Published papers

In this paper, we present 27 patterns from Academic Writing Patterns, along with example applications within a community of student researchers and discuss its results. Academic Writing Patterns is a pattern language for writing creative academic research papers. It was created based on three sources: past archived dialogue about writing research papers, mining dialogue with Takashi Iba who is a researcher and professor that has written and guided various research papers, as well as books on writing papers and logical writing. We determined and grasped the essence of important practices and how to practice them, compiled similar practices, and created 27 patterns. The patterns are divided into three categories: BUILDING A RESEARCH, SHAPING LOGICAL CONSTRUCTS, and CREATING EXPRESSIONS FOR OTHERS. Each category is made up of three groups including: REINTERPRET THE RESEARCH, EXPLORE THE CORE OF THE RESEARCH RESULTS, OPEN UP AND CONNECT TO THE FUTURE, DEFINE THE WHOLE, DESIGN THE FLOW, BUILD THOROUGH PARAGRAPHS, DEVELOP CLEAR SENTENCES, BEAUTIFULLY ARRANGE FIGURES AND TABLES, and FINALIZATION AND COMPLETION. After the two workshops where the patterns were applied, the experience charts and survey responses give insight to the transformative impact of these patterns, facilitating enhanced comprehension and skills of composing creative academic papers among the students.

This report summarizes the focus group of the CheriSharing Workshop that we conducted at EuroPLoP 2023. “CheriSharing” is a concept we have developed to provide community members an opportunity to “share” the positive aspects or favorite parts in dialogue and “cherish” them with fellow members. In this focus group, with EuroPLoP as the theme, conference participants shared their experiences and sentiments, expressing the goodness of EuroPLoP for each of them. Seventeen participants, not including the author, were divided into two groups of six and one group of five. In the workshop, participants first used topic cards to share specific content, episodes, and memories from the EuroPLoP community. Afterwards, each participant listed three things that they find captivating about the community and shared them with the others. In this report, we also introduce some of the goodness of the community written by participants. Survey results indicate that the workshop evoked a profound emotional experience among attendees.

The purpose of this paper is to report on how to design a lesson for junior high school students using the pattern language [1] of human actions as a case study of the Period of Integrated Study. This practice was conducted for 27 second-year students of Nichihara Junior High School in Tsuwano Town, Shimane Prefecture, Japan, as pre-post studying for their school trip in November 2021. The school trip involves learning about local history and culture in groups, and then actually explore the area. The lessons were held in five times, using pattern language to realize proactive, interactive and authentic learning which is emphasized in the new curriculum [2]. In the first lesson, the students worked to think of solutions to problems that might occur during the school trip, using patterns. The pattern selection activity here is designed using the pattern language remix method proposed by Douglas Schuler [3, 4]. In the second and third lessons, students thought of eight patterns that they would like to practice during the school trip, and then discussed and decided on eight patterns that they would like to cherish as a team. In the fourth lesson, after the school trip, the students reflected on their behavior during the school trip, using mock-up papers, sticky notes, and the patterns they had chosen in their prior study. In the fifth lesson, the whole class reviewed their behavior and chose patterns that they would like to be aware of in their daily school life. This case shows that the use of pattern language in the Period of Integrated Study can be one approach to achieving proactive, interactive and authentic learning: express what the students value in the process of choosing patterns, exchange ideas among classmates and reflect on their actions and learnings during the school trip. From student and teacher feedback, the use of pattern cards is effective in making it easier for students who are not good at speaking to participate in dialogue activities while including playful elements in the learning process and using visual information such as illustrations. In addition, when using pattern language for the first time, there is a need to get used to it by using the pattern cards several times in several ways.

