Ambassador Hidenao Yanagi referred to the regional partnership between the state of Brandenburg and the Japanese prefecture of Saitama, which has existed for over three decades, and suggested using this as a starting point for an expansion of academic relations. Japan’s new funding programs also supported an increase in international exchanges of students and doctoral candidates as well as the establishment of bilateral university partnerships, he added. “In educational sciences and teacher training in particular, we already see interesting contacts and initial projects that need to be expanded,” emphasized Oliver Günther. A cooperation agreement between the Graduate School of Education at the University of Tokyo and the Faculty of Human Sciences at the University of Potsdam has been in place since the beginning of 2024. The agreement covers the exchange of researchers at all career levels, with a particular focus on theory-practice transfer.
Educational scientist Prof. Dr. Miriam Vock reported on the joint project of the German federal government and the federal states called “Leistung macht Schule” (LemaS), for which her working group has spent five years investigating the “Lesson Study” method, which originated in Japan: Small teams of teachers work together to prepare lessons, which are then taught by one teacher while their team colleagues observe and systematically monitor the learning processes. Then, the group reflects on it together. “This method is innovative for German teachers, as there has been little cooperation between them to date,” said Miriam Vock. “We have adapted the method somewhat and were able to show that it also works well in German schools,” said the professor, who is in close contact with researchers at the University of Tokyo, as well as at the universities in Kyoto, Gifu, Nagoya, and Hiroshima and with the German School Tokyo Yokohama.
Katharina Schmitt, Head of the International Office, seeks to conclude additional university and faculty partnerships, also to enable regular student exchanges between the two countries. Japan could even be included as a priority country in the University of Potsdam’s new internationalization strategy in the future, Schmitt said.