What kind of data is valuable for providing personalized learning and bringing about behavioral change? A unique Education 's intense sense of crisis and a vision for a new form of Education

Hiroto Iwaoka, who was offered an offer by the mayor while working at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, became the Education mayor of Kamakura City at the young age of 35 in August 2020. Since many Education heads become school principals after retirement, the national average age for Education heads is about 64, but among the roughly 1,700 municipalities nationwide, there are only about four Education heads under 40. Moreover, Mr. Iwaoka, who lives in Tokyo, is working daily on Education reforms in Kamakura, a place with no connection or connection. What is the future for children envisioned by this unusual Education chief?
* Positions and affiliations are as of the time of the interview.

Circumstances of the appointment as Superintendent Education

Could you tell us about the circumstances that led to your appointment as Superintendent Education for Kamakura City?

Before becoming Education Principal, I worked at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology on early childhood Education and was involved in many Education administrations related to elementary and junior high schools. What I valued from that time was to approach with the mindset of Education administration that reaches the last mile firmly. Originally, Education in schools arise only through interaction between teachers and children, and while the central government fulfills its responsibilities by drafting laws and issuing notices, that alone does not create Education effects on children. That is why I have worked with many people, consciously considering how to collect data, create manuals, set guidelines, and communicate methods that lead to behavioral changes in the field. At that time, I received an offer from the Education mayor, which led to me becoming the Education mayor of Kamakura City.

You received an offer to become the Superintendent Education in Kamakura, a place you have no prior connection to. What were your initial thoughts when you first heard about it?

My fundamental philosophy for Education administration, which is also the aim of the new curriculum guidelines, is to realize school Education that is open to society. I want to create school Education that is not simply about learning subject matter, but about building a better society, by incorporating various resources not only within the school but also from society, and by equipping children with the skills they need to live happily in this rapidly changing era. Kamakura is the perfect place to embody this philosophy. It is a town that cherishes tradition as a historic area, but in recent years, various creative people such as entrepreneurs and artists have been moving to Kamakura because of its attractive living environment and unique cultural stories, and it is truly one of the towns with rich social resources compared to other municipalities. When I heard about the position of Superintendent of Education, I strongly felt that I wanted to take on this challenge.

I understand that the mayor had a strong desire to explore a way to integrate tradition and innovation in the field Education, as Kamakura is a city where tradition and innovation coexist. I believe I was chosen as the person to lead this initiative.

Challenges in the field Education

Having worked in Education administration, you've likely had experience dealing with various data that forms the basis of policy-making. Could you share your experiences regarding the use of data in Education settings?

Up until now, I have been involved in various initiatives, including the creation of a nine-year compulsory Education system that integrates elementary and junior high school systems, the development of guidelines for optimizing school size through mergers and closures, and the creation of policies such as promoting the establishment of evening junior high schools. In order to create each of these policies, facts are essential. Therefore, I have worked extensively on designing, conducting, and analyzing various surveys, and in a sense, I recognize the importance of data.

Furthermore, my background includes studying Education economics, which involves using econometric methods to create evidence in the field of Education, while obtaining a Master's degree in Public Policy at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). In the United States, a country that is the epitome of data-driven thinking, each state is required to administer standardized tests that allow for year-to-year comparisons, providing ample opportunities to access vast amounts of data, making it a paradise environment for Education economists.

However, conversely, we were caught in a dilemma where we couldn't make policies without data, and I witnessed a situation where each school worked hard on the mandatory standardized tests in Japanese and math, and as a result, time for art, food education, ethics, physical education, etc. was gradually cut back. Evidence-based data is of course important, but I believe that my experience at the time formed within me the value that it is not enough on its own.

Numerous systems have been introduced in Education settings, and a large amount of data has been accumulated. From a data perspective, what do you think are the challenges facing Education industry today?

I believe there are various dimensions to data utilization. One is the use of data in policymaking. This is the use of data for evidence-based policymaking (EBPM), which involves considering what kind of initiatives should be implemented based on data such as each school's grades, physical fitness test information, and questionnaire surveys of children.

The other is the use of data to improve daily instruction. This is not about the government formulating policies, but about using data to help teachers in the field use it as a hint for their daily instruction planning. In this area, it cannot be said that there is an environment in place where data can be used not only in Kamakura City, but nationwide.

Although there is data for policy formulation, there is currently no data from the field that would be useful for improving instruction.

In fact, the use of data in policymaking is also insufficient. What sets Japan apart from the United States is that it does not have enough data in an analyzable format. You are probably aware that Japan has the National Academic Achievement and Learning Status Survey, also known as the National Academic Achievement Test, which best reflects the intentions of the National Curriculum Guidelines. It is a good test for developing strategies in a way that teachers and children can understand what kind of Education is being aimed for. However, the variability of average scores and standard deviations is not standardized, and the population changes every year, making it impossible to make comparisons over time. The reality is that the data does not allow us to analyze whether children's academic ability has improved, whether it is related to the difficulty of the test, or whether it is due to differences in the population. In a data environment that is not sufficient, it can be said that we are not at the stage of data-driven policymaking.

