Teachers in Japan earn tenure on their first day of employment--not after two years of experience based on evaluations of teaching performance or student test scores. This is almost too good to be true. If tenure is so easy to attain, how do the Japanese make sure their teachers, especially novice teachers hired with little teaching experience,…

In October 2007, three education bills, including the Revised Teacher's License Law were approved by the Central Education Council in February and submitted to the Diet. The purpose of the Revised Teacher's License Law was "to ensure teachers systematically acquire up-to-date knowledge and skills to maintain the professional competencies…

The purpose of this paper was to examine the cross-national performance of fourth- and eighth-grade students in mathematics on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003. The TIMSS assessment data were used to identify nations that have a competitive edge in the critical area of mathematics. The Trends in International…

Is is said in Japan that worthy education becomes possible only with the presence of worthy teachers. With these words in mind, this publication examines strategies for the reform of preservice education and inservice professional development for teachers in Japan's compulsory elementary and junior high schools. The report discusses: needed…

This article examines how novice teachers in Japan and in the United States, specifically in the state of Ohio, are assessed, evaluated, and supported as they enter the teaching profession. Comparison of practices and tools which characterize the two countries' approaches toward assessment and mentoring reveals that important differences exist in…

Around the world, the importance of education to individual and societal success has increased at a breathtaking pace as a new knowledge-based economy has emerged. As a consequence, most countries have been engaged in intensive reforms of their education systems, and many have focused especially on improving teacher education, recognizing that…

This collection of abstracts and papers includes: "Classroom Lesson Planning Using Constructivist Principles" (Richard K. Gordon, Stephen Lee, and Joel Colbert); "Students' Perception of Experiential Learning and Assessment of Own Learning at the Physically Handicapped School" (Shigeru Shimizu; Minoru Umezawa, and Yumiko Ono);…

This descriptive depiction of teacher education in Japan begins with a profile of Japanese teachers, their characteristics, salary scale, and the kinds of classrooms and schools they work in. A description of the conventional pattern of teacher education in Japan is organized in its sequential order: preservice education, induction, inservice…

This document is the final report of Phase I of a comparative study of teacher-training practices among 12 nation members of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. The purposes of the study were to: (1) provide concrete, comparable descriptions of teacher-preparation systems useful to educators, researchers, and policymakers in all APEC member…