Information 2
Background
Since its inception as an Affiliate Member of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) in 2009, the University of Tsukuba (UT) of Japan has been one of the most active SEAMEO Affiliated Members. Through the collaboration with the Center for Research on International Cooperation in Educational Development (CRICED) and the Faculty of Education of the University of Tsukuba, SEAMEO and the University of Tsukuba have developed various teacher development programmes, particularly in Science, Mathematics, and Teacher Education, as well as professional and student exchange programmes – that have benefited to teachers and students of Southeast Asian countries and beyond.
Over ten years, the SEAMEO-University of Tsukuba Symposium has been organised annually with the different themes according to the needs and emerging issues in teacher education between Japan and Southeast Asia.
The last 10th SEAMEO-University of Tsukuba Symposium with the theme “Teacher Education in the Past, Current, and Challenges for Future” and the sub-theme on “Reimagining Teachers Education in the New Normal Post COVID-19” which was supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) Japan, was successfully conducted on 10-12 February 2022 with over 19,000 educators participated in YouTube Live.
References
University of Tsukuba (UT), located in Tsukuba Science City (one hour from both Tokyo station and Narita Airport), is one of the eleven designated national university corporations in eighty-eight national universities. It is also one of the thirteen super global universities out of seven-hundreds sixty universities in Japan. This means that UT is one of the outstanding universities for researching and for producing human resources to leading companies and leading universities with well collaborations of foreign research universities. For example, UT has produced three Nobel Prize and forty-one Olympic gold medalists. Internationally, as the affiliate member of SEAMEO since 2009, UT is the only university in Japan that actively collaborates with SEAMEO.
UT was originated from the Higher Normal School, located at Tokyo, as for the first national higher education institution in 1872, and relocated from Tokyo to Tsukuba Science City in 1973. On this relocation, it was oriented for a new concept university which distinguished faculty and education and became the model for the current university reforms. The motto for research and development is to establish 'Global Trust' under innovation, globalization and sustainable development of the world. The motto for education is 'Imagine the Future.'
UT has been engaging in several national and international projects. One of the newest projects for the post COVID-19 is the engagement of Japan Virtual Campus (JV-Campus by MEXT, Japan) under the international collaborations.
UT is opened for further innovative collaborations on research and education.
The Center for Research on International Cooperation in Educational Development (UT-CRICED) was established in 2002 based on the tradition of the higher normal school that led to the national school education reforms. UT-CRICED is the unique center which leads several international collaborative projects with international organizations such as SEAMEO and APEC. For example, CRICED has been leading the international movement of Lesson Study which was originated from the Elementary School under the higher normal school in 1873. This led to APEC lesson study projects since 2006.
CRICED has been the contact agency in UT, Japan, as for the Affiliate Member of SEAMEO since 2009 and engaged in several activities and publications with SEAMEO, such as the Journal of Southeast Asian Education and SEAMEO Reginal Curriculum Standards for Education in Mathematics and Science. With SEAMEO, CRICED provides several on-line courses under the JV-Campus and engages SEA-Teacher internship program with the collaborations of several leading universities.
CRICED has published more than hundred books in English and other various languages. For example, through the bilateral cooperation, it has published the national and semi-national mathematics textbooks for Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Chile, Mexico and Thailand for cultivating 21st Century Skills such as Student Agency.
CRICED is opened for further international collaborations in educational development.