I also believe that reform of academic achievement tests is necessary to formulate evidence-based policies, but tests themselves are only conducted once a year, once per semester, and while it is certainly possible to conduct fixed-point observations, it is not possible to grasp fluctuations in children's performance over a week due to changes in their living environment or social environment, or stress, etc. Even if academic achievement surveys are conducted with a well-designed system, the nature of tests makes it extremely difficult to apply the results to daily instruction.

Some progressive municipalities select teachers who have successfully improved children's abilities over a year through academic achievement tests, and extract their teaching techniques based on interviews rather than data, inferring what kind of teaching leads to academic improvement and using this information for training and other purposes. However, these are merely standardized "tips" of teaching techniques and are not flexible enough to adapt to the daily changes in children.
Thus, the current state of data utilization in the Education sector is that we haven't yet reached Stage 1, where data is used for policymaking, nor have we yet reached Stage 2, where data is used to improve daily instruction.

Initiatives for the GIGA School Initiative

The GIGA School Initiative is currently being promoted by various local governments. How do you feel about the potential for this initiative to become a promising initiative when looking at data on daily changes in children?

We believe that this will allow us to take advantage of the strength of having one device per student. Even if we carefully design an academic achievement test, the reason for an improvement in academic ability may be due to the child's living environment, or it may also be influenced by whether or not the child attends a cram school, so it is not possible to determine the cause of an improvement in academic ability from an achievement test alone. In reality, causal relationships become apparent when various data are combined. The GIGA School Initiative, which generates a lot of data in everyday life outside of tests and links it to individuals, is extremely useful for data analysis, and we believe this is one of the points we are looking forward to.

What is the progress of the GIGA School Initiative in Kamakura City?

Our progress is not significantly different from that of other municipalities. Kamakura City distributes iPads to all students from first grade of elementary school to third grade of junior high school. However, we believe that learning is isolated with just a device. Therefore, in order to promote interactive and proactive learning, we are installing large electronic whiteboards (it's easier to imagine them as iPads with 65-inch touchscreens) in each classroom to transform individual learning on the device into shared learning and to make learning collaborative. However, since installing large electronic whiteboards requires financial resources from the municipality, it is natural that some municipalities will find it difficult to do so. Kamakura City has provided all three of these: iPads, the Wi-Fi environment required for communication, and large electronic whiteboards.

The environment has already been prepared, but what do you expect it to be used for in the field?

We believe that the progress made in improving the environment can be utilized in a variety of ways. Specifically, we express this as "deepen, communicate, connect, and combine."

By making full use of digital devices, children can independently investigate what they want to know, what they want to compile, and what is valuable from the vast ocean of information. In other words, "deepening" means that children can deepen their learning in line with their own curiosity.

When students put together something and write it on a large piece of paper to present, it can take a long time to create it in the first place, and there may not be enough time for everyone to present. By using digital devices, students can quickly put their ideas into shape and create presentation materials, which can then be shared not only within the school but also outside. This is what we call "communicating."

Furthermore, the collaborative nature of learning is greatly enhanced by features such as instantly sharing researched information via AirDrop, collaborating on ideas by sharing information with each other before presentations, and jointly editing presentation materials. Additionally, by utilizing video conferencing software like Zoom, Education activities can be conducted with various people both inside and outside of school, transforming home, community, and school into learning spaces everywhere. This is what "connecting" means.

"Adjusting" allows us to provide individually optimized learning for each child. Until now, lessons were taught using the teacher's mouth, blackboard, and textbook, meaning only one unit could be covered per lesson. For example, some children who don't understand the graph of a quadratic function don't understand graphs at all, while others don't understand factorization or arithmetic operations. The causes vary from child to child. Addressing these diverse causes is difficult through teacher's mouth and textbook lessons alone. By leveraging the power of digital technology, for example, using software called AI Drill, if a student gives an incorrect answer, the cause can be analyzed from vast amounts of past data and presented to the teacher. We believe that by being able to identify the cause to a certain extent for each child, we will be able to provide individually optimized learning.

The importance of data integration

I think there are certainly high expectations that the new data obtained through the GIGA School Initiative will lead to individually optimized learning. However, what about the use of data that has already been obtained?

It's true that various software programs are being deployed in schools, but each program holds its own individual data, making it impossible to perform meta-analysis. From the perspective of information security, it is necessary to manage and operate each of the following software programs separately: learning software such as AI drills and presentation software, school administrative software that manages students' personal information such as grades and attendance, and external software that handles email communications with external parties. As a result, schools are faced with the fundamental issue of difficulty in analyzing this data. I believe that one solution could be to not only reconsider the design of academic achievement tests and the like, but also to create an environment in which the various data collected daily can be treated as a large dataset and meta-analyzed.

By combining academic performance data with consultation history, attendance records, and the number of times guidance has been provided, it becomes possible to uncover previously unnoticed aspects, such as a child being at high risk of school absenteeism. Furthermore, if a particular action is taken to improve this tendency, and this can be quickly identified, it can be used to improve daily guidance, potentially allowing us to jump from Stage 1 to Stage 2 data. By connecting existing data with information to be obtained in the future, we should be able to gain various hints that will be useful in the field Education.

