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Includes biblographical references and index.
This detailed ethnographic study of fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms offers new insights into Japanese culture, as many aspects of daily social life are embedded in the educational system. Additionally, this book provides new perspectives on educational reform in the U.S., since many current issues and programs focus on notions of community, collaboration, and systemic reform, all of which are central to understanding Japanese teaching-learning processes in schools.
In Contested Childhood, Holloway, an educational and developmental psychologist, examines the Japanese preschool and identifies the cultural models that guide Japanese child-rearing as being contentious and fragmented. She looks at the societal, religious and economic factors that shape various preschool programs and shows how culture influences child-rearing beliefs and practices.
The growing economic competition among the world's industrialized and developing nations has spurred comparisons and examinations of national school systems. An important aspect of any school system is school and classroom management, which is an indicator of the ultimate goals that a nation has for its future workers. In this volume, international scholars examine the daily life of elementary school classrooms in six nations with complex economies, an international presence, and salient minority and immigrant populations. These original essays analyze contemporary classroom management practices and policies, as well as their historical and theoretical frameworks.
American high schools have never been under more pressure to reform: student populations are more diverse than ever, resources are limited, and teachers are expected to teach to high standards for all students. While many reformers look for change at the state or district level, the authors here argue that the most local contexts—schools, departments, and communities—matter the most to how well teachers perform in the classroom and how satisfied they are professionally. Their findings—based on one of the most extensive research projects ever done on secondary teaching—show that departmental cultures play a crucial role in classroom settings and expectations. In the same school, for example, social studies teachers described their students as "apathetic and unwilling to work," while English teachers described the same students as "bright, interesting, and energetic." With wide-ranging implications for educational practice and policy, this unprecedented look into teacher communities is essential reading for educators, administrators, and all those concerned with U. S. High Schools.
The balance between individual independence and social interdependence is a perennial debate in Japan. This book, based on an extended, detailed study of two primary schools in the Kinki district of Japan, discusses these debates.
The Challenge of Eastern Asian Education highlights how Asian education policy and practice challenge American schools. The book focuses on innovations that the nations of the Pacific Rim have developed for their schools, and it analyzes how these educational systems have tried to meet the challenges of rapid social and economic change. It is unique in that it provides in-depth coverage of the Asian approach to education and explicitly discusses the implications of Asian education for America. There is special interest in Asian countries, not only because of their unparalleled economic success, but because Asian societies have been held up as models for social harmony and discipline. This book provides specific examples of Asian educational practice that may have relevance to the United States. It is unique in that it deals not only with Japan, which has received considerable attention, but with other Pacific Rim nations as well.
How do children become eager, motivated learners and caring, responsible citizens? Educating Hearts and Minds, first published in 1995, is a portrait of Japanese preschool and early elementary education which examines these questions. Its thesis - which will surprise many Americans - is that Japanese schools are successful because they meet children's needs for friendship, belonging, and contribution. This book brings to life what actually happens inside Japanese classrooms. What do children learn? How do they learn? What values are emphasised, and how are they taught? In a sharp departure from most previous accounts, this book suggests that Japanese education succeeds because all children - not just the brightest or best-behaved - somehow come to feel like valued members of the school community. Ironically, Japanese teachers credit John Dewey and other progressive Western educators for many of the techniques that make Japanese schools both caring and challenging. This book brings to a wider readership the voices of Japanese classroom teachers - voices that are at once deeply consonant with Western aspirations and deeply provocative.
In this book the authors systematically address the most common stereotypes or myths about Japanese education that are currently being circulated in the popular press, teaching magazines and educational research journals. The authors show how arguments about Japan are used to further political ends within the American educational debate. Some of the myths that the book debunks are Japan's high adolescent suicide rate. LeTendre and Zeng show that adolescent suicide among males is now twice as high in the U.S. as in Japan. Tsuchida and Lewis take on the myth of Japanese classrooms as crowded places centered on rote-learning--providing detailed evidence as to why Japanese students may indeed ha...