first full day in Tokyo
I will get another post up later today, reflecting on my experiences yesterday...
Currently, I'm in a session, with a lecture given by a speaker from the Japanese National Institution for Academic Degrees and University Evaluation.
His talk is on Education Reform in Japan, and I'm already shocked and learning new things.
Japan has a nearly 0% literacy rate; compulsory education goes to 10th grade, but 98% of students continue to upper secondary education, and 50% onto higher education. But the Japanese government isn't happy...
A quote from his presentation: "[Japanese Children] have large amounts of knowledge but lack in 'Ability to learn and think by themselves' and 'Ability to apply this knowledge.'"
They want to produce more creative individuals and provide more diversity and flexibility in our their educational system. They want to give children Room to Grow and Zest for Living. Can't help but think of the Met...there are some things we do really well. Japan sees a problem with their kids not developing a sense of community or caring for others...again, some things we can do relatively well.
They are having problems with the decline of their younger generation: lethargy, apathy, refusal to attend school. A little less than 3% of students who should be attending lower secondary schools (7th - 9th) refuse to attend school. Art-focused schools seem to beat these odds.
Nationally, there is a 2-2.5% drop-out rate.
Japan is a country very focused on pride and honor, therefore shame and disgrace are some of the worst emotions, and feed into how decisions are made and how change is started.
Patterns definitely exist: students in lower elementary schools are the most likely to be violent to each other and to teachers; elementary school students are the most likely to be involved in bullying. I wonder how readily this matches to the data on schools in the US. They claim that violence is difficult to control...that seems like an obvious enough statement.
A government research institute compared Japan, US, and China. The research method was a questionnaire filled out by high school students, asking them how bad they thought different behaviors are, in terms of social ethics. The most noticeable result is that Japanese students see rebelling against parents and teachers as overwhelmingly acceptable; our speaker makes a connection to lack of parental discipline in the home. The results from another study, conducted the same way, shows that kids in the US feel they are very frequently "disciplined" by parents, and that it rarely happens in Japan. It is noticeable that the questionnaire asked about how often students are told 'Don't tell a lie,' 'Be kind to friends,' 'TV in moderation,' 'Use good manners.' It is possible that this is a matter of how much US kids feel their parents harp on these issues, or it could be that Japanese parents really don't push. But I don't think US parents generally get this message across to their kids. There's another interesting piece of data: the amount of time parents (broken by father and mother) spend with their children. In Japan the values are lower than most other countries, as counted in hours...father is 3.32 and mother is 7.44. By comparison, in the US the values are 3.64 for the father and 7.52 for the mother. Where does this come from? The time is per week, assuming a five-day work week plus a two day weekend. Another really interesting one...in Japan parents are shown as being dissatisfied with their children (about 35% from age 10-12), and for comparison in the US it's 85% for the same age. Looks like high expectations, but not enough positive support for kids when they do right. Catch kids being good...
In terms of academics, data comes from two main sources: IEA (International Association for Evaluation of Educational Achievement) and PISA (Program for International Student Assessment). IEA's studies focus on knowledge - what have kids learned, mastered, memorized. PISA's focus is on student's ability to apply skills and knowledge to real-world situations.
We're looking at data, one interesting statistic: from 1995 to 1999, 8th graders were asked if math was their favorite subject. The responses went from 53% to 48%, while the international average went from 68% up to 72%. Across the globe, kids liked math better, but in Japan, this number went down. And I ask the question - how does the importance of math change over this time? Yes, mathematical reasoning skills are important, and get more important as technology becomes more and more prevalent. BUT - are the tests being updated to reflect the skills needed to work within this technological world?
The PISA data also looks bad - in math students performed worse from 1994-2000, and 2000-2002.
The obvious question: how is educational reform being designed to cope with these problems? Disengagement from education? Lack of family involvement?
One comment: traditionally, Japanese culture favors teamwork and sacrifice for the group; there is a clash between that tradition and the desire to allow students to grow individually.
This afternoon, we get to experience traditional Japanese theater - first Kyogen and then Kabuki. It's being brought to our hotel, but I'd rather go out into the community to see it...but alas. I'm going to have to be sure to get to the performance room early to get a front-row seat, and get some good photos.