In fact, Kamakura has been continuously conducting a "Survey on the Awareness and Realities of Kamakura Children," and has questionnaire data on children's lifestyle habits. While some of this data may not be meaningful on its own, combining it with academic performance data and attendance records could reveal trends such as a tendency for children to have anxieties about their home life. This could then serve as an opportunity to consider what kind of support is appropriate, including social work, rather than simply getting angry about children not doing their homework, and could lead to changes in how teachers interact with them. This would lead to an approach that can lead to behavioral change, something that cannot be achieved by designing individual academic performance tests or questionnaires. It is precisely by connecting the data that we can see the bigger picture, and in that sense, we have high expectations for Saison Information Systems' future endeavors, which aim to contribute to areas such as the analysis of safe and effective Education data and programming education based on real-world challenges.

How are the concepts of data utilization and data integration perceived in Education settings?

Kamakura City, which has enacted the "Ordinance Aiming to Realize a Coexistent Society in Kamakura City" and has been selected as an SDG Future City, is promoting urban development centered on the idea of leaving no one behind, by clearly defining the direction of a "coexistent society" in which all people respect each other's personality, individuality, and diverse ways of life, and support one another. In terms of Education, in addition to promoting a change in mindset through Education training, there is a movement to develop a support system for children by placing Education counseling coordinators in each school and consolidating their knowledge.

Rather than using evidence-based data to conduct some special Education activity, there should be understanding for fostering a better environment through daily improvements in instruction for the well-being of children. For example, if a child is good at reading but has difficulty listening and cannot sit still during class, it becomes possible to support them while understanding their characteristics. We believe this will also help teachers, who are struggling in the daily Education field, to create an environment where they can support their students with a different approach than before.

Some municipalities, such as Shibuya Ward and Osaka City, are already working on new approaches by connecting data, but setting up such an environment from scratch requires a great deal of energy and cost. With the GIGA School Initiative, software is expected to evolve further, and the environment will change rapidly. It is not realistic for all 1700 municipalities to prepare a custom-made data integration platform. In that sense, a general-purpose cloud service that allows for flexible use of data integration platform will be in demand in Education industry.

For the children of the future

In the midst of rapidly changing social conditions, what do you think Education industry needs to be mindful of?

The most important thing to consider when thinking about Education is the awareness that children will not become adults based on the current society. Children will become adults and work in the society 20 years from now, so those of us involved in Education need to envision the society that will come 20 years from now and promote our daily Education activities with the skills that will be required in that society in mind. We must have a strong sense of crisis that if we Education based on past values, in a sense we will be robbing children of their future.

For example, while Toyota has built its ecosystem around internal combustion engines, startups like Tesla, which add autonomous driving features via wireless updates like replacing iOS, are creating disruptive innovations. With numerous startups emerging that have generated market capitalizations exceeding $1 billion in just a few years, even in areas like social media, smartphones, and space development, it's clear that a completely different world will unfold in 20 years. This society is called Society 5.0, and abilities such as memorizing things, following instructions, and solving drills by repeating simple tasks are precisely areas where AI and robots excel. My fundamental belief is that everyone involved in Education must consider what skills we need to equip children with in 20 years.

What specific efforts are you making to support the children of Kamakura City, who will be responsible for the future?

It is crucial to anticipate the demands of society 20 years from now and translate them into the form of school Education. We should realize proactive and interactive lessons where each child can be the main actor, in order to develop skills and attitudes toward learning that are in line with Society 5.0, and toward the goals of the SDGs. We believe that learning should be optimized according to each individual's abilities and interests. However, since school resources cannot change immediately in line with the speed of change, we believe it is necessary to realize diverse Education environments in collaboration with many people, including society. To achieve this, there are bottlenecks in tools, experience, and environment, so we need to remove them.

Within this context, the initiative I currently position as the core of my efforts is the "Kamakura School Collaboration Fund." By collaborating with universities, Education ventures, and NPOs associated with Kamakura, we have created an environment where students can access learning resources such as SDGs Education, entrepreneurship, and programming. However, because schools lack the connections and funding to collaborate with external organizations, some municipalities rely on volunteers to help during weekday afternoons. In such cases, while it helps solve the challenges faced by participating companies, it cannot be said to be a sustainable environment that can lead to solving the challenges faced by schools.

Therefore, by establishing a financial foundation for collaboration with society through the "Kamakura School Collaboration Fund," we aim to create an environment where we can collaborate with society in Education activities that meet social demands, such as Education that leads to children exploring their own aspirations and contributing value to society, or Education related to programming. Initially, there was a plan to secure funding from general revenue, but in the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kamakura City's tax revenue has fallen sharply, making it difficult to secure stable funding at all times. In order to create school Education activities that are open to society, we are taking steps to make the securing of funding open to society as well, by utilizing mechanisms such as hometown tax donations and conducting crowdfunding. It is precisely through Education created together with society that we envision the future of Education that Kamakura City wants to create, which will improve Education environment.