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What a society expects of education historically tends to change in line with the socioeconomic developments of the times. Since the 1990s, Japanese authorities have begun to shift their emphasis from knowledge-oriented education to building children's ability to adapt to changes and open up their own future. Participants in a recent symposium in Tokyo gave concrete examples of various attempts under way to give children the ability to think and act on their own, rather than merely memorizing facts and figures that would help them enter elite universities — once considered in Japan a guaranteed path to high-paying jobs. The July 12 forum, titled “Zest for life and education,” was organized by Keizai Koho Center at Keidanren Kaikan. It invited 15 social studies educators from North America, Britain and Australia who took part in a 12-day program visiting schools and corporations in Japan. They were joined in the dialogue by Japanese teachers and school officials as well as representatives from the industrial sectors, which are showing growing interest in education as corporate demands for human resources change rapidly. “Zest for life” is a concept used in the education ministry's new Course of Study curriculum guideline introduced in fiscal 2002, said Ichiro Kawai, a member of the international affairs division of Keizai Koho Center who gave the opening presentation about the historical transition in Japan's public education policies. “It is not simply the ability to make a living . . . but the ability to make one's way through today's dramatically changing world. We consider it the ability to open up one's own future,” Kawai said. With the collapse of the bubble economy and the ensuing slump in the 1990s, corporations began to seek new qualities in workers: They now place greater importance on an employee's ability to respond to changes, rather than academic qualifications or school background, he said. Industry has also become more interested in education, one indication being the plan by Toyota Motor Corp. and some other companies to establish a secondary education school, modeled after the Eton College in England, in April 2006, Kawai pointed out. Around the same time, he added, Japan's education authorities reviewed their earlier focus on knowledge-oriented education. The new Course of Study resulted in shortening the school week to five days and reducing the curriculum, while putting more emphasis on children's “individuality” and “integrated studies” that reach across traditional academic subjects and other extracurricular activities. Reform around the world Following the presentation, the participants from overseas discussed ongoing education reforms in their home countries and changes in social expectations for education. Dana Elizabeth Gurney, an associate professor of education at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island, said one of the major features in the U.S. education system is that it is fairly decentralized. “We are very diverse in our approaches and aims across states and even in local school districts,” Gurney said. Under new legislation introduced under the slogan “No child left behind” by the administration of George W. Bush, each state must determine how it will respond to the mandates of the law. But although the responses differ from state to state, the legislation has generally increased tension among teachers and school officials over how well the students are performing “both academically, and in thinking, reasoning and problem-solving,” she said. The legislation has also called for states to define what “highly qualified teachers” are, Gurney said. “Each state outlines the requirements of highly qualified teachers, and teachers must now demonstrate that they meet these requirements.” Many states and school districts have identified the performance standards and benchmarks they want their children and youths to achieve, and an increasing number of teachers are designing units of instruction, lesson plans and assessments “that are explicitly aligned with these standards,” Gurney said. As for boosting the children's ability to think and act on their own, Gurney said the key factors are “critical thinking, research, analysis, having students be able to synthesize, evaluate and reflect on their own learning.” Because of the decentralized education system in the U.S, “this kind of teaching and learning is quite individualized, and it varies even among teachers within classrooms at the same grade level in one school,” she said. What society expects of public education also varies a great deal from state to state, Gurney noted. But increasingly American society expects that students “will be critical thinkers, be able to reason, and be able to use their imaginations and creative thinking,” she said. “We're also expecting students to have the ability to ask questions, research, plan, think, do, check and reflect on the work that they are doing,” she added. The view from Britain
One is equipping students with basic skills — literacy, mathematics and, increasingly, information technology skills, she said. Another prevalent view in Britain is that education should produce a flexible workforce. “Students should be prepared for their adult roles in society, where several changes in career are common,” Rose said. The third expectation is for public education to equip students with transferable skills — such as communications and research skills — that would be useful in any subject, or on any job, she observed. Rose said the history of Britain's education reform movements may have a lesson for Japan as it seeks to place greater emphasis on “zest for life” education than on academic learning. In Britain in the 1960s and 1970s, progressive or liberal education — where individuals could learn at their own pace — was considered fashionable, but a strong political backlash emerged in the late 1970s and the 1980s when people expressed concern over students' declining academic standards, she said. The government tried to raise standards by instituting a national curriculum, and introduced the so-called standardized assessment test for students in 1988 which, Rose said, is increasingly used as a measure of individual