In this paper, we present pattern language as a tool for assisting employees in putting corporate values into practice, taking the pattern language for practicing Rakuten Group’s corporate values as an example. The aim of this research is to help employees to link daily practices to the values and to provide clues for embodying it by using pattern language. As the first example, we created a pattern language for practicing “Rakuten Shugi,” the corporate values of Rakuten Group, Inc. Rakuten Shugi consists of 10 concepts, five of them are “Brand Concepts” and the others are “Five Principles for Success,” and we created three patterns for each concept. This pattern language, named “Rakuten Shugi Practice Patterns,” was created from mining the experiences of 22 employees who embodied Rakuten Shugi and have achieved great results, as well as Masatada Kobayashi, one of the co-founders of Rakuten. In this paper, we introduce five patterns for practicing the Brand Concepts: Connecting to the Mission, Daily Behavior, Seeds of Opportunity, Breaking it Down, and How it All Began. The paper will conclude with comments from employees on this pattern language.

This paper introduces some patterns of Music Composition Patterns: A Pattern Language for Touching Music. This pattern language is the verbalized and systematized rules of music design hidden in the music of Takashi Watanabe, a famous Japanese film music composer (and one of the authors of this paper). It consists of 27 patterns, each of which describes a design feature or rule that appears repeatedly in his music. This paper covers 7 patterns from this pattern language: Regular Repetition, Small Alteration, Basic Configuration, Discernible Change, Guide to Finish, Enrich Inner Parts, Weight Balance of the Sound. In addition, this paper describes the analysis of two musical pieces using patterns: "Memory Switch"by Takashi Watanabe and "Sonata for Horn, Trumpet and Trombone"by Francis Poulenc. As a result, it became clear that the design rules that were found in the music by Mr. Watanabe could also be seen in the music created by other composers. It is expected that the results of this research can be used in the education of music creation and as a reference for beginners in composition.

In this paper, we introduce the core pattern and 12 patterns for CREATIVE LIVING in the Natural & Creative Living Patterns. Natural & Creative Patterns, as a whole, consists of 37 patterns with the purpose to help people make their daily lives more human and comfortable by bringing out their everyday creativity, which is classified into three categories: NATURAL LIVING, CREATIVE LIVING and HEALTHY LIVING. Of three categories, this paper focuses on patterns for CREATIVE LIVING. The patterns were developed through mining dialogues with Daisuke Yosumi, Arisa Kamada and Takashi Iba, who are practicing natural & creative life in their own way. Through the mining dialogue, we got the following findings that are important for CREATIVE LIVING: First, establishing CREATING ENVIRONMENT is important to have a life which one can bring out his/her creativity in daily life; Second, one's own CYCLE OF A DAY will be helpful to keep being creative; Third, arranging one's lifestyle FOR DEEPER THOUGHTS AND CREATIVITY would mature what he/she is coming up with and realize that; In order to have a creative living, plan one's LIFE TO LIVE CREATIVELY and take action in bigger scale. With the purpose to adopt the findings above in everyday life, this paper presents the core pattern, Natural & Creative Life, and the following 12 patterns for CREATIVE LIVING: Creativity Space, Appointment with Yourself, Blocking Out Noise, Creative Work in the Mornings, Time to Zone Out, Sleep for A Step Up, Investment in Experiences, Seeds for Idea, Creative Mates, Minimum Cost of Living, Long Term Effort and Periodic Change of Life.

