Japan's education system envy of other nations

Every time Japanese children prove mediocre in international academic ability surveys, calls grow for the nation to "learn from abroad."

Critics would be surprised, then, to hear that Japan was once a model for educational reform in Finland, a perennial high achiever in such tests.

In fact, Japan's educational system has long been envied by other nations, which try to copy it to improve their own.

That respect has not changed even though Japan's ranking in recent scholastic surveys has fallen to barely average or better.

Japan's teaching methods and teacher training programs are a coveted "export" item to developing nations.

"We receive many requests for assistance," says Shinichi Ishihara, a director in the Human Development Department of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

"Even though Japan's rank has sagged in recent scholastic surveys, its levels are still high in the world," he said.

One educational phrase in Japanese has attracted attention in both developing and developed countries in the past decade.

It's jugyo kenkyu, translated as "lesson study."

The term refers to teachers getting together to jointly study classroom teaching methods.

First, a teacher examines teaching materials and draws up a lesson plan. The plan is then demonstrated in a sample lesson observed by other teachers. Later, they get together to exchange opinions on how to improve it.

The practice gained fame when a book was published in the United States in 1999, comparing mathematics classes taught in Japan, the United States and Germany.

"The Teaching Gap: Best Ideas From the World's Teachers for Improving Education in the Classroom," by James W. Stigler and James Hiebert, became a best seller.

Late last year, an international symposium on lesson studies in mathematics was held in Tokyo and Kanazawa as part of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum project.

It attracted more than 300 educators from 18 nations and regions.

Catherine C. Lewis, a distinguished research scholar at Mills College in California, calls lesson study a world treasure that helps improve professionalism in teachers.

In the United States, teachers have no chance to observe each other's classes or share good teaching materials, she says.

According to Lewis, who researches Japan's elementary education, lesson study programs have been adopted in about 100 U.S. school districts.

In Thailand, too, lesson study is being tried in several elementary and junior high schools.

Maitree Inprasitha, director at Khon Kaen University's Center for Research in Mathematics Education, praises the effects.

Lesson study has helped teachers pay more attention to how children think about a problem, he said.

APEC started its project to promote lesson study in 2006 to improve math and science education as a step to revitalize regional economies.

"It (lesson study) is no longer a specialty of Japan alone," said APEC project representative Masami Isoda, who is an associate professor of math education at the University of Tsukuba.

Moves are also afoot to apply lesson study to history education in the United States and to Thai language education in Thailand.

As interest grew in Japanese teaching methods, Tokyo Shoseki Co. translated and began selling its elementary math texts two years ago.

Abut 20,000 copies have been sold so far, half outside Japan. Most were likely purchased by researchers.

Some people were surprised the textbooks are "so thin." But Tokyo Shoseki officials say they carry the "essence" of lesson study.

"Regardless of a teacher's ability, a lot can be taught by following the texts," an official said.

The textbook publisher, however, chose older versions for translation, not the latest ones compiled after content was cut by 30 percent in a controversial government policy to give more leeway in the classroom.

The current version would not be appreciated overseas as much, officials said.

Meanwhile, JICA began to support basic education in developing nations in 1994, starting with the Philippines.

Teacher training and other programs were under way in 23 countries as of March this year.

Shigekazu Takemura, a professor emeritus at Hiroshima University, taught science education in Kenya for seven years from 1999.

At first, he had difficulty explaining the idea of "children-centered education" to local teachers, who were used to simply lecturing students.

As little equipment for science experiments was available, Takemura taught teachers how to create tools from waste wood and other scraps.

Now practical teacher training sessions are held throughout Kenya every year. A network to promote better math and science education now links more than 30 African nations.

JICA also assists development of math texts and reference materials in Central America.

Japan today stands in the forefront of math and science education globally, according to educators.

Many developing nations look to Japan for its experience of adopting natural science and education systems from the West in the Meiji Era (1868-1912) when the country was modernizing, they say.

Such nations also hope to learn from Japan's phenomenal postwar growth on the strength of its technological prowess.

Finland, which ranked at or near the top in the latest Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) survey, learned much from Japan and other countries in the 1960s, according to Heikki Makipaa, director of the Finnish Institute in Japan.

Hiroshi Nakajima, a professor emeritus of comparative education at Waseda University, was a visiting professor at the University of Helsinki for a year from 1962.

He gave many lectures on Japan's education system.

Finland used to have four years of elementary eduction, after which only gifted children--both in wealth and ability--could go on to middle school.

In the 1970s, the country's reforms created a system of six-year elementary and three-year middle school education, free of charge.

Nakajima was elected as a foreign member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters in 1984 for his contribution to reform efforts.

Decades later, Japan's standing is falling in the OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey, with the gap widening between the high and low achievers.

Finland, meanwhile, is seeing a much smaller gap as it apparently is succeeding in giving children equal education opportunities.

Why the difference?

Makipaa attributes Finland's success to high-quality teachers produced by its excellent teacher training systems.

Nakajima sees a different reason.

"Japan has put much emphasis on the principle of competition since those days," he said. "But (Finland's greater emphasis on) learning together and considering others led to improvement in its scholastic achievements."(IHT/Asahi: April 23,2008)