students' performance. Many complain that British students are “over-tested” and that learning has become more of a “jumping through hoops rather than about understanding,” she said. At the same time, Rose said, British education places strong emphasis on transferable skills, and subject knowledge is considered secondary to skill development. This is achieved through various teaching methods, such as research projects, presentations, discussions, problem-solving activities, role playing and other techniques, she said. “The national assessment criteria reflect this approach, and students are frequently assessed on their ability to do things and to understand things, rather than just memorize facts and figures blindly,” Rose told the participants. As one suggestion for Japan's education reform, Rose said student assessment procedures and criteria should be changed so greater emphasis is placed on understanding and application than on rote learning. “In some exams in Britain, for example, students are given pre-released materials, so that in the exams they will be tested on their ability to apply the information, rather than just memorize it,” she said. She also recommended that Japan introduce high-quality teacher training and continuing professional development programs. Such programs should be offered to teachers on a continuous basis and be made available both in and outside of their schools, she added. Julie Dyer, lecturer in social education and education studies at Deakin University in Melbourne, said Australian society expects education to produce “lifelong learners.” “Education does not stop at age 18 or 25, but we are a society that is continually becoming and being learners across a variety of pursuits,” Dyer said. “We want students to be responsible, active and participatory citizens, for them to be aware of citizenship in Australia,” which is one of the few countries where it is compulsory for people to vote in elections, she noted. Like many of her copanelists, Dyer stressed that enhancement of “zest for life” education rests with teacher training. “All the research points to the key factor between schools and educational attainment is the level and capacity of teaching in schools. It is the teacher who makes the difference, and in terms of integrated studies, the focus needs to be on teacher professional development,” she told the forum. Integrated studies in Japan Taketo Kusakawa, vice principal of the Secondary School Attached to the Faculty of Education of the University of Tokyo, conceded that there are currently no courses at Japanese universities that train teachers in integrated studies. Kusakawa, whose school is known as a successful practitioner of this method, said the key to integrated studies is that the children need to take the initiative in their learning. “Teachers in Japan speak too much in classrooms. What is important is that teachers listen to what their students want to learn,” he said. Kusakawa's school is a state-run institution providing a six-year secondary education program to students between the seventh and 12th grades. According to Kusakawa, since the 1960s his school has offered what is currently touted as integrated studies. Because the school offers a six-year program uninterrupted by entrance exams that are required of students at other types of schools in the transition from junior high to high school, “the students have plenty of time and therefore can do what they really want to do,” he said. “The guiding principle is that the children take the initiative in their learning. They research what they want to research, touch what they want to touch,” Kusakawa said. According to Kusakawa, the first thing teachers at the school let students do is explore the University of Tokyo campus, and let them examine whatever is of interest to them, such as the number of buildings or the color of the bricks. Eighth-grade students are told to conduct research on whatever is going on in the neighborhood of the school — whatever has grabbed their interest, he said. Then 11th and 12th graders are required to engage in a research project for graduation, set their own theme with help from their designated guidance teachers and complete the research in 1 1/2 years. Students cannot graduate unless they complete the research. Kusakawa said he does not see integrated studies and conventional subject learning as contradictory concepts. "The children utilize what they have learned in subject studies in their research projects in the integrated studies classes. Also, their experience gained in the limited time spent on integrated studies stimulates their interest in subject studies," he told the participants. Importance of initiative Hidetoshi Uchiyama, an official of the Sony Foundation for Education, agreed on the importance of Japanese children and youths taking the initiative in their learning. Uchiyama described the foundation is an affiliate of Sony Corp. that operates on donations from the consumer electronics giant. Its primary objective, he said, is to support teachers who are trying to nurture children's ability to learn on their own initiative. “Our goal is to nurture children who like science. By taking an interest in science, the children acquire an ability to think and explore by setting their own agenda,” Uchiyama said. “We do not simply want the children to improve their school performance,” Uchiyama said, suggesting that bringing up such children is in the interest of industry. In Japan, youths go through tough entrance exams to enter universities, and spend a great deal of energy on rote memorization so they can answer test questions. “The paper test tells you, 'Answer the following question,' and then the students answer them. But you do not answer questions that were not given to you. Such education will create adults who cannot think or act unless they are told to do something,” he said. “That is a problem for us. We want kids to become adults who can think and act on their own. For that, children should be taught in elementary and secondary education to find their own agenda and solve them. Rather than becoming an adult who can do nothing until he is given instructions from the boss, we want them to become adults who can act at their on initiative and make proposals to