Study on Participation of Diverse In-service Teachers to Team Learning and Distance Education

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Any single teacher cannot solve present complicated educational problems alone. Team-working is indispensable for solving organizational problems. A paradigm of practical research method for tackling problems was more effective than conventional approach from educational theory and philosophy for solving such problems. A new method of research on pedagogy for ubiquitous learning was developed and applied to utilize mobile phones and PDA devices to confirm effectiveness and validity for collaborative and autonomous learning. This method was applied and proved valid for large sized class of diverse students at undergraduate level. After this confirmation, this method was applied to a team learning at local high schools. A team of six to seven teachers are formed to develop learner-centered curriculum which is a new trial at high schools. Japanese education faces to the urgent problem of training a large number of teachers at graduate level for enhancing their competency of conducting systematic research on their daily practical problems. It is an urgent problem to provide a low cost teacher training system and develop appropriate instructional methods for learning at workplaces. Information and communication technology brought us the present changing society, where unemployment and restructuring of job are quite common and require ceaseless refreshment of professional competence. From these points of view, collaborative and autonomous learning, high quality and low cost instructional methods and flexible learning system for diverse and large number of learners are urgently needed. Our research was conducted in the above mentioned view point.