Recognition of Social Issues Workshop A

Academic unit or major

Academy for Leadership

Instructor(s)

Keisuke Yamada / Yuri Matsuzaki / Mayu Watanabe

Class Format

Exercise (Face-to-face)

Media-enhanced courses

-

Day of week/Period
(Classrooms)

Intensive

Class

-

Course Code

TAL.S505

Number of credits

010

Course offered

2026

Offered quarter

1-2Q

Syllabus updated

Mar 9, 2026

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 are expected to practice the multiple elements of entrepreneurship by selecting and attending 2 or more kinds of workshops, 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 Entrepreneurship I/II" 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 course webpage for the latest information.
https://www.total.titech.ac.jp/en/lead_innov/

List of workshops by category (tentative):

・INNOVATION:
1 Design Thinking for Beinners (3 sessions)
Experience ”Design Thinking”, which can be said to be the global standard for “a way of thinking that creates innovation,” by starting with learning the process.

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

3 Co-creation Workshop with "Needknowers" (2 sessions)
Starting from the voices of "Need-knowers" who are actually facing problems, participants will experience everything from problem definition and idea generation to prototype production.

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

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

・INITIATIVE:

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

2 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.

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

4 Debate Club (English) (6 sessions)
Practice debate (Japanese) and acquire skills in constructing arguments and persuasion. Beginners to "debate" are also welcome.

5 Tsutaeru Lounge (Ookayama 3 sessions or Suzukakedai 3 sessions)
Through student-led peer teaching, students will hone their logical thinking and persuasive skills, and develop the "communication skills" essential for researchers.

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

7 Leadership for Creating a Space for Research to Flourish (5 sessions)
Exploring ways to promote team-based research activities using participants' own projects as examples.

8 Process Work to Look at Conflicts and Struggles (3 sessions)
Learn to see conflicts that arise in groups as a process for building a better team, rather than as something to avoid.

・MOTIVATION:

1 Developing Creative Thinking through Art (4 sessions)
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

2 Empower You Program (7 sessions)
Making reflection a habit to promote self-discovery and growth

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

4 Career-themed Introspection and Dialogue Workshop (2 sessions)
Deepen self-awareness and envision your future through dialogue

5 Expression and Communication Workshop (2 sessions)
Take the first step in expressing your own opinions and will

Course schedule/Objectives

Study advice (preparation and review)

Textbook(s)

None

Reference books, course materials, etc.

None

Evaluation methods and criteria

Because participation and communication between instructors and students are important for the content of this course, it is recommended that you attend all the workshops you selected.
Students will be assessed on the achievement of the learning outcomes as well as on the rationality of discussion and contribution to collaboration work (Graded by Pass or Fail).

Related courses

• TAL.S509：Recognition of Social Issues Workshop C

Prerequisites

None

Other

The Graduate Attribute of this course: GA1M