Japanese Teaching Methods for U.S.

[Mulboyne]

NY Times: Why the United States Should Look to Japan for Better Schools (Registration required)
The United States will become a second-rate economic power unless it can match the educational performance of its rivals abroad...Japan...stands light years ahead of us in international comparisons. Americans tend to roll their eyes when researchers raise the Japanese comparison. The most common response is that Japanese culture is "nothing like ours." Nevertheless, the Japanese system has features that could be fruitfully imitated here...Japanese...teachers work cooperatively and intensively to improve their methods...In addition to helping novices, this system builds a publicly accessible body of knowledge about what works in the classroom...In America, by contrast, novice teachers are often presumed competent on Day One...more...

[canman]

Unfortunately the Japanese test scores are also dropping, and they have also started to dumb down their curriculum. With the new self study program, education has turned out to be a joke in some schools as the teachers have no idea what they are suppossed to be teaching.
While I dont disagree that there are merits to the Japanese system, and I feel that teachers unions back home are too strong, I hope they take a close look and only choose the best aspects of the Japanese system and not the rote memory and other mindless activities students have to endure here.

[Big Booger]

Oh sure, passing children who just show up to school... that's a real strength of Japanese education.

Little tards who fail every course up until high school can continue to pass regardless of their poor performance.

Japanese...teachers work cooperatively and intensively to improve their methods

You've got to be shitting me....

And they go on to say this:

in the Japanese teacher-development strategy in which teachers work cooperatively and intensively to improve their methods. This process, known as "lesson study," allows teachers to revise and refine lessons that are then shared with others, sometimes through video and sometimes at conventions. In addition to helping novices, this system builds a publicly accessible body of knowledge about what works in the classroom.

I have been to several of these conventions, and in fact have observed "teacher's lessons" in action...

And then afterward, I have sat around in discussions while other more senior teachers rip apart the lesson and degrade the individual.

And then there is this:

There are two other things that set this country apart from its high-performing peers abroad. One is the American sense that teaching is a skill that people come by naturally. We also have a curriculum that varies widely by region. The countries that are leaving us behind in math and science decide at the national level what students should learn and when. The schools are typically overseen by ministries of education that spend a great deal of time on what might be called educational quality control.

Oh, I am sure that would go over well in the US, a national curriculum... everyone doing the same fucking thing at the same fucking time, from the same fucking books.

If I wanted a communistically based education I'd move to Japan.

What real skills does Japan teach their students? What level of rention do they boast?

I have to admit, the students' scores are high, but is that all we value in education? Innovation, creativity and other forms of learning are, at least in my opinion, more important than fact and figure rote memorization.

Did they stop to think that maybe Japanese teachers are paid more and thus attract more competent people? (depends on what you call competent)... Did they take into account that teachers get huge bonuses 2-3 times a year? How about very low interest loans for home purchasing? Or national health care, and so on??

Perhaps offering more attractive compensation packages to attract more teachers who are qualified might improve the standard all around.

But when you are faced with a mountain of debt out of college, which job are you going to take a low wage, teacher position, or a high salary private sector position?

It's simple to say we should imitate the Japanese way of teaching, but I think there are many factors that determine how well society teaches it's children.

And I believe the US could benefit greatly from peer reviews of teachers, a checks and balances system to see that teachers are competent, and continued teacher training should be the standard....

The No Child Left Behind Act, is just hollow legislation unless substantial changes are made to how teachers are paid, how they are trained, and the resources available to them. When teachers have to buy their own materials like glue, scissors, and paper to teach a course, something is seriously screwed up.

[puargs]

Ok yeah, so first, I do agree with the article's view that America's school systems should improve. However, Japan certainly is *not* the place to look at. I have never seen anyone work harder to learn absolutely nothing. All of my college transfer student buds from Japan remember just as little (that is to say, almost nothing) as American students from their primary-koukou schooling. Besides jiken jigoku, most Japanese students are lazier than their American counterparts. This is another one of those "reporter 'discovers' " Japan bullshit stories.

Boog- I totally agree with you on the No Child Left Behind thing. My mother is still a teacher in the public schools in America, and she is getting seriously boned by that crock of shit. She's in charge of autistic kids, and they fall under the same damn clause in that legislation- if the disabled kids aren't up to snuff, her school district doesn't get money. WTF is that garbage? Extending already over-extended resources on kids that CAN'T keep up with the curriculum, and then PUNISHING the teachers when they in turn are UNABLE to teach them?

Not to mention the fact that 90% of school problems aren't the teacher's fault in the first place, it's all on the parents. If the parents aren't involved, that kid won't give two shits about where he's headed anyway, and the teacher won't be able to motivate them at all in the long run. Enough hollywood bullshit where if the teacher is good enough, he/she can magically motivate all students to do their work and keep up. There's a reason there's a curve- some kids fail, others succeed. Who else is gonna be a janitor? Parents need to motivate the kids, not the teachers, otherwise their kids are gonna wind up with the shit jobs.