In this paper, the core pattern and 12 patterns for LINKING SEPARATE WORLDS from Online Education Patterns are presented. Online Education Patterns consists of 37 patterns for creating great online classes. Instead of mimicking the ways of teaching in a real classroom to online, the most important thing to keep in mind is Redesigning for Online Learning, and this can be realized by LINKING SEPARATE WORLDS, CREATING A NEW FORM OF LEARNING and BUILDING A SENSE OF BELONGING. This paper focuses on patterns for LINKING SEPARATE WORLDS, which are patterns to link students and teachers who can feel physically and mentally distant as they participate in online classes remotely. By mining the experiences of 25 teachers who have already made efforts to initiate great online learning at university, high school, junior high school, and elementary school, we came to the following findings; Think of online classes as a VISUAL RADIO where students are listeners who are listening from far away; In order to make the class more attractive, DRAWING STUDENTS INTO THE CLASSROOM ATMOSPHERE helps them switch their focus from daily life activities at home to the class in front of them; Although students and teachers are distant, FEELING EACH OTHER'S PRESENCE will make everyone feel that they are taking the class together; Creating opportunities for INTERACTION BETWEEN STUDENTS can then further link students together as well as deepen their learning. To realize the above, this paper presents the following 13 patterns: Redesigning for Online Learning, Radio Host Spirit, Asynchronous Interaction, Operation Team, Inviting Opening, Sharing Excitement, Reaction Members, Encouraging Cameras On, Written Voices, Priming Water for Chat Flow, Casual Talk Time, Conversation Starter, and Same Members.

In this paper, we present the 12 patterns for BUILDING A SENSE OF BELONGING from the Online Education Patterns. Online Education Patterns is a pattern language for teachers to become creative in designing online classes. It is created based on Mining Interviews with 25 teachers who were doing unique practices or were trying to improve their online classes with their own ingenuity. We determined and grasped the essence of important practices and how they are practiced, compiled similarities, and created 37 patterns. There are one core pattern and 36 patterns divided into three categories: LINKING SEPARATE WORLDS, CREATING A NEW FORM OF LEARNING, and BUILDING A SENSE OF BELONGING. This paper focuses on the 12 patterns in the BUILDING A SENSE OF BELONGING category. This category helps teachers build classes that foster students’ relationships and a sense of community, by CREATING A COMFORTABLE PLACE TOGETHER, SUPPORTING STUDENTS’ CONNECTIONS, CREATING A MEMORABLE SENSE OF UNITY, and creating a VIRTUAL SENSE OF BELONGING. The patterns are as follows: A Remark for Each, Frequently Incorporating Voices, Class Designers, Chit-Chat Closing, Platform for Connection, Small Comfort Zone, Festive Mode, Something Special, Capturing Lively Moments, Drop by Study Hall, Remote Office Hours, and Virtual Campus. According to the students’ responses to classes that used these patterns, it was found that these patterns helped students feel a sense of belonging.

In this paper, we introduce”Pattern Coins,” a medium for practice-gifting, and examine the effects on members and the community through a demonstration experiment. Pattern Coins are coin-like objects displaying a pattern name, illustration, and solution. These coins aim to encourage members to incorporate specific patterns into their practices. Members can only give Pattern Coins to others after practicing the depicted pattern. Additionally, they must share their experience when handing it over. Since Pattern Coins are passed from member to member and induce practices, it appears as though the practice itself is gifted. Therefore, Pattern Coins can be considered a medium for practice gifting. To examine if this idea works in reality, the first demonstration experiment took place in Iba Laboratory at Keio University from December 2022 to January 2023. The result of this experiment showed that Pattern Coins induce chains of practices, and it also showed that Pattern Coins strengthen ties within the community. This paper delves into the introduction of Pattern Coins to the community and presents both qualitative and quantitative findings from the experiment. Based on Marcel Mauss’s book, The Gift, we posit that Pattern Coins serve as a medium for “practice gifting.” These coins inherently carry what he called “soul” imparted by the giver; thereby instilling a sense of obligation to perpetuate further act of gifting.

