Japan

Well, I'm packed up and ready to check out of the New Otani Hotel to head back to the USA. Incidentally, Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State, arrived at the hotel last night. As the nuclear arms situation with North Korea continues to become more unstable, it's definitely time to head home.

At any rate, I want to thank one of the high school teachers, Kate, who teaches Mass Communications at her high school in Virginia, for graciously sharing this video podcast with the students of Mabry. The video is a 6 minute overview of our visit in Japan. Enjoy!

Posted by Dr. Tyson at 8:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

We arrived at Daisan (which means 3rd) Middle School just before school started. Daisan Middle School is a small school compared to Mabry, about 250 students compared to Mabry's 850. The school consists of two 7th grade classes (which in Japan is called 1st grade of Lower Secondary), two 8th grade classes (2nd grade), and three 9th grade classes (3rd grade). All of the students in Japan from middle school (lower secondary) through high school (secondary) wear a school uniform.

When homeroom began, all of the students sat down and began 20 minutes of silent reading time. What was amazing about this was that no teachers were in the rooms, and no bells rang. The students just automatically paid attention to the clock and began reading as they do every day at that time. The teachers were all in their morning staff meeting. The principal later told me that he wants students to be self-directed, self-disciplined, and always time conscious.

Our visit began with a presentation of general information about their school. Each of the teachers introduced themselves in English, telling us what grade and subject they taught. We then introduced ourselves in Japanese*, and explained our roles in our respective schools around the United States. The teachers then went on to their classes, and the principal provided us with a detailed overview of Daisan Middle School.

We then walked around to each of the classes to observe. Most of the instruction was didactic, with the teacher standing in front of the class of students following along, taking notes, listening, sometimes underlining words in their textbooks, which, unlike the United States, the students all own themselves.

In Art class the students were painting. In chorus the students were singing. In science class the teacher brought groups of students up to see the effects of sound waves from a sounding fork when it was submerged in water--the exact same type of activity we do in our science classes at Mabry.

I spoke with Masa, one of the two 7th grade homeroom teachers about having his students participate in the 7th grade Japan blogging project with us at Mabry. Masa speaks English fluently. When I shot this picture of him, he made this crazy, "serious" pose to show his sense of humor. He teaches his 7th grade students the English language.

Probably in his early thirties, Masa participated in "Up with People" as a dancer traveling all over the world performing. He lived in Denver, Colorado, for one year, staying in about 10 different American families homes. His first career in Japan was that of an editor in Tokyo. He and his wife moved to Arao when he was assigned as a teacher at Daisan Middle School.

He asked if our students were really interested in learning about Japan, and I assured him that we are, as our 7th graders study Japan. He was eager for his students to participate in this learning project. At lunch time, I ate with his lunch class. All of the students in Japan eat in their homeroom classroom.

At lunch time he selected several students to introduced themselves and tell a little about themselves in English while I recorded them on the video iPod. I took a picture of each of the students who were brave enough to have their English introductions recorded and will include it as a podcast in a later post. Masa hopes that the school computers will be able to get to our blog. Japanese schools, like American schools, often restrict access to blogging sites.

That afternoon several teachers and I had the opportunity to speak with Masa about what it is like to be a teacher in Japan. We were all fascinated. The education profession in Japan is considerably different than that in the United States. But while significant differences exist, the students in Japan are very much like the students in the United States. People are pretty much the same everywhere. I'll include information about schools and other information about eduation in another post about teaching.

Perhaps most amazing to me was watching "cleaning time." For 30 minutes every day every single student cleans an assigned area of the school at every grade level (from first grade in elementary through the 3rd grade of secondary school [12th grade]!) And I must make sure you understand that the students take wash cloths and literally scrub every single inch of the floors and the bathrooms, fixtures and all! They weed the school grounds. They sweep. The teachers and even the principal join in daily cleaning time. Japanese schools generally do not have custodians. The Japanese are extremely conscious about cleanliness.

* "Ohayo gozaimasu. Watashiwa Georgia no, Tyson des."

Posted by Dr. Tyson at 4:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I thoroughly enjoyed visiting Arao City Daiichi (which means First) Elementary School (grades 1 through 6 in Japan). The children were full of energy and the excitement of learning. Educators from the USA are treated like rock stars. The children ran up to us, hugging on us, wanting our autographs, posing for pictures, screaming with delight. I will post a lot more information in this post later, but below you will find a link to a photo album of about 50 pictures of the children at the school. Enjoy.

