My name is Taro Urashima (浦島太郎).
My specialization is theoretical physics but I also teach a variety of other subjects, particularly mathematics (arithmetic), chemistry and English.
After having wandered abroad as a researcher, I ended up on a coast of my home country, where I settled and started my teaching career at a local state university.
With the magical “Tamate box (玉手箱)” sealed firmly, I had been continually mistaken for a student, untill rather close to my retirement. The magical smoke has almost leaked out of the box by now; I am now enjoying my study life with young folks.
★ Extensive teaching careerI have been teaching in one form or another for over 50 years. During my student years, I worked as an academic tutor at a major prep school and also helped many pupils on a private basis. While I was working at the university I was engaged in my research activity, but I also devoted myself to teaching. Many of my diploma and graduate students are making fine careers, either in the academic field or in the industry.
★ Diverse teachingThe lessons I offer on Cafetalk covers a wide range, accepting all ages of students, from elementary schools to universities. The lessons are adjusted to the individual needs.
Specialized lessons are also organized for those who are attending to schools abroad or to internaional schools in Japan.
★ Teaching policy I consider teaching & learning to be the basis of human communication. To me teaching is of the same kind as performing collaborative research; the purpose is to reach mutual understanding.
Japanese traditional education tends to focus on making children get used to use knowledges, rather than understand them. Some teachers focus on rather mechanical trainings, saying that one can scoop water even with a colander by accumulating droplets.
That way one can hardly understand things properly. A real understanding is attained only through good mutual communications.
Over time, learning will become progressively more interesting and efficient.
★ To prospective students, especially those preparing for universityDuring entrance exams, you will have to solve problems on your own. Trying to memorize how to solve them will not help you acquire this ability.
Especially in science-related subjects, it is important to have a solid understanding of underlying concepts and to know the principles of how things work. When you are following someone's explanation on a certain issue, you will try to confirm carefully that the explanation is logically correct. But a logical confirmation is not a real understanding. If you find it difficult after a few days to reproduce what you have learned, it is not because you have forgotten, but simply because you had not yet got it.
Many of the lessons I offer are concerned about this point. You can read more about it in my lesson description for “数学演習 (Practice in Mathematics).”
★ Good fascilities for online learningI still enjoy collaborating online with young researchers. My private lab is equipped with a set of computing fascilities (PC cluster) connected to a high-vision camera, as well as a sizable blackboard, all of which we share online while I conduct online seminars. This is also an ideal environment for online lessons.
In order to take advantage of this environment, you are kindly asked to use a suitable monitor during the lessons for a sufficient quality of the blackboard view (I recommend having a monitor at least the size of an iPad). I offer lessons via Skype or Zoom, but Skype has a higher resolution which enables you to identify even the smallest subscripts attached to the mathematical symbols written on the blackboard.
★ Further informations about academic career
・Graduated from
Komaba Senior High School, Tsukuba University
・Graduated from
Tokyo Institute of Technology, Faculty of Science
・Research Fellow,
Japan Society for Promotion of Science
・Yukawa-Foundation Research Fellow,
Institute for Fundamental Physics, Kyoto University
・Senior Research Fellow,
Department of Mathematics and Physics, University of East Anglia, U.K.
・Visiting Research Fellow,
Department of Physics, University of Neuchatel, Switzerland
・Visiting Professor,
Department of Physics, Queen’s University, Canada【 Cafetalk Translation / February 2023 】
Please note that this profile has been translated by Cafetalk for easier understanding.
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