Speaking of photos - I have some uploaded to my flickr site, of my hotel room, and also the Tokyo skyline as visible from the 40th floor of the hotel. Click here
Currently, I'm in a session, with a lecture given by a speaker from the Japanese National Institution for Academic Degrees and University Evaluation.
His talk is on Education Reform in Japan, and I'm already shocked and learning new things.
Japan has a nearly 0% literacy rate; compulsory education goes to 10th grade, but 98% of students continue to upper secondary education, and 50% onto higher education. But the Japanese government isn't happy...
A quote from his presentation: "[Japanese Children] have large amounts of knowledge but lack in 'Ability to learn and think by themselves' and 'Ability to apply this knowledge.'"
They want to produce more creative individuals and provide more diversity and flexibility in our their educational system. They want to give children Room to Grow and Zest for Living. Can't help but think of the Met...there are some things we do really well. Japan sees a problem with their kids not developing a sense of community or caring for others...again, some things we can do relatively well.
They are having problems with the decline of their younger generation: lethargy, apathy, refusal to attend school. A little less than 3% of students who should be attending lower secondary schools (7th - 9th) refuse to attend school. Art-focused schools seem to beat these odds.
Nationally, there is a 2-2.5% drop-out rate.
Japan is a country very focused on pride and honor, therefore shame and disgrace are some of the worst emotions, and feed into how decisions are made and how change is started.
Patterns definitely exist: students in lower elementary schools are the most likely to be violent to each other and to teachers; elementary school students are the most likely to be involved in bullying. I wonder how readily this matches to the data on schools in the US. They claim that violence is difficult to control...that seems like an obvious enough statement.
A government research institute compared Japan, US, and China. The research method was a questionnaire filled out by high school students, asking them how bad they thought different behaviors are, in terms of social ethics. The most noticeable result is that Japanese students see rebelling against parents and teachers as overwhelmingly acceptable; our speaker makes a connection to lack of parental discipline in the home. The results from another study, conducted the same way, shows that kids in the US feel they are very frequently "disciplined" by parents, and that it rarely happens in Japan. It is noticeable that the questionnaire asked about how often students are told 'Don't tell a lie,' 'Be kind to friends,' 'TV in moderation,' 'Use good manners.' It is possible that this is a matter of how much US kids feel their parents harp on these issues, or it could be that Japanese parents really don't push. But I don't think US parents generally get this message across to their kids. There's another interesting piece of data: the amount of time parents (broken by father and mother) spend with their children. In Japan the values are lower than most other countries, as counted in hours...father is 3.32 and mother is 7.44. By comparison, in the US the values are 3.64 for the father and 7.52 for the mother. Where does this come from? The time is per week, assuming a five-day work week plus a two day weekend. Another really interesting one...in Japan parents are shown as being dissatisfied with their children (about 35% from age 10-12), and for comparison in the US it's 85% for the same age. Looks like high expectations, but not enough positive support for kids when they do right. Catch kids being good...
In terms of academics, data comes from two main sources: IEA (International Association for Evaluation of Educational Achievement) and PISA (Program for International Student Assessment). IEA's studies focus on knowledge - what have kids learned, mastered, memorized. PISA's focus is on student's ability to apply skills and knowledge to real-world situations.
We're looking at data, one interesting statistic: from 1995 to 1999, 8th graders were asked if math was their favorite subject. The responses went from 53% to 48%, while the international average went from 68% up to 72%. Across the globe, kids liked math better, but in Japan, this number went down. And I ask the question - how does the importance of math change over this time? Yes, mathematical reasoning skills are important, and get more important as technology becomes more and more prevalent. BUT - are the tests being updated to reflect the skills needed to work within this technological world?
The PISA data also looks bad - in math students performed worse from 1994-2000, and 2000-2002.
The obvious question: how is educational reform being designed to cope with these problems? Disengagement from education? Lack of family involvement?
One comment: traditionally, Japanese culture favors teamwork and sacrifice for the group; there is a clash between that tradition and the desire to allow students to grow individually.
This afternoon, we get to experience traditional Japanese theater - first Kyogen and then Kabuki. It's being brought to our hotel, but I'd rather go out into the community to see it...but alas. I'm going to have to be sure to get to the performance room early to get a front-row seat, and get some good photos.
Speaking of photos - I have some uploaded to my flickr site, of my hotel room, and also the Tokyo skyline as visible from the 40th floor of the hotel. Click here
posted by kip at 22:39
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