Superpower

1
Education in Japan

• Superpower
• or
• A Nation at Risk
• Presented by Lee Ann Graddy
• Spring 2010

2
Japan

• Facts and Figures
• 4 major islands and over 4,000 smaller islands
• Primarily mountainous terrain
• Population 127,417,200
• Capital City Tokyo
• Currency Yen
• Language Japanese
• Religions Buddist and Shinto 85

3
Perceived Strengths ofJapanese Education

• Math and Science foundation of students
• Society committed to academic excellence
• Respect among students
• Teacher culture focused on designing and
  implementing lessons

4
Challenges Facing Japan

• Population decline
• Political Apathy
• Lack of will to reform
• Self-centered youth

5
Reform Efforts

• Reduced Intensity Reforms

• MEXT

• Teacher frustrations

• Parental fears

• Private School role

• Integrated Studies

6
Focus of Educational Reform

• Emphasis on Individuality - this is significantly
  different from the current system that emphasizes
  harmony and uniformity. They will focus on
  creativity and have more hands-on activities for
  children.
• Emphasis on Life Long Learning - this will bring
  about change in the current system from rote
  memorization to learning how to learn and higher
  level thinking.
• Emphasis on preparing students who can plan and
  cope with change and succeed in the information
  age and global society - there is political
  pressure for students to acquire the skills to
  compete internationally. There is a move to
  provide students with comprehensive international
  learning to help students understand other
  cultures, history, and values.

7
Crisis in Education?

• PISA League Table
• 2000 Literacy 2003 Math
  2006 -Science

Japan 8th
Japan 4th
Japan 3rd
U.S. 15th U.S.
24th U.S. 21st
Is the crisis in Japanese education real or a
ploy to incite panic within the nation?
8
Structure and Governance of Schools

• System is organized as follows
• 6 years of elementary school
• 3 years of junior high school
• 3 years of high school
• 4 years of college
• Compulsory education from ages 5-14
• 240 day school year with a 6 day school week
  approximately 30 days devoted to out of classroom
  experiences
• MEXT Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
  Science, and Technology regulates educational
  system

9
Japanese Culture

• The role of the family in education of children
  is vital
• The culture promoted within school focus on
• Cooperation
• Relationships
• Responsibility
• Following set rules and routines
• Values
• Punctuality
• Stewardship
• Loyalty
• Leadership subordinate roles
• Place a high value on economic success
• Confucius had a great impact on education in Japan

10
School Finance

• National Government bears one third to one
  half of the cost of education
• 4.7 of the GNP is allocated to education
• Schools across the nation are viewed as equal.
  There is little variation in quality of the
  school due to area socio-economic factors.

11
Public School Curriculum in Japan
12
A Day in the life of a Japanese student
13
Peace Curriculum
As part of the Peace Education Curriculum which
combines moral and political topics for Junior
and Senior High School students, a trip is made
to the Hiroshima Memorial. An inscription there
reads Hiroshima was the first city in the world
to suffer an atomic bombing. That terrible
experience gave us a new understanding of the
cruelty of war, the terror of nuclear weapons,
and the importance of peace. Until the day when
all people on Earth can live in peace, we will
continuously send messages of peace from
Hiroshima to the world.
14
Special Education

• There are 995 schools for handicapped
  individuals.
• 70 schools for the deaf
• 107 for the blind
• 790 for those with disabilities
• This number is not seen as adequate to serve the
  population of special needs in the country.

15
Diversity and Equity

• There is a disparity between the percentage of
  women and men who attend 2 year colleges.
  Approximately 95 of those attending are women.
  There is discrimination in the fields open to
  women and the level of education they are
  encouraged to pursue.
• Changing roles for women may help address
  problems with aging society. United Nations
  report stated that Japanese women are falling
  behind women in other countries in terms of being
  able to participate in economic and social
  activities.
• Although, Japanese women are some of the most
  highly educated in the world with 42.5 having
  some post secondary education.
• Most education settings are co-educational.