In this paper, we introduce a method of Pattern Language Remix to apply and support beyond social and cultural backgrounds. We present a case study wherein it has been used to support Filipino youth attending vocational training schools in the Philippines. Pattern Language Remix is one approach that utilizes existing pattern language previously created and recombines it for a different objective. In this study, the Pattern Language Remix was created mainly by the local teachers with the objective of helping Filipino youth facing a hard situation in their life, to identify and take action on their work and life goals. Using the remix, several workshops were held for students attending the vocational school in Mindanao to think about their own future and what kind of practices they should actually implement, despite their difficulties. The results from the workshop suggest that utilizing pattern language has potential as a support method to encourage Filipino youth to take action and motivate themselves toward their future goals and dreams. In addition, we demonstrated the importance of the process in which individuals select patterns that one considers important in their own situation, in relation to the “Capability Approach” advocated by Amartya Sen, a development economist and philosopher. It was suggested that the Pattern Language Remix method used here could be applied not only in the Philippines but also in other contexts as an internal empowerment, incorporating the practitioners’ own perspectives.

This paper introduces a method to analyze qualitative data on practices using pattern language, termed practice coding with a pattern language. This approach is proposed as an exploration of the potential of employing pattern language as a research tool. The idea of coding with patterns is inspired by the well-known coding method in social science qualitative research, and this paper positions it as an approach of deductive coding. Two distinct analytical approaches to coding practices with patterns are identified: the tree-viewing approach, which involves analyzing each piece of data about practices individually during coding, and the forest-viewing approach, which offers a comprehensive analysis of the entire dataset based on the results of coding. Particularly, the significance of this proposal lies in the potential of the latter approach to transform qualitative data on practices into a format conducive to quantitative analysis through coding with patterns. The latter part of the paper details the specific steps of practice coding with a pattern language and presents a case study involving coding and analysis using a pattern language for value-creation marketing. Lastly, this paper concludes that proposed method offers unique insights and expresses expectations for its wider applications in qualitative research, particularly looking forward to using pattern language as a potent research tool.

In this paper, we present principles of pattern illustration design and summaries of subsequent pattern seeds. Pattern illustration is a visual expression to convey the core idea of a pattern symbolically, which is shown in combination with its pattern name. Although many patterns for drawing pattern illustration have been proposed, this paper focuses more on fundamental principles of pattern illustration design. The principles were extracted by analyzing more than 600 pattern illustrations for 19 pattern languages in various domains, which we have been creating for the past decade. Our discoveries on design principles of pattern illustration are grouped into the following 12 principles: (1) Space that has Depth; (2) Characters with a Mind and Body; (3) Interactions on the Spot; (4) Time Flow from Left to Right; (5) Symbolic Object for Abstract Things; (6) Visible Lines for Clusters and Connection; (7) The Effect Given by Things Created; (8) Object-like Speech Bubbles; (9) Visual Expressions in Comics; (10) Abbreviation for Simplicity; (11) Evolving Stories from Patterns; and (12) A Magical Touch for Charms. In this paper, we explain these principles, the subsequent pattern seeds, and examples from our pattern languages.

This focus group report summarizes about The Pattern Coin Trial that was carried out throughout the four days of the EuroPLoP conference with an involvement of all the members, for their conference experience to be fruitful and fulfilling. Pattern Coins are small circular objects that were designed and created as an approach that boosts good practices within a community. Since members gifts Pattern Coins as an encouragement to practice a pattern so that a member who received the Pattern Coin could practice a pattern in their situation, they are a media of practice-gifting. The idea of practice-gifting was based on the theory The Gift by an anthropologist and sociologist, Marcel Mauss. The Pattern Coin Trial was ongoing throughout the conference, and on the last day, a session was held, in which participants discussed about their Pattern Coin experience. In this session, a survey was also taken, which suggested that Pattern Coins were able to promote practice within the EuroPLoP community. In the beginning of this trial, all participants got a set of seven Pattern Coins, and were suggested to carry around them every time during the conference until the last day. At the end of the trial, the participants discussed about the conference days with their Pattern Coins, and a survey was taken, asking the participants what they felt about the Pattern Coin when they used them. The use of Pattern Coins in the community was once conducted in Iba Takashi Lab, which was also published as the EuroPLoP 2023 paper. This focus group, The Pattern Coin Trial in EuroPLoP 2023 is a subsequent case study on the use of Pattern Coins.