I met back up with the other 13 educators in Tokyo at the Fulbright office. We all previously met at the joint confernece in San Francisco in May, it was great to see everyone again on the other side of the world.
Tokyo Orientation
This morning was our first full day in Tokyo and we began at the offices of Fulbright Japan. This morning began with a welcome from Matthew Sussman, the executive director of Fulbright Japan. His welcome was excellent as he reminded us that the strong relationship between our two countries is a direct result of activities like this that foster mutual understanding and learning between our two societies. The Fulbright organization and Fulbright Japan support the mission of peace and understanding by providing opportunities for thousands of individuals from both the United States and Japan to learn and research abroad since its inception shortly after WWII.
Lecturers Dr. Laurence MacDonald from Soka University in Tokyo Mr. Katsuhide Kushara professor emeritus from Takushoku University presented about the cultural background of education reform in Japan and World Heritage and Education for Sustainable Development in Japan. We learned about the similarities and differences between our two countries, Japan operates an entirely different educational system than the United States. For instance, high school in Japan is not compulsory. However, approximately 98% of students attend high school and there is a very low drop out rate. In addition to this cultural attitudes on the collective culture of the students and school stands in stark contrast to our emphasis on individual achievement.
Japanese education:
-Larger class sizes benefit students by reducing direct instruction and encouraging students to be independent. Smaller class sizes are teacher directed and reduce problem solving by students.
-High emphasis on routines in schools to minimize lost time in class.
-Teachers travel to student classrooms – students stay in the same homeroom
-Population decline is of serious concern to Japanese society. The number of school age children has dropped rapidly in the past 20 years.
-Elementary school 6 years – Junior High School 3 years
-Japanese education heavily emphasizes Shudan Seikatsu (group life) a collectivist approach to learning.
-Cultural role of teachers is to be seen as a friend not a foe. Teachers may be highly involved in student lives.
-Japanese students attend school 220 days a year as opposed to 180 days for the United States. Japanese students only relatively recently stopped attending school on Saturdays.
-The national government plays a central role in education. For instance, the national government will approve textbooks for school usage. The prefecture can then choose the 1 textbook from the government’s approved list of maybe 6 or 7 in that subject area. Also, the curriculum for the schools is delivered from the national government and reviewed every 10 years.
To round out the day we were given a tour of the city in the afternoon. We began by going to the Imperial Palace, the residence of the emperor of Japan. The most amazing thing about the imperial palace to me is that you have an area approximately half the size of central park in New York City right in the center of Tokyo, the largest city in the world, and no one is allowed to enter. We then proceeded to the Meiji Shrine. I will need to return to run cirlces around the emporer. We visited a few important cultural sites of the Japanese people.
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