Japan and its standardized test-based education system

Japan and its standardized test-based education system

Hensachi is a term used in Japan to establish one`s rank relative to others. (Yuko Kawanishi p. 79) It is quite a demeaning thing to say the least if you are ranked lower than your friends. It is something that separates Japanese from each other, and lowers self esteem.

Japan and its standardized test-based education system:

Indeed today`s Japanese mothers are of the Hensachi generation and want to do all that they can to insure the success of their children. Perhaps these mothers did not do well in school and felt humiliated as a result. They don`t want the same thing to happen to their own children. So they too put pressure on their children to study, study, study! So do peers, so do junior high school teachers, and if the family can afford it,so do the cram school teachers. Is it any wonder that students sometimes commit suicide?

Furthermore, for these mothers, success must be tangible.

"Anything that does not contribute to high grades is considered unnecessary. In the mother-child centered family, many mothers find their greatest joy in educating their children. But they interfere in their children`s lives and often deprive them of the chance to be on their own....These factors combined with an absent and unavailable husband or father make sensitive and vulnerable Japanese children end up developing deviant and abnormal characterstics." (p. 80 Yuko Kawanishi)

The first 8 years of my children`s education were great! Two years at a public kindergarten, where they taught the basics, played, had fun, learned to get along with others, and learned the basics for living in Japan.

Then 6 years of elementary school where they were allowed to be creative, play, hold hands, and slowly grow up.

My daughter goes to a local elementary school. My two boys regrettably go to a local junior high school. I don`t agree with the way they teach at the junior high schools in Japan. Then why send my kids to a local junior high school?

There aren`t any viable options for our family. Plus I hope that my influence, the influence of my own English school (where they also study) and having two creative, critical thinking parents, will help my children to thrive in spite of that latter half of their "education."

We cannot afford to send even one child to an international school which charges anywhere from 2 million yen per year and up. Some of the private junior high schools are almost as expensive as the international schools, but teach in the same formulaic, rote memory style of learning. I have taught at one of them and my wife has taught at three different junior high schools in Japan.

Though some Japanese agree with rote memorization as a learning method. It isn`t necessarily the teachers fault about the way things are taught. Curriculum decisions are made from above, and Japanese junior high students are not the easiest people to teach.

While we can afford shiny new tanks, and jet fighters for Japan`s military, we cannot even afford to plant grass at even one public junior high school. (My wife cringes and says,we choose not to plant grass.)

Why? Wouldn`t it be nicer for the kids to run around and play soccer on grass than dirt? When it rains, it turns to mud.

Anyway, the students play their sports on dirt. However they are used to it. They played on dirt at elementary school as well and probably even at kindergarten. We cannot afford to air condition (or at least) turn them on, on a consistent basis. How do the kids study on 30 degree days with 90% humidity?

Perhaps it is a statement about the resilient nature of Japanese students that they do it in spite of the weather and in spite of the spartan facilities they have to study in.

Japan and its Standardized Test-Based Education System Quotes:

"...I think that an education system that teaches skills that can be employed in the real world for the rest of your life (creative thinking, problem solving, etc.) as opposed to skills that will only be useful once (passing that high school math exam). I'm certainly not implying that math is useless, but compare the times per week you have to use algebra to the times where you have to employ critical thinking...rarely is anything new. Producers of music and TV shows and animations look at what's out there and can't come up with a fresh idea (they don't know how) so they take an existing formula and rearrange it, which apparently is good enough for them. It's also why I can't read most comic books - they're all essentially the SAME (especially the romantic ones aimed at girls). Maybe if these producers and writers had been challenged to use their creativity further in school, they wouldn't be so strapped for fresh ideas."

--Kazan (Japan and its standardized test-based education system,Japan Today Comments)

"Mr. Burns is right on the money, Kindergarten and Elementary are very good here. Jr and Highschool is why you see all the suicides. We are moving back to the US before then. I pledged to my wife that I would never allow our children to attend a Japanese High School."

