Aoyama Standard Educational Institute
Message from The Aoyama Standard Educational Institute Director
We have reexamined the value of liberal arts education and developed our own unique "The Aoyama Standard."
Specialized learning is of course important, but the prerequisite of this is a broad-based education that will always be essential. Regardless of the field of study, it is a universal idea that students should be exposed to a variety of learning, including language, history, mathematics, and natural sciences, and cultivate comprehensive knowledge. The comprehensive abilities cultivated in this way will influence the character development of each student and become the foundation for enhancing their expertise.
While our university has focused on specialized education in each faculty, we have also placed emphasis on acquiring broad knowledge to further enrich our learning. The Aoyama Standard was established to reaffirm the significance of liberal arts education and to foster the knowledge appropriate for Aogaku.
The content of the study is diverse, including liberal arts on Christianity, humanity, society, nature, and history, as well as language, sports, information, and career skills. In addition, there are core subjects that allow students to acquire a certain level of ability from a variety of liberal arts and skills, and themed subjects that allow students to study the applied fields of those skills. By taking The Aoyama Standard Subjects corresponding to each year throughout the four years, students can aim to solidify and develop their knowledge. In "Information Skills I," which I was involved in designing, students will thoroughly master practical skills in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) while also acquiring information ethics, which are essential in an information society.
The Aoyama Standard Courses are offered to all students across the university, allowing them to interact with each other across faculty boundaries. The diverse learning opportunities that this educational system offers will be a great support for Aogaku as they soar into society.
We promote interdisciplinary learning and collaboration with others, and develop human resources who can adapt to social changes.
Through The Aoyama Standard, students can gain more than just knowledge in a wide range of fields. New perspectives brought about by learning in different fields also lead to their growth. Reexamining your major from the standpoint of other academic fields will lead to new discoveries, and it may also increase your interest in different fields and broaden your career options. In fact, there are cases where students from liberal arts faculties became interested in science fields through The Aoyama Standard, attended the Faculty of College of Science and Engineering research labs at the Sagamihara Campus to pursue their research, and aimed to study at a graduate school abroad. Also, the realizations that arise from interacting with students from other faculties are important. By interacting with various students from different backgrounds and majors, you will learn about values and ideas that you do not have, and experience the meaning and greatness of working together by making use of each individual's individuality. The Aoyama Standard plays an important role as a place to come into contact with interdisciplinary knowledge that cannot be obtained through high school experiences and to confirm the direction of your own learning and life.
Of course, direct connections between people are the foundation of education, but in order to conduct classes that go beyond the boundaries of campuses and faculties, it is extremely useful to incorporate online classes effectively. In 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a system for remote classes was established all at once. In the future, by utilizing this technology, the barriers to learning that arise from limiting locations to campuses may be removed, and it may become possible to conduct a variety of classes in all situations. In terms of designing classes for the near future, we will also prepare more SDGs-related subjects. We can expect to develop a variety of classes, such as service learning to learn from contribution activities to the local community and subjects to learn about the results of research on campus related to SDGs. In addition, we will also promote university-wide education on data science and AI in preparation for Society 5.0. The Aoyama Standard Subjects will continue to develop in order to cultivate basic knowledge in all Aogaku and promote advanced initiatives in response to social conditions.
Overview of The Aoyama Standard Educational Institute
The Aoyama Standard Education Organization (hereafter referred to as the "Organization") is a university-wide organization that implements the "The Aoyama Standard Subjects," a university-wide common education curriculum at Aoyama Gakuin University Gakuin University. Therefore, its work is wide-ranging, including the organization, operation, course development, and course evaluation of The Aoyama Standard Subjects, as well as the consideration and design of the liberal arts education at Aoyama Gakuin University. The Organization's members are all faculty members affiliated with Aoyama Gakuin University. We believe that the ideal system would be one in which faculty members from all over the university can utilize their respective expertise and experience in liberal arts education, rather than the traditional system in which faculty members in charge of the university-wide common subjects are primarily in charge.
