Education In Japan?

Silverbackman · 26 Feb 2006

Ok I have read a lot recreantly about the intelligence for the average Japanese as well as the average IQ. According to many studies Japanese score the highest in IQ and tests. I think here in America they are second or tied with Indian Americans as having the highest median of any ethnic group.

The literacy rate in Japan according to many studies is one of the highest in the world. Children learn to read at quite a young age and all the population learns to read Japanese very well before adulthood, even though Japanese is one of the hardest languages according to many people (so many writing systems, letters, ect.). Technology, sciences, ect. are all flourishing in Japan.

However I remember some time ago the Jref talking about education being bad in Japan. I am sort of very skeptical about this considering how far Japan has gone. How can the education system be that bad when do good in so many other areas? Is it just geography or all subjects? I have a feeling it is just geography.

Ewok85 · 26 Feb 2006

The actual method of teaching is rather poor, using mainly ROTE (repetition) and little interactivity. While most students cram massive amounts of facts and information in there isn't really alot of thought about - for example in Australia remember facts was less important than being given a question and using what you know to be able to create the answer.

godppgo · 26 Feb 2006

The main problem with Japanese education is that there is too much emphasis on repetition and memorization. For examples, students are expected to memorize all the chemical element names and their properties when you can just look up a periodic table. Math are taught in repetition manner so students can do complex calculation by hand while the same calculation can be done by a scientific calculator. Very little effort is put into helping student to develop their creative problem solving skill which is in complete opposite to the US/Canada education system.

Here is an interesting observation. In a Japanese classroom, when teacher ask if there's any question, rarely do Japanese student raise their hand and say yes. It takes a tremendous amount of courage to do that in a Japanese class. Most time students would no ask any questions even if they do. Japanese students are expected to just follow and memorize what's taught. In the contrary, US or Canadian students have more than plenty of questions in class and are not afraid of having alternative thoughts and ideas.

Kinsao · 26 Feb 2006

I think there has to be a good balance between 'learning by rote' and 'learning' in the sense of developing an investigative mind and reasoning skills.

As a person who finds the 'learning by rote' method quite easy, I have actually found it useful. But of course, it has its limitations and drawbacks, as people have said above.

IMO, some things are better learned 'by rote', a good example being the Japanese (or any, really) writing system. A high level of literacy among Japanese children/youngsters is a good thing, and I suppose the rigidity and discipline of that method of learning contributes to the success (at least the statistical indicators of success).

However, it's also important that 'learning' is expanded from that into a more flexible and investigative process; and also for there to be provision for kids who find 'rote learning' particularly difficult and can't learn that way at all - they need to learn by other ways, and a system which just ignores them or pushes them away is not a good system.

pipokun · 26 Feb 2006

The geography stuffs here is just an easy generalization that the thread starter wanted to invite more players here.

I've watched a program about the Teachers' Union in your country in NBC or ABC site.
You can read some manga, caricatures, in the Japanese one.
J Teachers Union
Why anti-US caricatures in the J teachers' union site?

Mycernius · 27 Feb 2006

Silverbackman said:
The literacy rate in Japan according to many studies is one of the highest in the world. Children learn to read at quite a young age and all the population learns to read Japanese very well before adulthood, even though Japanese is one of the hardest languages according to many people (so many writing systems, letters, ect.).

According to people who are not Japanese. You have been taught how to use the alphabet. Japanese children are bought up to use kana and kanji. In depends on the learning environment you have been bought up in. My Japanese teacher said that when she started learning English the ABCs gave her a real problem. Mainly to do with pronunciation. After all the kana for the vowels doesn't change, yet in English they do. And then there are slient letters (know, Knife, Knight), combinations that change ie: the ch in Church and Character and the ever problematic ough words, and words that, despite being spelt the same, can be said several ways ie: I've read a book, I am going to read a book.

Mike Cash · 27 Feb 2006

I am amused at the prospect of a thread discussing education in Japan. A thread in which almost no one participating will have had direct experience with education in Japan.