--USA Expat (Japan and its standardized test-based education system,Japan Today Comments)

"Good article with several valid points.

A Japanese teacher once told me that the purpose of the Japanese education system is not to educate, but to show children how to be Japanese."

--Medieval Times (Japan and its standardized test-based education system,Japan Today Comments)

Japan and its standardized test-based education system

For some positives in Japanese education, one need look no further than the local, kindergarten or the local elementary school. For everything other than English education, they are doing a good to great job of educating the children of Japan. Classes are creative, teachers are caring, on the whole, and students are happy and learning.

Were the whole education system to be like this from kindergarten to the end of university, the Japanese people would be happier, healthier and more productive, both in GDP and creative terms.

Japan and its standardized test-based education system

"It is the most difficult thing in the world trying to do an activity in which they think for themselves. They either have to be in a group or they won't do it. If it's an activity that requires them to explain something, they can't do it. If I ask about why they like some movie/anime/tv show, they act like I'm asking them to tell me the meaning of life. Even my adult eikaiwa students have a lot of trouble, though I'm always encouraging them to speak their minds.

There's too much of "I'll just study enough to pass a test" rather than studying to learn, and to actively use it, and English is an excellent example of this. The kids memorize the vocab and grammer to pass the test, but they never use it. Even young teachers who got such and such high score on some test can't speak a word of English if I approach them. I think studying for scores only is a problem back home, but at least I feel like students are given far more of an opportunity to think about what they're doing, rather than read and recite over and over again. These kids are very intelligent, but people shouldn't make them gauge it based on a bunch of test scores alone."

--Kokorocloud (Japan and its standardized test-based education system, Japan Today Comments)

"Working as an engineer in the shipyards, I have noticed that the men who did not go to high school outperform the trade school and university grads all the time, in the critical thinking area, hands on, and problem solving. It seems more often than not, having an education does not mean you are more intelligent!"

--Davin (Japan and its standardized test-based education system,Japan Today Comments)

Japan and its standardized test-based education system

Comments about the Article from Japan Today

Japanese people have faces they put on for everything, and yes, there are faces for bosses and for teachers. Those faces have "don't make waves, don't take risks" written all over them. But the guy next door plays his clarinet for hours every day (he is pretty good and jumps genres), and on the other side is a guy who roasts his own coffee and varies it quite a bit by season from what I gather. I can go to five restaurants within five minutes of my house with menu items I have not seen anywhere. Japanese software, in my experience, is very good. Their space program is special. They have made some of the best horror movies ever made in any country, and they are often imitated. If you can't find creativity in Japan, you are talking to too many 20 year olds or kindergarteners.

Standardized testing, with all its ugly bits, has enabled Japan to keep some standards more or less intact and provides some rule of "fairness" and some measure of "aptitude." Within this rigid system, perhaps because of it or perhaps in spite of it, Japan produces greatness every day. It is not Japan's failure that it cannot show it to people like Kevin. It is Kevin's failure for not seeing it.

Some people have 20 years' experience, and some people have one year's experience 20 times. If a person truly walks through life with eyes open and views Japan's education system in a circumspect manner, I don't understand how they could reach Kevin's conclusions." --Klein2

Japan and its standardized test-based education system

Gonemad says:

"...I think there is a lot of creativity in Japan, but compared to other places it seems more unevenly distributed among the population, the average Tanaka Tarou being rather dull and uninspired while there is a fantastic creativity at the small top.

As much as I personally like controversial discussions, that's impossible in Japan. But that doesn't mean Japanese don't have opinions, they will just not articulate them in the same way as "westeners". The Wa is more important. You have to read more in between the lines.

It's better to hold back your opinion - or "have no opinion" as the author writes - than proselytizing uninformed drivel, isn't it?

The problem with the Japanese education system is not so much the tests per se, but the way they are used. Because children have to outperform their peers in order to proceed to the "right" school or university, these tests have become overly important and hence too much effort is wasted on them."

