The Teaching Gap by James W. Stigler

Author:James W. Stigler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 1999-10-06T04:00:00+00:00

Lesson Study: Japan’s

Alternative to Reform

Despite years of reform, research suggests that classroom teaching has changed little in the United States. In Japan, by contrast, teaching practices appear to have changed markedly over the past fifty years.5 What accounts for this difference? Japan, too, has sought to reform its educational practices.6 But the assumptions about how reform must work, and the mechanisms established to enact reform, are quite distinct from those in the United States. Whereas U.S. educators have sought major changes over relatively short time periods—indeed, the very word reform connotes sudden and wholesale change—Japanese educators have instituted a system that leads to gradual, incremental improvements in teaching over time. The system includes clear learning goals for students, a shared curriculum, the support of administrators, and the hard work of teachers striving to make gradual improvements in their practice.

Japan has given teachers themselves primary responsibility for the improvement of classroom practice. Kounaikenshuu is the word used to describe the continuous process of school-based professional development that Japanese teachers engage in once they begin their teaching careers. In the United States, teachers are assumed to be competent once they have completed their teacher-training programs. Japan makes no such assumption. Participation in school-based professional development groups is considered part of the teacher’s job in Japan. These groups play a dual role: not only do they provide a context in which teachers are mentored and trained, they also provide a laboratory for the development and testing of new teaching techniques.

Virtually every elementary and middle school in Japan is engaged in kounaikenshuu.7 Run by teachers, kounaikenshuu consists of a diverse set of activities that together constitute a comprehensive process of school improvement. Teachers work together in grade-level groups, in subject-matter groups (for example, math or language arts), and in special committees (the technology committee, for example). The activities of these various groups are coordinated by a school-improvement plan that sets the goals and focus for each year’s efforts. A significant percentage of teachers also engage in district-wide groups that meet in the evenings, generally on a monthly basis. Teachers spend a considerable amount of time each month on kounaikenshuu.8

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