What does “academic writing” mean in Japanese higher education?

Yuko Murakami (Tohoku University)

Critical writing be a part of applied philosophy projects?

• How can it help young philosophers under shrinking job market?

• What sort of pedagogical skills are to be recommended for young philosophers?

Japanese HE

• AY2012: 783 4-year univs/colleges – National 86, public 92, private 605

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national

Distorted AO: virtually no academic assessment to recruit incoming students

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OtherRecommendationAcademic assessment

Nat/Pub Private Academic 81.62% 49.07% Recom 17.72% 50.49% Other 0.66% 0.44%

Fewer subjects required for private universities: no Japanese/history/geography for STM, no math/science for humanities and social science

Similar situations to 1980s in US

• Explosion of HE: insufficient preparation for college education

• Followed by an increasing number of non-traditional students

• Student supports: academic skill class, life accomodation – writing center – Note taking

Still different aspects

• writing in which language? – Research Universities: writing academic paper in

ENGLISH (while no training given for academic writing in Japanese)

– Others: in Japanese < much more similar to US situation

Sectors of Japanese HE

national

Research: STM

Competitive entrance

examination 5 subjects

public

professional

Competitive entrance

examination 3-4 subjects

private

Social science and humanities

Half:entrance exam 1-3 subjects/Half:

no academic assessment at all

Fragmented methodology

• TESOL • Paragraph writing • Psychology/ social psychology • Rhetoric • logic

• Deficiency of Japanese K-12 curriculum

Questions to speakers

• To which sector do you think your method works the best, assuming it has its own strength?

• Why in higher education? Why not in elementary/secondary schools?