Japan and its standardized test-based education system

tkoind2 states:

"Working in Japan I see three huge gaps in education. 1. Critical Thinking and 2. Problem Solving. 3. Independent Thought.

My work spans technical and business worlds and I far too often see Japanese colleagues lacking the capacity for critial thinking. The ability to re-engineer something seems to be a very strong trait here, yet the ability to work though an abstract problem using critical thought processes seems to be lacking in far too many people I meet in business.

Second. Problem solving. I have to wonder how students are trained to address problems. Perhaps it is a collective approach which stunts individual capacity to resolve problems quickly. Trial and error approaches seem equally lacking. Often my western colleagues will arrive at several quick potential solutions to a problem, while our Japanese peers are still working the details, often collectively.

Independent thought. Getting someone to take the risk to posit an opinion or go out on a limb with a solution is like making rain in the desert here. I know these young workers are smart people, but without someone directing them, they stop moving. If they hit a problem they stop and wait for instructions rather than exercising critical thinking, problem resolution skills and independent thought to move past it.

Japan is doing a disservice to the people here by teaching them to answer test questions rather than teaching them to use accumulated knowledge to develop these three critical life, technical and business skill sets."

"I completely agree with the lack of creativity, independent thinking and problem-solving skills. But it is not only due to the standardized tests-based system, although that most definitely is a factor.

No, another big factor is hierarchy. People HAVE opinions, people ARE able to work out solutions on their own, but they are extremely reluctant to make themselves heard. Not stepping on the toes of a superior, and not standing out / drawing attention to yourself in general, are of such overwhelming importance that frankly business efficiency becomes secondary. "Conformity" is Prime Directive A1 in Japan.

I have had many discussions with Japanese businessmen in their 30s and 40s who know that the Japanese must become more assertive, outgoing, independent-minded, creative etc to compete successfully on the global stage, particularly when it comes to China and North Korea. But the powers that be—ie the older generation—cannot adapt to this reality and demand, and get, conformity simply because of seniority.

Another problem is the obsession with details, the idea that "perfection" (whatever that is) lies in making every single detail of something, no matter how trifle, perfect. In my field, publishing, that means focusing obsessively on making sure terminology is absolutely consistent, not a single comma is missing anywhere—while at the same time completely losing sight of the overall message of a publication, how it reads, if it is interesting/inviting/engaging and whether it is actually communicative or not. This approach, while admirable up to a certain extent, wastes huge amounts of time and resources."

--Tranel (Japan and its standardized test-based education system,Japan Today Comments)

Japan and its Standardized Test-Based Education System to Japan Living (home)

Japan and its Standardized Test-Based Education System to Daily Life in Japan

Mike Guest on the Education System in Japan and his son

"All the students in the elementary schools I work at take four standardized tests a year: One test is taken at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year to gauge academic progress and a different test is also taken at the end of the school year for State and Federal evaluation of acceptible yearly progress. The one complaint I repeatedly hear from the teachers is that all this testing locks the teachers into a strait-jacketed lesson plan. There is no time to allow for deviation from the plan because too much course material must be covered before the end-of-year State test." --Fadamor (Japan and its standardized test-based education system, Japan Today Comments)

"I've been teaching English full-time in Japan for 20 years, and I the author of this article is spot on. (I've also taught music most of my life.) Japanese have a terrible time expressing themselves, in Japanese or English; it doesn't matter. And I agree; things start to deteriorate from junior high school when testing becomes the focus of education.

I recently asked some third year high school students whether or not, given the opportunity, they would like to live abroad, and why or why not. Most who said yes gave simple reasons like, "because the people are kind in that country", or `because I like the food there.`

I think most of us move to other countries for the challenge, for new work opportunities, or for a better future. When asked their opinion, most Japanese have difficulty expressing themselves at a deeper level--answers tend to be very obvious or superficial--without substance or support to back it up."

--Aspects (Japan and its standardized test-based education system, Japan Today Comments)