(Click to visit the photo album)

Posted by Dr. Tyson at 2:34 AM | Permalink

Dr. Tsutomu Kimura, Former President of Tokyo Institute of Technology and currently the President of the National Institution for Academic Degrees: responsible for the national accreditation of teachers and policy-making in education

Presented below are some points of interest from Dr. Kirmura's presentation slides. This information was, by and large, not in his actual presentation, which provided a fascinating overview of education in Japan, often running contrary to our perceptions of Japan's schools. The presentation slides themselves will be uploaded when I return to the USA and can scan them.

Education Reform in Japan
• Going on at all levels
• Kindergarten (4 day nursing school) participation is at about 90% for day care
• System in place for about 60 years
• Elementary school at age 6 through age 12
• Lower secondary schools 12 - 15
• Upper secondary schools 15 - 18 (more than 98% go to secondary schools)
• University (including 2 year junior colleges: more than 50% of Japanese youth participate)

The "massification" of higher education is an effort to increase participation in higher education and is going on all over the world.

Japan has a highly centralized educational administration, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and technology (MEXT). MEXT is designed to maintain efficiency and high standards. Government support of teacher salaries has been reduced last year from 50% to 33% to give more control to local authority. Present teacher certification is for life but is about to change to a 10 year renewable process. Japan has 750 universities, 89 of which are state universities under the authority of MEXT.

Illiteracy is considered a disgrace and 100% of Japanese are literate.

However, Japanese children have "serious problems:" excessive competition for university entrance examinations, the existence of "crammies," and deterioration of academic performance. Japanese children have large amounts of knowledge but lack ability to learn and think by themselves and apply their knowledge. They are too focused on the group and lack individual motivation.

Additionally, Japanese children are experiencing a rise in school violence and bullying which is markedly higher in their lower secondary schools (grades 7, 8 , and 9). They demonstrate an insufficient level o kindness to others, respect for life and human rights. The children are excessively competitive on exams, have an underdeveloped moral sense, and a delayed development of independence. The Central Council for Education was re-instated in 1995 to begin to deal with these issues.

"While Japanese have large amounts of knowledge, our students lack ability to learn and think by themselves. Kindness to others, respect for life and human rights are not sufficiently fostered."

Our sense of community before the war was high, but the Japanese are losing their sense of community, especially in the large cities.

"Room to grow" and "zest for living" have both become important key words for educational reform in Japan.

The survey for Social Ethics of High School Students was a survey for students in Japan, the USA, and China, asking if they thought the listed activity was bad. The results are not what Americans would probably think. I will post the results after Mabry students have had an opportunity to take the survey.

The Disciplining by Parents survey (of students from Japan, Korea, USA, UK and Germany) was "Are you told by your parents..."

I will post the results after Mabry students have had an opportunity to take the survey.

"I strongly believe that the lack of discipline from parents at home is the cause of our children's issues, not the performance of our teachers."

The PISA test is of interest indicating that from 1995 to 1999 the following changes took place: the percentage of 8th grade Japanese students who said mathematics was their favorite subject dropped from 53% to 48% while internationally it rose from 68% to 72%. The number of Japanese students who said they enjoyed studying math dropped from 46% to 38%. Those who said they wished to engage in an occupation using math dropped from 24% to 18%. And those who said math was important for daily life dropped from 71% to 62%.

The science statistics in this same survey dropped for Japanese students only 1 to 3%. However in the last indicator, the importance of science for daily life, Japanese students dropped from 48% to 39%.

Teachers were told in 2000 by the Minister of Education that the teaching manual [the Japanese equivalent to our curriculum standards] is only the minimum. The minister said teachers can teach more and should pay attention to individual student interests. They were also told to increase the amount of homework given to students. This statement caused significant increase in student performance.

As part of our Japanese history people would solve geometry problems and hang them in the shrines as a matter of great pride.

Toyota does not use any temp staff but tries to use fulltime employees, unlike other Japanese companies. Temp labor is creating serious problems with "zest for living."

In 2000 Japan reduced the school number of days spent at school from 6 days per week to 5 days per week to foster greater "zest for living."

Japan is making a huge transition from group to individual emphasis in an effort to foster greater "zest for living."

Basically, our perception that students in Japan are doing exceedingly well is not the perception the Japanese have for their educational progress. Therefore reform efforts are underway.

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Posted by Dr. Tyson at 9:00 PM | Permalink