TeamOkinawa- 1
What if an advertising method could bring more ambitious students to KOSEN?
NationalInstitute of Technology, OkinawaCollege
A: Hello. I’m Yuta
B: I’m Miyako.
C: And I’m Kai.
A: Today, we would like to present our idea; Kosen’s admission exam method.
B: Yes, because we have concerns about the future of Kosen. And we would like to suggest an idea for a possible solution.
C: What are we concerned about?
A: About the future of KOSEN’s students. We've heard there's an undergoing project to expand the KOSEN educational system to developing Asian countries such as Vietnam and Thailand.
C: That sounds interesting.
A: But when those developing countries transition into developed countries, we, Japanese KOSEN students, will need to work in the same market with Asian Kosen students. I've stayed in some Asian countries and have met so many Asian students speaking several languages, experts in their own fields, and highly motivated for their futures. I really respect them but what if those students become our competitors in the future global market?
B: Yes, I have also had a similar experience after coming back from Vietnam! Many Vietnamese students and engineers I met there were studying Japanese rather than English. I asked them why and they told me that it's because they want to work in a Japanese company.
C: That kind of makes me worry about my future. I know we're not facing that situation just now and I’m pretty sure I will have a job after I graduate. But if we all need to compete with Asian students, the future we imagined might be different.
A: At the same time, my experiences abroad also left me with a positive realization. Japanese people studying and working in those countries seemed so excited for their lives and futures. Their perceptions of their careers are based on both what they can do, and what they are passionate about. I just think...if all of us have the same way of thinking about our careers, there would be no reasons for concern about the future or globalism.
B: So, should we, the Kosen students, try to be more like those kinds of people?
C: You mentioned two factors. First, to haveabilities in one’s field, such asprogramming skills or a deep understanding of electronics.
A: Yes.
C: And to have something that you can be passionate about, like, passion for designing products, or a strong interest in the robotics industry, right?
A: Yes, you get it! That’s what I learnt from the Japanese people I met overseas!
C: I agree with that, because I have been thinking that KOSEN students tend to have unique interests. And I'm really impressed when I see my friends who have a passion working in a field of their interest.
B: If there's a student who studies hard and finds a job doing what he or she is passionate about and contributes to society by using his or her skills, I think we could call them a "model case" of a KOSEN student!
A: Exactly! "A person who has both an ability to do something, and a passion for something." That’s the ambitious student! So, I believe we can solve the problem that we discussed before if we all were like that ambitious student.
C: So, what you’re saying is, we need to be KOSEN students who have both our own passions and the abilities required to succeed in a particular field.But regarding abilities, the purpose of KOSEN is to make us, the students, gain the abilities required in our fields. Therefore, there's nothing to stand in the way. We all just need to study hard to obtain these abilities!
A: Correct. That’s why we are not worried about that part. We can start studying anytime and acquire new abilities anytime!
C: Ok, now, the thing is to have a passion. But where does that passion come from? What is the key to being passionate?
B: Right. To investigate the key to being passionate person, we hypothesized there would be a strong intrinsic motivation to study if what a person was studyingwas connected to their childhood interests. So, we took a survey of Okinawa Kosen students. Take a look at this graph.
A: Here is a pie chart showing the result of the question, "Do you think what you are studying now is related to what you liked to do when you were a kid?”As you can see, 17％ of the students answered, "Strongly agree" and 18% answered, "Strongly disagree." Let's call the former group A and the latter group, B.
B: We also asked them a few more questions such as, "Do you have something that you want to realize in the future?" 39 percent of group A students answered, "Clearly have" while only 5% of the students of group B answered, “Clearly have.”
C: That’s a huge difference!
A: In another question, we asked, "Do you like your field of expertise?" 28 percent of group A marked "strongly agree," However, no students of group B answered so.
B: We asked a couple other questions and we had similar results.
C: So, this survey shows the Kosen students who have a connection between both what they used to like as children and what they are currently studying seem to be highly motivated. From this, I can easily see that connection is an important factor to cultivate strong intrinsic motivation.
B: Of course, it is possible to find a passion after starting KOSEN but I think it’s important to attract junior high school students who have that connection.
C: I think the admission exam of KOSEN is quite unique. Like, we have a written examination without an interview or a practical examination.
A: Our idea is to use this kind of aggregated data for the admission examination the same way strategic decisions are made according to big-data in business situations.
C: Do you think a new admission exam could bring more ambitious students to KOSEN!? In addition to the present basic admission method, like the written examination, maybe we could have that special admission exam and increase the number of ambitious students!
A: Yes. How about we call it Ambitious selection? For example, if there's a junior high school student who likes to disassemble desktop PCs and has knowledge about how PCs work, then he can talk about his interests, passions and, how both his motivation and the field of study in KOSEN are connected in the interview of “Ambitious selection". And the important thing is that they will be evaluated not by the decisions of the interviewers, like the present, but how aspects of the students align with the model of an “Ambitious Student” generated from the big-data.
B: Another effect we can expect is the change of the mindset of young students. Once "the ambitious selection" is applied, junior high school students will be aware of what kind of students pass. That awareness could possibly make students think about…
A: "What hobby do I have?”
C: “What kind of technology am I interested in?"
B: Instead of…
A: "All I need to do is just study"
B: This would be a huge difference for the school learning culture.
C: Yes, even entrance exams for universities are changing their formats.
B: For junior high school students who want to enter Kosen, the most important thing would be to know what they like to do and choose the right courses for themselves. If Kosen gets those kinds of students, Kosen would be a more motivating learning environment. And there would be less anxiety about the future.
A: Of course, this result in the presentation is just from a simple and small survey. But we could get critical information on career choices if we collect data from engineers who have studied at Kosens in the past. We truly believe that we need to think again about Kosen's system which was established in a period of high economic growth in Japan. And these kinds of discussions could possibly lead us, Kosen students, to be "Ambitious people" in the future. Thank you.