2024 Faculty Courses School of Environment and Society Undergraduate major in Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering
Introduction to International Development
- Academic unit or major
- Undergraduate major in Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering
- Instructor(s)
- Yoshie Sakamoto / Naoya Abe / / Yasushi Taira / Yasuhiko Hotta /
- Class Format
- Lecture (Face-to-face)
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 1-2 Tue / 1-2 Fri
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- TSE.C301
- Number of credits
- 200
- Course offered
- 2024
- Offered quarter
- 2Q
- Syllabus updated
- Mar 14, 2025
- Language
- English
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
This course aims to provide an understanding of basic concepts and goals of international development through case studies, which will be explained by guest speakers who are working at the frontier of various fields of development. The guest speakers have rich experiences in development aid, development consulting, civic institutions and private firm business. The course will consist of the combination of lectures and group discussions and presentations.
Course description and aims
This course equips the students with the following skills:
1) Students can analyze today's global social issues, including those issues in developing countries by understanding various practical work and roles, which are conducted at various organizations.
2) Students can how they can solve issues through case studies
3) Students can exercise their group-work skills through discussions with other students
Student learning outcomes
実務経験と講義内容との関連 (又は実践的教育内容)
This course is taught by multiple visiting lecturers, who are actively working for international development and civic society. The registered students are expected to understand how different field of civic society is doing and then to obtain multiple perspective of how a society is organized to some extent. This course also aims to provide an opportunity for the students to explore what career path could exist for their own futures.
Keywords
International Development, Transdisciplinary approach, civic society
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
This course consists of lectures and group-work.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Introduction to this course (Naoya Abe, Tokyo Tech) | Report theme for this course will be announced. |
| Class 2 | International Development in globalization era (tentative) | Group-work topic will be announced on the date of the lecture. |
| Class 3 | "Role and business of international development consultants" Group presentation for the class of "Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP)" | Group-work topic will be announced on the date of the lecture. |
| Class 4 | Group-work | None |
| Class 5 | Group presentation for International Development in globalization era (tentative) | Brief report about the group presentations at the end of the session |
| Class 6 | Group presentation for "role and business of international development consultants" | Brief report about the group presentations at the end of the session |
| Class 7 | "Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP)" | Group-work topic will be announced on the date of the lecture. |
| Class 8 | "Role and significance of private sector for development" | None |
| Class 9 | Group work | None |
| Class 10 | Group presentation for "Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP)" | Brief report about the group presentations at the end of the session |
| Class 11 | "Role and significance of private sector for development" | Brief report about the group presentations at the end of the session |
| Class 12 | Preparation of a proposal to work on a development issue based on the four lectures and presentations. | Group-work topic will be announced on the date of the lecture. |
| Class 13 | Group work | None |
| Class 14 | Group-presentation for the development issue identified in Session ＃12. | Brief report about the group presentations at the end of the session |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
There is no assigned textbook for this course. If necessary, handouts will be distributed.
Reference books, course materials, etc.
As above
Evaluation methods and criteria
Reflection report for each lecture (approx. 50%), group presentation (roughly 30%) and Individual final report (roughly 20%)
Participation in each session is strictly required. Group-work is essential in this course and each registered student is required to work on assigned topics actively together with group-mates.
Related courses
- TSE.C302 ： Introduction to Development Economics
- TSE.C303 ： Introduction to Global Development
Prerequisites
None
Other
Depending on the number of the registered students, the settings for group-work may change.