Kinsao · 27 Feb 2006

But aren't there quite a few people on the forum who live in Japan? :?

sabro · 27 Feb 2006

Although I see your point, Mike... as an educator I am still interested in the answer. We are so used to negative comparisons in the United States that we fail to see our own advantages and the great improvements that have been made in the last decade.

I was suprised to see a contingent of Japanese educators here in Riverside county looking at our system last month.

mad pierrot · 28 Feb 2006

Ok...

Over the last 4 years..

I have worked at:

9 elementary schools,
4 junior high schools,
1 senior high school,
and been a prof's aide in a college class.

My conclusion? Japan's education system works great for Japan.

Not that I couldn't find things to complain about. I always can.

Shikei · 28 Mar 2006

Im not going to vote since I havent even been to the country yet ^^' but all the pressure put on people to do well in exams sounds awful. My Japanese teacher is Irish, but her husband is Japanese, and apparently one of their main reasons for moving back to Ireland was because theres less pressure in school.

Could people who've worked in junior/senior high schools tell me, is it really that stressful on most of the students? Does it depend on the parents or the area the school is in? Im sure every country has its kids that cant be bothered studying, I cant really imagine that EVERYONE kills themselves working ^^'

Gisela · 29 Mar 2006

Well, I studied in Japan for a year as an exchange student. The extra hours aren't helping the students much hehe. I was sent to a private school so the administration included saturday school and afterschool on Tuesdays or Thursdays. A lot of them also had cram school.

On the afterschool classes, many of them weren't listening and a few went to sleep. So I think that's a sign that making students go to not so stimulating extra classes is just a waste. Why the hell did they have that television guy teach anyway? He was so boring, more so for me because I couldn't understand everything he as saying.

Also has anyone thought about what cram school indicates? If the Japanese school system was actually doing its job, the students would not need cram school.

Japan has this itsy bitsy error in their logic. More is not necessarily better.

They should understand the concept of quality over quantity.

Five minute conversation quizzes is worth more than those countless fill in the black worksheets.

I thought American schools were too standarized, but clearly Japan was there to prove me wrong.

Buckethead · 31 Mar 2006

I'd say it's really good, So many Japanese kids can speak English.

Mars Man · 31 Mar 2006

One problem with the Japanese education system, other than the usual, is that it does not give enough consideration to the fact of youth. A bit too much is expected from the brain of yet a child (see the recent TIME article) and not enough time to finish living out the 'childhood' element of the brain is kept in mind. Also, I don't like the rigidness of the elementary school system--the 'training' or 'conditioning' that the kids go through.

Now there is one book, THE MYTH OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN JAPAN, that has a pretty good argument about the laxity of colleges and universities here--once you get in, at least. Although unlike elementary, jr.high, and highschool, where the students are just conveyer-belted through almost regardless of grade point, the higher education establishments are a lot more slack than those of my experience in the USA.

At my university here, there are of course problems with that, but this being a private university, it seems as thought the whole focus is different. The continuing education program here appears to be better than at some other two year and four year schools I know of around here. I think that's important for the overall focus of education, the fact of learning in the way that one can learn --the personal creative way.

Nuala · 31 Mar 2006

I like the school system in Japan. I wouldn't work too well in it, but it's very unique. Everyone else said there is alot of emphasis on repitition, and memorization. I'm going to have to agree with them, but I don't think there is too much of it. I'd like to think a japanese student is more intelligent school-wise then an american student. The school system expects alot more from students, and there is alot of competition. That's all I've gathered from all the animes, and books I've read. I may be wrong, so don't expect me to be 100% correct on what I posted.

Damicci · 31 Mar 2006

Japanese students have a required english class so You would think they would be able to speak english even though MANY hardly use it. ALL my friends have said that attended US Colleges that US colleges are alot harder than Japanese. It seems once they graduate from High School College is not held as high as it is here. SO colleges are more laid back in assignments and homework. I don't know this for a fact but this is what I have been told by many Japanese students.

gaijinalways · 31 Mar 2006

ALL my friends have said that attended US Colleges that US colleges are alot harder than Japanese. It seems once they graduate from High School College is not held as high as it is here. SO colleges are more laid back in assignments and homework. I don't know this for a fact but this is what I have been told by many Japanese students.

