I’m from the western state of Oregon in America. I was born in a small, high-desert town called Bend, but consider the Willamette Valley city of Eugene, Oregon to be my hometown as I spent most of my youth there. After duty in the US Air Force in the states of Texas and Idaho, I returned to my hometown to attend the University of Oregon (UO) where I graduated with a BA in English Literature and a desire to become a teacher. I taught undergraduate writing at the UO for two years while doing graduate studies before moving to Japan in 1988.

My interest in learner perceptions and their impact on engagement and motivation began several years ago with my design of an experimental constructivist-based class activity that put students in control of generating topics and content that other students would use for learning material. The markedly positive student responses to what turned out to be a relatively challenging activity for the students startled me. Student feedback revealed that various aspects of the task allowed them to develop a powerful sense of personal identification and satisfaction with their actions (and the content they developed), and that this in turn influenced their motivation to complete the task—more for their own sake than simply for the grade. This intriguing realization inspired me to conduct more in-depth research into such authentic learning tasks and their possible effects, which eventually culminated in my PhD dissertation on the effects that authentic learning environments (ALEs) can have on Japanese learner perceptions and engagement.

Very briefly, an authentic learning environment is a constructivist-based pedagogical approach. Such learning environments are designed to promote the creation of meaning through interaction. Learners are challenged to explore, collaborate, and meaningfully construct concepts and relationships in contexts that involve real-world problems that are relevant to them. The knowledge that the learners already possess, their perceptions, beliefs, and values, as well as the sociocultural context in which the learning takes place, all affect the learning and the meaning that is created. An essential feature of ALEs is that they are structured to satisfy three essential human needs for competency, autonomy, and relatedness, which when fulfilled nourish the development of intrinsic motivation, a behavior necessary for the development of optimal learning and well being.

ALEs are structured differently than most traditional Japanese secondary learning environments (SLEs). Each of these learning environments emphasizes the development of cognitive functions and skill sets for different purposes, with ALEs emphasizing critical thinking and real-world problem-solving skills. Problems can and do occur when learners lacking extended exposure to such skill development enter university and encounter authentic learning tasks. My research has shown that many transitioning learners find themselves ill-prepared to function proficiently when faced with authentic learning tasks, with many finding themselves struggling to adapt to them on their own. Such unsupported students run the risk of becoming demotivated or of developing a sense of learned helplessness in the face of tasks they feel they have no chance of completing satisfactorily, giving up before they even start. My ongoing research is concerned with understanding and developing ways that educators can help such learners adapt to authentic tasks and learning environments at university, both here and abroad, as well as in their daily lives. In a nutshell, I am trying to help learners develop adaptive functioning, a skill that allows them the ability to bridge these two learning environments and make the most of them, and of themselves.

Media and technology comprise another area of educational research that fascinates me. These two phenomena have always played a role in shaping modern life, but since the relatively recent advent of the Internet and the ever-growing variety of devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, wearable technology, computers) that make use of its potential for connection and information sharing, it is more important than ever before to understand how they are influencing both our academic and everyday lives.

I first became interested in the impact of modern-day media and technology on human culture after being introduced to the works of René Girard, a French historian, literary critic and social philosopher whose research is concerned with the role that mimesis—more specifically, the mimetic character of desire—plays in the development of human culture. In very simplified terms, Girard theorized that humans borrow their desires from others, that their desire for a certain object is always provoked by the desire of another person for this same object. My initial research utilizing Girard’s theories investigated how mimetic desire in modern life in Japan—specifically through the ubiquitous bombardment of information from media and tech-enabled 24/7 interconnectivity—is influencing the various way in which humans think and approach issues in their lives. This initial research, developed with my colleague Matthew A. Taylor, culminated in the article, Drowning in Desire: Media and Mediation in Contemporary Japan, which was included in a book focused on the influences of mimetic desire entitled Passions in Economy, Politics, and the Media.

I teach a variety of courses, Writing for Specific Purposes, Academic Writing and Presentation, Creative Writing, American Culture and Society, English and Mass Media, and a Seminar which merges English skills development with an extended inquiry into the diversity of learning environments and their influences on motivation.

I try to structure each of my courses so that students are able to utilize all four English skills in an autonomously collaborative manner (self-regulated collaboration with their peers and their teacher). I’ve found that when learners are given the chance to autonomously develop personal, practical reasons for their competency development, their satisfaction with their engagement and skills and knowledge development increases. With this comes a sense of self-esteem and self-efficacy that continues to feed their desire to develop themselves. I believe that grades alone as motivators cannot adequately supply these essential elements for optimal, enjoyable learning to occur. Thus, while I guide the structural English components of their learning, students in all of my courses are strongly encouraged to choose and explore topics that are of personal, practical value to their present and future lives.

I believe that the best learning happens when learners are interested in and enjoying what they are learning. My students at NUFS are developing into young adults. They are curious. They want to learn to develop and express their opinions about many topics in both Japanese and English. They want to learn how to communicate with others. I feel that by helping them challenge themselves to adapt to new ways of thinking and learning and communicating that I am facilitating their exciting ambition of becoming more well-rounded and resilient citizens of Japan and the world, global citizens.