term of the Junior year. Some students will naturally seek to declare their major early, eager to focus on a special area of interest. Other students will require more time to make an informed choice. Students are encouraged to explore widely, to be intellectually curious, and to change their minds. By the end of the second term of the third year, however, all students must chose a field of concentration and submit a study plan.
b. Need for clearly defined yet flexible structure of requirements
There are currently 28 majors at ICU, including interdivisional majors such as Asian Studies, Japan Studies, American Studies, and Gender Studies. All majors involve at least 15 units of course work in a field of concentration, 15 units of more of divisional course work, and a 9 unit senior thesis requirement. Course and sequence requirements vary according to the major. Some relaxing of requirement may be necessary to allow students to apply for a double major, integrating two concentrations into a coherent plan of study. The possibility of creating a system of minors will also be considered.
All established majors in all divisions will be encouraged to review and, if necessary, revise the structure of requirements to complete the major. These requirements should be limited in number and flexible in application. The Dean’s Office will compile a coherent and easy-to-understand list of the structure of requirements of all majors and minors.
c. Clarification of Learning Goals
Each major must be described in terms of its content and learning goals. This is particularly important for assessment. If learning goals are well defined, it will be easier to measure how well they are achieved. Curriculum Coordinators will be reminded of the need to reassess the mission statement of each majorable area, and if necessary compose a statement that gives a clear indication of its purpose, organization, requirements, and learning goals.
d. Model curricula
Each major will be expected to devise a set of models for students to follow in choosing their courses. Strongly recommended courses need to be identified along with suggested course sequences.
2. Establish First-year Seminars
The Dean will propose to expand the opportunity for new students in all divisions to enroll in a First Year Seminar (similar to the FYS currently organized by the Division of Social Sciences). These seminars combine instruction in writing and basic research methods with intellectual inquiry. Emphasis is placed on critical analysis, constructing logical arguments, and crafting effective prose. Enrollment in each seminar will be limited to 15 students in order to give first-year students an opportunity to participate in a small-class environment. The FYS is a two unit- course; faculty members who elect to teach a FYS will fulfill their obligation to teach one GE or College-wide course each year.
3. Establish Senior Thesis Seminars
The Dean will propose the creation of a Senior Thesis Seminar and overall strengthening of the Senior Thesis requirement. The Senior Thesis Seminar would count (one unit each term for three units) as part of each faculty member’s teaching load (18 units). All students should be required to give an oral defense of their thesis; and all theses should be read by at least one reader who was not the student’s thesis advisor. The Dean’s Office has prepared guidelines for senior thesis presentation and proposing a college-wide grading rubric for the grading senior theses.
4. Enhance Christian aspects of ICU’s Curriculum
At present, the major Christian aspect of ICU’s curriculum consists of the requirement that students take one course, “Introduction to Christianity.” The Senior Exit Survey reveals low levels of concern with spiritual matters among ICU students. In order to realize Christian aspects of the mission of the university, there may be ways to infuse the Christian spirit in various parts of the curriculum. Good examples of a Christian curriculum can be seen in American liberal arts schools such as Wheaton (www.wheaton.edu), Gordon (www.gordon.edu), and Haverford (www.haverford.edu). Recently ICU has established a new General Education course on bio-ethics; there are plans to create a new course on business ethics. It may be possible, for example, following the example of Haverford College, to propose the adoption of a social justice requirement, requiring students to take at least one course from a list of possible courses that will enhance student awareness of the need to work to for social justice.
5. Establish “Soft” Enhancement Areas to Replace “Hard” Divisions
The self-study process revealed rigidities in the current system of dividing the curriculum into six “divisions” and requiring all students to select affiliation with one of these divisions at the time of admissions. While students are able to change their divisional affiliation after enrollment, the process is cumbersome and discourages adventuresome minds from following their individual and often changing intellectual interests. ICU should considering admitting all students into the College of Liberal Arts without affiliation to any one area of specialization, thereby allowing students to more freely develop their interests.
Moreover, it may be desirable to replace the six divisions (Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Education, Languages, and International Studies) with four interdisciplinary “enhancement areas.” The word “enhancement” is important. These four areas are intended to enhance learning students have achieved in language, general education and foundation courses. The attempt should be to maintain, if not strengthen, the general education area of ICU’s education. Instead of a grouping of similar disciplines (Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences), this new grouping should be designed to allow for the application of interdisciplinary learning to solve real and pressing problems. The enhancement areas can, for example, represent major “problem areas” confronting the contemporary world: 1) Creative Expression, Language and Cultural Studies; 2) Global Studies; 3) Life and the Natural Environment; 4) History, Values, and Education.
The intent of these enhancement areas is not to change the content of what is being learned, but rather the process of learning, making learning more active and student-centered. The traditional disciplines will remain as majorable areas, but they will be joined by a number of new interdisciplinary majors. ICU has long maintained the slogan “doing liberal arts.” As the report of the “21st Century Forum” stated in 1995, “An important objective of liberal arts education is to cultivate responsibility and the power of execution for active involvement in real social problems.” The establishment of these four “enhancement areas” may help to realize this vision.
The establishment of enhancement areas and of new interdisciplinary or problem-oriented majors will equip students to confront the realities of the contemporary world. Preparing young adults to be full participants in contemporary society demands that ICU foster their capacity to draw on multiple sources of knowledge to build deep understanding. This is the aim of the enhancement areas. Enrolling in one of these areas will empower the student through the mastery of intellectual and practical skills, including critical thinking skills, and cultivate civic values and a sense of responsibility, thereby urging the student to become actively involved with real world problems. This structural reform will allow ICU to realize its mission to cultivate responsible global citizens. We wish to take advantage of our small size, not just for close student-faculty interactions, but also as an opportunity for scholars and researchers from diverse disciplines to work together to solve real problems. Academic synergy is part of the new agenda for liberal arts in the twenty-first century.
6. Practical Liberal Arts
Finally, the need for professional training, even in liberal arts institutions, cannot be ignored. ICU should seek to emphasize “learning pathways” that lead, on the one hand to advanced education at graduate schools, but also to professional careers. Some might argue that a liberal arts education should not consider post-graduate careers; it is learning “for life” and not for a specific vocation. However, we can no longer afford to take this “ivory tower” approach to education. The main goal of reform should be to activate the liberal arts; not only do we seek active learning strategies in the classroom, but to become active and responsible members of society after graduation. This is true for all liberal arts majors and disciplines at ICU, including the Natural Sciences. ICU is already strong in preparing students for careers in law, medicine, international organizations, journalism, education, etc. These “learning pathways” need to be clarified. ICU will of course maintain its commitment to the fundamentals, but at the same time, it must visibly demonstrate its commitment to producing graduates who can and will become actively involved in society.