It's generally true. I teach at four universities now, and students are often just coasting. In Japan, grade averages don't matter, what is important is that students graduate and how prestigious the school is that you graduate from (though I think some of the prestige is a sham). The schools often will do everything possible to avoid failing students (and yet some students still end up taking 8 years to graduate ).

Everyone else said there is alot of emphasis on repitition, and memorization. I'm going to have to agree with them, but I don't think there is too much of it. I'd like to think a japanese student is more intelligent school-wise then an american student. The school system expects alot more from students, and there is alot of competition.

But this is an exam oriented competition, generally no questions, no individual thought. As an example, if you ask students to write individual opinions on any event in history, except them to copy and post what the teacher has taught them as a 'correct' opinion.

Except for scientific disciplines, rote learning doesn't provide a good foundation for much. As a telling example, Japanese engineers are often very adept at pioneering improvements to manufacturing processes, but as far as real break throughs, no. They lead the world in patent applications and patents by 2 to 1 over the USA (who is second), but the area of patents is very narrow. The leading man in the world with the most patents is Japanese (sorry, his name escapes me at the moment), but almost all his patents are related to chip design, a very narrow technological discipline. As another example, the size of pharmaceutical companies in Japan is dwarfed even by German and French companies, countries with economies much smaller than Japan's.

See this link below

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache...as+a+percentage+of+world's&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=8

Remember though, acquiring Japanese literacy is difficult, hence the long hours need to just learn the writing system (the same for Chinese, which of course much of the Japanese system is borrowed from). Here rote and memorization is needed, in some sense, for any language acquisition to take place.

osias · 9 Apr 2006

I think the education system in Japan is so backwards in the field of foreign languages. In Japan, most ppl can hardly speak or write a comprehensible sentence after like 6 or more years of English education. Learning how to translate does not make students learn how to speak or write a language. Their TOEFL score is one of the worst in the world, but they don't really care, making excuses like English is just so hard for those people who speak Japanese as their first language. (It may be true, but they could have done better.) Many foreign ppl say that Japanese ppl have funny accents, so they should practice pronunciation.

I think I'm ok in English myself, but I don't owe so much to the Japanese education system.

Hachiro · 16 Apr 2006

Thor said:
I like the school system in Japan. I wouldn't work too well in it, but it's very unique. Everyone else said there is alot of emphasis on repitition, and memorization. I'm going to have to agree with them, but I don't think there is too much of it. I'd like to think a japanese student is more intelligent school-wise then an american student. The school system expects alot more from students, and there is alot of competition. That's all I've gathered from all the animes, and books I've read. I may be wrong, so don't expect me to be 100% correct on what I posted.

Could you expound on this statement? I find it difficult to understand how you can "like" the system yet wouldn't find yourself being able to work well in it.

Also could you explain what you mean by japanese student is more intelligent school-wise then an american student. and The school system expects alot more from students, and there is alot of competition
because from my experience of actually teaching here for more than a number of years I have yet to see where this could be true.

Hachiro · 16 Apr 2006

It's generally true. I teach at four universities now, and students are often just coasting. In Japan, grade averages don't matter, what is important is that students graduate and how prestigious the school is that you graduate from (though I think some of the prestige is a sham). The schools often will do everything possible to avoid failing students (and yet some students still end up taking 8 years to graduate ).

Don't you know it. What to me is even "stranger" that outside of technical fields, including medicine, students that graduate from Japanese Universities often NEVER find work in their supposed field of experience from their studies in college. This is particularly true for people with liberal arts degrees.

I have met many people that studied law in university but are working as salesmen, or people that actually have teaching licenses that are working in banks. What you study per say in college here often has no direct influence in the type of career that you have. The "name" of the university that you graduate from carries more weight.

Truth is stranger than fiction.............!

Northern Comfort · 18 Apr 2006

I think the Japanese education system assumes all kids think and act the same, a lot of kids can't just follow and remember, they have to see it done and do it themselves. Most other education systems, for example, Canada/US and Europe encourage students to use their own learning methods as well as the method it's taught.

Personally I think the Japanese education system is below average and fairly ignorent.

Education In Japan?

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