AP8 Naoko Araki

Knowledge transmission is still a common practice in high schools in Japan. It shapes Japanese students’ understanding of what counts as knowledge and learning; the knowledge from ‘teachers’ is highly valued. Although the Ministry of Education in Japan has been promoting student-centred learning and ‘active learning’ in the last few decades to add more various pedagogical approaches to school settings, knowledge transmission practices in the daily life of Japanese schools strongly remain. When Japanese students with such prior experience enter an international university in Japan where active participation in discussion-based learning is a common practice, they often face dilemmas and confusion while confronting new expectations. In addition to the new pedagogical expectations they face, they are immersed in an ‘only English’ pedagogical environment. English is an additional language for most of the students. The research paper shares the findings of these Japanese university students transforming themselves into confident and independent learners by experiencing rich pedagogical moments in a series of process drama workshops and reflections.