This study aimed to identify the professional structure required by teachers working in primary schools for deaf students in Japan. Ten university teachers training in education for deaf students at Japanese universities participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using the KJ method of qualitative analysis based on similarity,…

Public teachers in Japan are subjected to a compulsory rotation system where the prefectural board of education governs their entire career paths. Past research has written of the macro- and micro-level impacts of rotation systems, including Japanese teacher rotation, but this paper, based on years of working in and observing Japanese schools, is…

In this paper, the author asks what education policy might look like in the United States if it was based on the experience of its most successful competitors. He relies on research conducted by a team assembled by the National Center on Education and the Economy, at the request of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD),…

This article explores the case of a Vietnamese teacher whose conception of teaching changed greatly following a short but intensive series of lessons based on the Japanese experiences with atomic bombs. The following three issues are considered: 1) what types of efforts teachers should make to increase the depth of their lessons, on the basis of…

The author visited Japan's secondary schools and here reports on the lessons to be learned from the way the country has organized its comprehensive school system. (RK)

Discusses the background and salient characteristics of Japan's educational reform movement. Until recently, Japan's formal education system was uniform, centrally controlled, and geared to developing character and cultural sensitivity. To counter uniformity, inflexibility, and an overly competitive examination system, schools are moving toward…

Contrasting American education with that of other countries, compares systems that differ profoundly in objectives, values, and organization. The American decentralization, lack of a national examination system, and values of egalitarianism, utilitarianism, and individualism work against the single-minded concentration on academic goals of other…

Describes size, contents, organization, and social psychological function of teachers' rooms in Japanese junior high schools, which serve as centers of daily educational activities and interactions among teachers, between teachers and students, and among students themselves. (PKP)

The present upper secondary school system in Japan accommodates 94 percent of the corresponding age group population. This discussion of the new upper secondary schools of Japan begins with a brief survey of the history of the Japanese public education system from its inauguration in 1872 up to 1945. The next section describes the inauguration and…

The common assumption that Japanese students do well academically because their schools are more academically oriented than American schools is misguided. Results of a study comparing middle-school teachers in Japan and the United States indicated that American teachers allocated a greater proportion of their time to academic work than did…

This book contains seventeen thumb-nail sketches of schools in Europe, the United States, Asia, Britain, and Australia, as they appeared in the eye of the author as a professional educator and a journalist while travelling around the world. The author considers the schools described to be good schools, and not necessarily the 17 best schools in…

This volume contains a series of articles describing the management of education in various countries of the Asian region and discussing a few of the regional problems. Many of these problems are the result of old administrative machinery trying to cope with growth in the size and complexity of education and with a new view of education as a key…

Today's calls for school restructuring demand a greater response than piecemeal tinkering. The impetus for total organizational change started over 30 years ago in Japan as industrial leaders adapted W. Edwards Deming's beliefs and strategies concerning psychology, systems, perceptual theoretical frameworks, and causes of variation. Quality…

Describes the 1997 Keizai Koho Center Fellowship study tour of Japan in which a group of American, Australian, Canadian, and English educators visited two Japanese elementary schools. Compares the structure, classroom activities, and curriculum of each elementary school in detail and reflects upon the future trends in Japanese education. (CMK)

Most American visitors to Japanese senior high schools have observed only the very best public academic schools in the nation. Two-thirds of Japanese students attend other schools. This book presents findings of a case study that focused on the 12th-grade experience in a Japanese public general high school. The data were supplemented by visits to…