16
Teacher Methods and Training

• Strong Professional Learning Communities among
  teachers
• Teachers have 4 year degrees and are licensed
  through the government
• Role of schools and teachers shifting in
  discipline and motivation of students
• Teaching methods have shifted with reform
  efforts and movements, not a tremendous amount of
  technology seen in classrooms.
• Strive for democratic classrooms
• Moving away from skill and drill and are now
  expected to respond to individual students needs
  and encourage a zest for living.
• Called to be facilitators of learning rather than
  disseminators of knowledge
• Post war teaching methods were designed to
  organize and transmit large amounts of
  information to large groups and was very
  effective.

17
Class size averages 28 students

• to be honest we dont always teach what we are
  supposed to. We dont have enough time in the
  schedule to teach math, so we use that morning IS
  time for math. If we dont use that time for
  math, we have to find other times to teach math.
  
• (Mr. Aoyama, 7th grade teacher)
• the Course of study contents have changed and
  were reduced. The teachers have less material to
  cover but they arent sure how to deal with the
  changes. They have become rudderless, shifting
  from one direction to another. They are under
  pressure to raise students academic abilities,
  which creates work and pressure. (Mr. Sekine,
  9th grade teacher)

18
Higher Education in Japan

• Japan is the worlds largest source of study
  abroad students
• Both younger and older students (ages 12 50)
• Economic downturn and need for life long
  learning

• Growing dissatisfaction with challenges and
  outcomes of higher ed.
• Very little guidance in courses or career
  paths
• Attendance in class is poor and behavior is
  often disruptive
• There is a push to increase the number of foreign
  exchange students
• to aide in the development of Japan and
  international relations.
• The number grew from 10,000 in 1983 to
  64,000 in 2000.
• Rapid decline in birthrate has higher education
  scrambling for ways to fill
• future seats and find financial security.

19

Is American education following the same
path? NCLB HIGH STAKES TESTING COMMON CORE
CURRICULUM
20
References

• Beauchamp, E.R. (2003). Comparative Education
  Reader. New York, New York
• RoutledgeFalmer.
• Bjork, C. (2005, April). Education reform in
  Japan competing visions for the future.
• Phi Delta Kappan, 619-626.
• Bjork, C. (2009). Local implementation of
  Japans integrated studies reform a
• preliminary analysis of efforts of decentralize
  the curriculum. Comparative
• Education, 45(1), 23-44.
• Deasy, R.J. (1986, September). Education in
  Japan surprising lessons. Educational
• Leadership, 38.
• Education in Japan. Retrieved March 16, 2010,
  from http//www.education-in-
• japan.info.
• Education System in Japan Facts and Details.
  Retrieved March, 20, 2010, from
• http//factsanddetails.com/japan.
• Gainey, P., Curtis, A. (2002). The Japanese
  education system globalization and
• international education. Japanese Studies,
  22(2), 153-167.
• Kai, K. (2009). The modification and adaptation
  of Montessori education in Japan.
• The International Journal of Learning, 16(7),
  667-676.

21
References

• Phillips, M. (2007, May). Backwards into the
  future again. Phi Delta Kappan, 712-
• 714.
• Schwartz, S. (2007, April). Educating the
  heart. Educational Leadership, 76-78.
• Takayamam, K. (2007, November). A nation at
  risk crosses the Pacific transnational
• borrowing of the U.S. crisis discourse in the
  debate on education reform in Japan.
• Comparative Education Review, 423-446.
• Web Japan. Japan Fact Sheet Education.
  Retrieved March 20, 2010, from http//web-
• japan.org/
• Wieczorek, C.C. (2008, Winter). Comparative
  analysis of educational systems of
• American and Japanese schools views and
  visions. Educational Horizons, 99-
• 111.
• Willis, D.B., Satoshi, Y., Rappleye, J.
  (2008). Frontiers of education Japan as
  Global Model or Nation at Risk?,
  International Review of Education, 54, 493-
• 515.