Educational theory suggests that student learning is enhanced when students pay attention to their own learning. In this paper, we describe a range of innovative techniques that we use to encourage students to reflect on the state of their knowledge, and on the process by which they acquire it. Examples include providing web-based arrangements for students to practice assessing material based on the criteria we use in marking, and allocating marks in assessment for reflective writing.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Yasukuni Shrine resonates with talismanic symbolism for both its critics and proponents and that is precisely why it is so controversial within Japan and between Japan and its neighbors. Controversy over Yasukuni is rooted in the broader historical debate about war memory, responsibility, and reconciliation. Competing narratives about this past send mixed signals to neighbors and prevent reconciliation. Despite Prime Minister Koizumi's six visits, Yasukuni is an awkward talisman and many Japanese, including conservatives, oppose these visits. The Shrine's image has been cast and no amount of artful repackaging will obscure its indelible links with Japan's discredited Imperial ideology and the costs it exacted. The Yasukuni dilemma involves shifting the focal point of official war remembrance away from the Shrine to a secular war memorial where people and officials can pay respect to the war dead free from political agendas and historical baggage.