Educational Studies in Japan: International Yearbook No. 14, March, 2020. pp. 93-95
Sarkar Arani*
This is a book in the Routledge Series on Schools and Schooling in Asia, edited by Kerry J. Kennedy. This volume, Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment in Japan, focuses on the three topics of curriculum, instruction and classroom assessment from the Japanese perspective of Lesson Study (jugyou kenkyuu).
The authors here have highlighted the environment of educational and academic achieve-ment regarding the quality of educational practice in East Asia through this Japanese peda-gogical approach. Lesson Study originated in Japan and is recently gaining attention from all over the world. To begin with, the authors carefully identifi ed four categories that were intro-duced in post-war Japan with regards to teacher teaching and student learning. These catego-ries are:
1. academic ability,
2. disparity in academic abilities,
3. quality and structure of academic ability, and 4. motivation.
The book then off ers an in-depth historical overview of school-based curriculum devel-opment in Japan. This curriculum focuses on teacher training system and lesson study to show how past experiences in Japan can help practitioners design lessons in practice, build on pedagogical practices and help teachers develop curricula professionally.
The author/authors of each chapter provide several suggestions for teachers to relate to their profession now in the present, which can lead to an evidence-based debate on both the theory and practice of education. This can help scholars and readers outside of Japan to real-ise the cultural script of teaching in detail. For instance, from a mistake management culture point of view, Japanese teachers try to handle student mistakes specifi cally by classifying the
* Nagoya University e-mail: [email protected]
Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment in Japan:
Beyond Lesson Study
Review Article
Koji Tanaka, Kanae Nishioka, and Terumasa Ishii, London and New York: Routledge, 2018.
94 Sarkar Arani
same type of mistake into patterns so that the whole class can share and learn from them, not just the individual making the mistake. Tanaka’s historical research on “practices of lead-ing educators” in chapter 6 (Practices of Leadlead-ing Educators: Yoshio Toi, Kihaku Saito, Ka-zuaki Shoji and Yasutaro Tamada) indicates that “[w]hen a child makes a mistake during class, [the teacher] did not pin the blame on that child, but called the mistake ‘xx’s type of mistake,’ and classifi ed the same type of mistakes into patterns...” (p.75). This describes how in the context of Japan, the mistake can lead to several more learning opportunities.
The book is divided into three diff erent sections: (1) Curriculum; (2) Instruction; and (3) Assessment. In the fi rst section, the authors introduce trends in the Japanese debate of na-tional control and school-based curriculum development. They also mention the debate be-tween child-centred and discipline-centred curricula, and fi nally that bebe-tween visible and in-visible academic achievement. Visible achievement, they explain, refers to skills and knowledge, while invisible refers to interest, desire to learn and attitude. This debate contin-ues throughout the book, and in the second part readers can recognise the historical origins of Japanese lesson study in relation to the paradigm shift theory of the 1990s. There is an emphasis on the worldwide dialogue of ‘teacher agency’ and ‘the knowledge base of teach-ers’. This suggests what readers outside Japan may understand about attainment targets and cooperation/individualisation (of objectives and instruction) in practice. On a similar trend in the book, Ishii in chapter 7 provides concepts for consideration of ‘the logic of teaching’ and the metaphor of good teaching like a drama. The historical overview of lesson study in chap-ter 5 also provides an exceptional reading on how re-construction of a double-loop of refl ect-ing and learnect-ing can be delivered.
Tanaka and Nishioka, in Part 3 of the book, provide a historical overview of educational assessment in post-war Japan. Their detailed argument is evidence-based, with particular fo-cus on the ‘role of intra-individual assessment’, ‘meaning of objective-referenced assessment,’ ‘portfolio assessment in the period for integrated study,’ and ‘performance assessment in sub-ject teaching’.
One of the most profound messages of the conclusion is the notion of lesson study as the professional culture of schools in Japan. Nishioka clearly states how Japanese teacher learning is acquired through diff erent networks and approaches around the country, and also that “[educational] researchers play the role of promoting the cycle of developing a theory from practice and then spreading the theory to put into practice” (p.146). She describes how utilising various theories may help practitioners to shed light on the logic of teaching and learning acquisition.
This book provides many inspirational words of advice and suggestions about lesson study for those who are looking for further information. For me, the most impressive mes-sage of this book is the role of Japanese teachers’ professionality regarding the quality of continuous educational practice in schools’ so called lesson study. It is the teachers who are the origin of the global interest in Lesson Study: without their input this global trend would not have developed like it has. This book indicates that teachers can improve their own ped-agogy by adopting innovative ways to motivate students. Throughout the book there are ra-tional observations and remarks that may make the outsider admire the Japanese concept of ‘lesson study’ and the eff orts of teachers in Japan.
95 Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment in Japan
I feel that the evidence behind this book is very simple; there is a lot to learn from
jugyou kenkyuu and the various ways that lesson studies are conducted throughout the world.
It is an excellent opportunity for currently practicing teachers to contemplate their pedagogi-cal approaches, and provides countless examples of how to improve and develop teaching as a profession. This is an outstanding read that can provide an in-depth look at lesson study as a ‘science of improvement’ in schooling and teaching practice in Japan. I would recommend this book for teacher professional training, pedagogical studies, and post-graduate courses as well as educational researchers and practitioners around the world.
