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The purpose of this study is to investigate the solutions that faculty members resort to by trial and error in certain challenges presented to them in undergraduate seminars for second, third, and fourth year students. The research questions used were as follows: (1) What kind of problems do faculty members face, and (2) How faculty members try to improve their undergraduate seminars in order to provide an effective learning environment for students. Using a questionnaire, we conducted a survey on 157 faculty members and constructed the variables by factor analysis. The results indicated that faculty members usually try to set goals and activities with respect to the students' current situation or interests because they believe that the students do not have the basic knowledge and skills needed in specialized fields.

People can attend university lectures for free even in distant places by using MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). However, there is not much research that has empirically evaluated what is learned in academic disciplines at such courses. In this study, we evaluated what is learned in the discipline of history by taking a course on historical science. Results showed that the participants acquired more than 80% of the historical knowledge through the course assignments and about 68% of historical thinking skills through the course assignment. Moreover, we also evaluated historical thinking skills by comparing the preresults with the postresults. They showed that there was a signif icant increase although the effect size was very small. Based on these results, we discussed how to improve methods by adopting blended learning and employing the mechanism of CSCL (Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning).

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), which offer collegelevel open online courses to the general public, have rapidly expanded in recent years. MOOCs are often composed of lecture videos and registrants can communicate with others on its discussion forum. However, some registrants hope to receive instruction from the instructor and learn with others in a facetoface setting. This study evaluated effects of a f lipped learning design for such registrants with data from a f lipped learning (FL) class that combines a lecturevideobased MOOC with facetoface learning sessions for groupbased practicum. We evaluated effects of the FL design on the completion rate and skill in understanding of historical context adjusting for other effects of registrant backgrounds and online learning behaviors. Results show that FL design had no signif icant effect completion; there were larger effects for video viewing time and the number of days of forum activity with some trends toward a lower completion rate among those who were older and those with no college degree. On the other hand, the FL design had a larger effect on the historical thinking skill than online behaviors, and effects of age and education were limited.

In the context of Japanese colonialism, this article examines the discourse of colonial criminality that came to epistemologically position the Korean colonial subject as criminal and therefore necessitating domination, surveillance and punishment. The discourse of colonial criminality stemmed from Japan's late nineteenth century epistemological commitment to imperialism and concomitant knowledge of law and the legality of colonial subjects. Through an analysis that historicizes the “criminal Korean” (futei senjin) epithet in the prewar and the emergence of yami as a signifier of Korean economic criminality throughout the 1940s, this article illustrates how the racialization of Koreans in Japan was both framed in terms of crime and subversion, and how that criminality functioned as a justification for postcolonial legalized exclusion and discrimination.

Multiculturalism, as a social model for numerous Western nations, has been instrumental in shaping immigrant societies. However, over recent years, the concept has also come under increasing scrutiny in the context of terrorism, xenophobia, and a backlash against the acceptance of refugees.  Furthermore, the core ideological underpinnings of multiculturalism, cultural pluralism and equality, are no longer assumed to have universal appeal. From 2010, numerous European leaders declared multiculturalism to be a "failure" and urged the abandonment of multicultural policies and values. This paper analyses the current trends in immigrant and cultural integration in Germany, France, the UK, Canada and Australia to reveal whether, in fact, multiculturalism was failing.

This paper examines the notions of "territory" and "borders" in the context of late Edo-era Japan's incorporation of the Bonin (Ogasawara) Islands into "Japan". During the Edo period, despite the self-proclaimed isolationist policy (sakoku) there remained "four windows" through which information, people and goods could enter Japan: Matsumae in the north, Tsushima in the west, Nagasaki with its Dutch connections, and Satsuma in the south. However, from the 18th century, foreign visitors to the Bonin (Ogasawara) Islands prompted Japan to rethink its established territorial limits and adopt the European notions of borders and national territory.

This chapter examines the historical structures of exclusion that have continued to render the colonial Korean (Zainichi) diaspora as the most prominent internal ‘other’ and the primary target of contemporary xenophobic/exclusionary rhetoric and practices.  While Zainichi Koreans as an ethnic minority in Japan are by no means a homogenous group, their legal status (for those who have not naturalized) renders them outside the boundaries of the nation since they do not possess Japanese nationality. Most Koreans whose ancestors have resided in Japan since the colonial period possess the legal status of ‘special permanent resident’ or tokubetu eijūsha. This chapter historicizes colonial (Zainichi) Korean legal, economic and social status as non-Japanese nationals and posits this as significant because ethnic and social minorities in most other nations would, despite the existence of prejudices and discrimination targeting those minorities, nevertheless have a sense of belonging to the nation as citizens, and therefore debate over their position within majority society would remain confined to the domestic politics of that nation.

Borderless Canvas: Development of a Multi-display Discussion Software for Knowledge-emergent Presentations Kazutaka Kurihara*1 Toshio Mochizuki*2 Hiroki Oura*3 Mio Tsubakimoto*4 Toshihisa Nishimori*5 Jun Nakahara*6 Yuhei Yamauchi*7 Shin-ichi Watanabe*8 ...

The authors developed reading support software "eJournalPlus" designed to assist learners in not only reading texts but also constructing their own opinions from it. Since it is difficult for learners to reach a sufficient level of critical reading skills through reading only by themselves, a collaborative learning function was added to allow learners to share their ideas and facilitate discussion in order to assist learners in considering their own opinion more critically and promoting their critical thinking.