others.” Uchiyama noted that Japanese corporations no longer trust job applicants' school backgrounds as a key factor in the hiring process, but focus more on what the applicants can and want to do. In a growing number of cases, job application forms do not have a space where applicants write in the names of the universities they attended, he said. Employers need students with academic abilities, but the name of the university the applicants attend no longer serve as a reliable barometer for assessing their abilities, Uchiyama said. Youths can no longer pursue a career based merely on their school affiliation, he added. Old ways still hold sway Some other schoolteachers who took part in the forum, however, suggested that entering a good university is still a primary concern for many students and their parents, and that teachers' efforts to introduce new education methods are often not welcome. Midori Suzuki, assistant principal at the municipal Higashi Fukazawa Elementary School in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, said competition for entering elite elementary and junior high schools is intense. According to Suzuki, there were about 130 children in her school district who reached first-grade age this spring, and 48 of them joined either state-run or private elementary schools. For all of Setagaya Ward, 68 percent of sixth graders go on to public junior high schools on average, but the figure is only 45 percent in her school, meaning that the rest opt to take exams for private or state-run secondary schools, Suzuki said. Tomoko Takahashi, a teacher at Toyama Senior High School run by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, said it is still difficult to provide integrated studies in classrooms, because of parents' demands parents to devote as much time and effort as possible helping students get into good universities. “Teacher training programs on integrated studies are available, for example, during the summer school recess period, but it is often difficult to put what you have learned during the training into practice in the classroom,” Takahashi said. “We do have integrated study classes in our curriculum because it is a requirement, but we are told — due to strong requests from parents -- to make sure the contents will assist in the study for entrance exams,” she said. Students who have an interest in science, for example, also tend to think they need to first enter a university of their choice so that they can pursue their field of study and take up jobs where they can utilize their knowledge, she said. Therefore, it is hard to allocate sufficient time to free studies in classrooms. Akihiko Fujino, a teacher at Kokubunji Senior High School, also run by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, said one has to face the reality that while the education ministry advocates a reduced curriculum, many preteens attend “juku” cram schools so they can enter elite schools and eventually good universities. Therefore, it is a nonsense to discuss Japan's education system without taking the role of the cram schools into account, he said. And while teachers try to introduce various new education methods, the students still want the teachers to give them “knowledge-based” education, Fujino said. “For students preparing for university entrance exams, particularly those taking the standardized test for state-run institutions, what still counts is whether they have memorized the underlined words in textbooks or reference books,” he told the participants. “The 'juken' (entrance exam) is still the ultimate keyword.” The continuing emphasis on preparing children for university entrance exams was also criticized by a participant from the industrial sector, who said more efforts should be made to prepare students for their future careers. A senior public relations official from an electronics firm lamented how Japanese schoolchildren spend a great deal of time studying without thinking sufficiently about what kind of occupation they want to choose when they become adults. “Children in elementary and high school levels should be given opportunities to learn what kinds of jobs or industries there are in society and how corporations operate, and to consider where their interest lies,” the official said, noting that such efforts are often neglected at Japanese schools. Patricia Phillips, subject supervisor of business, information technology and media at Moorestown High School in New Jersey, said a mandatory career planning course at her school gives students lessons on self-assessment, research on future careers and work skills, including resume writing, job applications and interviewing. Students can opt out of this program by taking a career internship program during the summer, in which they perform 50 hours of unpaid work at offices that they choose and get the same amount of credit, Phillips said. Sherri Ottis, a world history teacher at Clinton High School in Clinton, Miss., said students in her school districts are required to take a six-year career development program. “In the first year of junior high school, students take a career discovery (course). People of different careers come in and teach students about individual careers,” she said. When a lawyer is invited to the classroom, for example, the students enact a trial, she added. Another U.S. high school teacher, meanwhile, stressed the importance of traditional education methods with an emphasis on academic education. “I am a believer in very traditional education based on fundamental, historically proven principles,” said Lance Rhodes, an economics teacher at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis. “At one time, basically all educational systems in the U.S. — no matter what state, no matter how diverse — believed in these basic principles. That was back when American students were at the top in math and science, and that was back when America, industrially, topped the world,” Rhodes told the participants. While acknowledging that some reforms will be necessary to meet changing needs, “reform does not have to mean removing from traditional educational principles,” he said. “Through traditional education, I believe we can create independent thinkers.”
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