The field and subject structure is completely different from the general courses that have been implemented at our university so far. Before the launch The Aoyama Standard, each faculty was responsible for subjects close to their specialty, and the general courses were managed with the subject group I to VI and the subject of a second foreign language together with the committee of Christian Introduction, the committee of Second Foreign Language, and the committee of Health and Physical Education-related Subjects. The Aoyama Standard Courses are based on nine areas: "Areas related to understanding Christianity," "Areas related to understanding humans," "Areas related to understanding society," "Areas related to understanding nature," "Areas related to understanding history," "Areas related to language skills," "Areas related to physical skills," "Areas related to information skills," and "Areas related to career skills." Each area is divided into "core subjects" that all students should take and advanced "thematic subjects." In addition, we have introduced new initiatives such as the "Freshman Seminar" held in small classes for first-year students, the "Welcome Lecture" aimed at understanding the significance of studying at university, and the "Career Design Seminar" to encourage students to think about what career they should pursue after graduating from university. These courses are managed by an organization that is organized around the faculty members in charge of the courses. The members of the organization are fluid, and in order to ensure stable maintenance and operation as an organization responsible for liberal arts education across the university, a university-wide system of responsibility is required. Therefore, the university executive board is responsible for all of the The Aoyama Standard Courses, which are new liberal arts education courses (Vice President is the organization director). In practice, taking into account the duties of Vice President, the practical aspects of the organization's operation are handled by the vice directors (two people: recommended by the director from full-time faculty and commissioned by the President), and one of them is delegated authority for the execution of business by the director and serves as the chairman of the organization meeting, which is the organization's highest decision-making body.
The Institute has an Executive Committee consisting of the Director and Vice Director, which is responsible for creating a system for smooth evaluation, development, and implementation of liberal arts education as a whole. Subordinate organizations of the Executive Committee include the Education Evaluation Committee (evaluates The Aoyama Standard Subjects), the Education Development Center (develops liberal arts education curricula and subjects and makes strategic proposals), and the Budget Committee (prepares budget proposals and considers implementation plans), and their directors and chairpersons are members of the Executive Committee. The Institute Council is composed of the Director, Vice Directors (Chairman and Vice Chair of the Institute Council), conveners of each area committee, representatives of faculties and independent graduate schools (Chief academic affairs), President 's Nomination Committee, and administrative staff, and has the responsibility and authority as the highest decision-making and executive body of the Institute. Various decisions made at the Institute Council are proposed by the Director to General Manager Meeting and discussed at the Faculty Meetings of each faculty. The actual work of curriculum organization is carried out by the Area Committee, which is composed of the faculty in charge of classes for the year. The Area Managers' Meeting, led by the Combiner, works in cooperation with the academic affairs Chief of each faculty and independent graduate school who are closely related to the subjects assigned to each area to deliberate on the subject content and person in charge for the next year and submit a draft curriculum to the Organization Meeting. The Area Managers' Meeting is also a place to make budget proposals to the Executive Board and to make proposals regarding subject development. Furthermore, when adjustments are required between Area Managers' Meetings, such as for interdisciplinary subjects, a "Area Liaison Meeting" is held to clarify the division of responsibilities.
This concludes the overview of the entire organization.
The Aoyama Standard Educational Organization Organization Chart
The Aoyama Standard Educational Institute
The Education Evaluation Committee evaluates the implementation of standard subjects for the current year and reports the results to the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors then requests the Education Development Center to prepare a draft for the course structure for the next year. Based on the evaluation results and information obtained from outside the university, the Education Development Center prepares a draft for the outline of the curriculum, including new budget items. Based on this, the Board of Directors requests the Budget Committee to prepare a draft budget for the next year.
As for the Freshers' Seminar, Welcome Lecture, and Career Design Seminar, for the time being, the Education Development Center will take the lead without setting up a meeting of those in charge, and will consider the operation of the course and future plans based on the results of the course evaluation, and create implementation plans. Currently, these are being run with the voluntary participation of full-time faculty members.
In addition, the authority to select full-time faculty members in charge of The Aoyama Standard Subjects rests with the full-time faculty councils of each faculty and independent graduate school, and the organization does not have the right to propose personnel matters. The organization has requested that the full-time faculty councils of each faculty and independent graduate school, when relevant personnel matters arise, select personnel in consultation with the organization in order to ensure the smooth implementation and enhancement of The Aoyama Standard Subjects, as well as education in the faculty or department.
The Aoyama Standard Courses and the The Aoyama Standard Education Organization, which maintains and operates them, are a new trend to enrich liberal arts education at Aoyama Gakuin University. We, the faculty and staff involved in the organization's operation, will continue to evaluate the liberal arts education system as a whole and hope to provide students with a higher quality education based on Aoyama 's educational philosophy.