Recognition of Social Issues Workshop B

Academic unit or major

Tokyo Tech Academy for Leadership

Instructor(s)

Keisuke Yamada / Yuri Matsuzaki / Mayu Watanabe

Class Format

Exercise

Media-enhanced courses

-

Day of week/Period
(Classrooms)

Class

-

Course Code

TAL.S506

Number of credits

010

Course offered

2025

Offered quarter

4Q

Syllabus updated

Mar 19, 2025

Language

English

Syllabus

Course overview and goals

ToTAL's "Recognition of Social Issues" course is designed to lay the foundation for developing leadership skills to lead solutions by recognizing current social issues in a wide range of fields, including academia, business, politics, technology, and arts.

Course description and aims

Understanding social issues as a part of history, social trend and technology trend and learning and executing methodologies of macro approach and designing future society, so that students can expect to increase their stock of skills for consensus building.

Keywords

Issue identification, Broad perspective

Competencies

• Specialist skills
• Intercultural skills
• Communication skills
• Critical thinking skills
• Practical and/or problem-solving skills

Class flow

At our university, we define "entrepreneurship" and "leadership" as a behavioral system (mindset and skills) for developing and setting new value into society, and we believe that this can be manifested not only in business fields such as starting a business, but also in all fields including research and development fields in academia.
This course is positioned in the "motivation and awareness-raising stage" and "competency formation stage" of the three stages of entrepreneurship education: the "motivation and awareness-raising stage," the "competency formation stage," and the "social implementation stage".

As a guideline, the multiple foundational elements of entrepreneurship are classified into three categories as shown below, and multiple types of workshops will be offered each semester to train the foundational elements corresponding to each category (see " Workshops as contents of this course " below).

・ INNOVATION: Issue Identification, Idea Generation, Vision Setting, Hypothesis Testing, Visualizing Solutions
・ INITIATIVE: Communication (consensus building), Team Building, Project Management, Practical Application and Reflection
・ MOTIVATION: Self-awareness, Discovering Personal Motivations, Goal Setting, Transforming Knowledge

Students enrolled in this course will be able to deepen their understanding by experiencing and practicing the multiple elements of entrepreneurship by selecting and attending 2 or more workshops, including a workshop from the "INNOVATION" category and earning 13 points or more for attendance.

Furthermore, since these elements can be strengthened by repeated practice, we recommend that students participate in as many workshops as possible. In addition, we would like students to take "Master’s/Doctoral Practical Group Work for Leadership" as an opportunity to comprehensively utilize these elements, demonstrate your "entrepreneurship," and practice "social implementation" by developing and setting new value.

Features:
(1) Students design their own course content:
Students select from the workshops in the table below, taking into consideration their own interests and convenience, and attend after receiving confirmation of their participation. Passing the workshop requires earning a certain number of points for attendance (point system).
(2) Diverse student participation:
Students from a variety of backgrounds and years can participate, regardless of their major or year.
(3) Workshop format:
Instead of the traditional "listening to lectures" format, this workshop format allows students to experience and practice work-interactive methods.
(4) Tutors and specialized lecturers from outside the university are appointed as facilitators:
As various training contents and new methodologies are proposed every day, we always incorporate the latest contents and methodologies by appointing practitioners and specialized lecturers from various fields as facilitators.

Workshops as contents of this course:
The list of workshops by categories of "INNOVATION," "INITIATIVE," and "MOTIVATION" is as follows. Please note that workshops may be changed, canceled, added, or altered without prior notice, so please always check the ToTAL website for the latest information.
https://www.total.titech.ac.jp/en/lead_innov/

List of workshops by category (tentative, different workshops will be offered each semester):

・INNOVATION:

1 Expanding Interpretation-idea generation workshop- (1 session)
Putting design thinking-based ideas into practice through proposing new services

2 Experience and Learn UX design! (1 session)
"User-Centered Design" Methodology

3 Scenario Planning (2 sessions)
Learn how to broaden your vision of the future through working backwards and dialogue based on your desired future vision

4 Thinking with Your Hands and Brain -Product Design Workshop with Material Study- (1 session)
Based on the theme of "bandages," we proposed new product ideas by observing usage and taking into consideration the characteristics of materials

5 Design Thinking For Your Creative Practice (2 sessions)
Three lecturers from Stanford University/d.school in the U.S. will be invited to experience and understand the concepts of Creative Confidence/User Centric, which is the essence of Design Thinking.

6 Design Workshop (1 session)
Practice design thinking-based idea generation process through the proposal of new services

7 EGAKU
Create art (abstract paintings) based on a theme, present your own work, and view the work of others to promote creative communication skills, awareness of unconscious bias, and self-knowledge

8 Future Foresight
Proactively design the future that no one has thought of 10-15 years from now, using methods such as backcasting, horizon scanning to capture signs of change, forced thinking, etc.

9 Systemic Design
Design workshop to create transformational change in systems

・INITIATIVE:

1 Graphic Facilitation (2 sessions)
Acquire facilitation techniques using visualization to promote discussion and collaboration among multiple people.

2 International Cooperation Simulation: Trading Game (1 session)
Through the "Trade Game," participants learn strategy formulation, negotiation, communication, and teamwork skills.

3 Debate Club (Japanese) (5 sessions)
Practice debate (Japanese) and acquire skills in constructing arguments and persuasion. Beginners to "debate" are also welcome.

4 Debate Club (English) (5 sessions)
Practice debate (English) and acquire skills in constructing arguments and persuasion. Beginners to "debate" are also welcome.

5 Negotiation Process for Consensus Building (2 sessions)
Practice your negotiation skills through role-playing.

6 Leadership for Creating a Collaborative Research Environment (6 sessions)
Explore ways to facilitate research activities by teams, using participants' own projects as examples.

7 Storytelling for Researchers (1 session)
Participants will reconstruct the value of their own research and projects in a form that can be communicated to the general public and expressed as a story.

8 Leadership Core Program (5 sessions)
Learn the basics of leadership through dialogue, self-awareness, idea generation, consensus building, and presentation.

9 Nonviolent Communication (2 sessions)
Practical study of nonviolent communication, confirming the needs of others, making your own requests, and gaining agreement

10 Co-creation workshop with high school students studying art (1 session)
Group work on a single theme with students of different ages and interests (theme changes every year)

11 Advanced Negotiation (6 sessions)
Practical learning and experience of negotiation in various situations using a variety of cases

・MOTIVATION:

1 Effectuation (1 session)
Take stock of your past experiences and connections, and rediscover your inherent potential

2 p4c - Dialogue of inquiry (2 sessions)
Experience a safe intellectual space (philosophical dialogue) where you can explore issues of interest together

3 Peer-coaching (2 sessions)
Know yourself through conversations with others

4 Enneagram (Japanese) (1 session)
Know your characteristics from the results of the diagnostic test

5 Systems Thinking and Leadership (1 session)
Analyzing issues as system-induced phenomena

6 Interactive art appreciation (1 session)
Explain participants' ideas in the context of shared materials (artworks)

Course schedule/Objectives

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)

None

Reference books, course materials, etc.

None

Evaluation methods and criteria

1. 50%: attendance to the workshop and pro-active attitude for idea generation and for contribution to consensus building
2. 50%: the level of logical acceptance about the solution(s) (ideas) to be presented as the result of discussion

Related courses

• TAL.S510 ： Recognition of Social Issues Workshop D

Prerequisites

None

Contact information (e-mail and phone) Notice : Please replace from ”[at]” to ”@”(half-width character).

total.tokunin[at]total.titech.ac.jp

Other

The Graduate Attribute of this course: GA1M