The report presents some interesting data points, the most salient of which are listed below. Although not specific to English language education, the findings have implications on the shape of various English language programs that schools design and implement in their (and the government’s) desire to improve the effectiveness of English language teaching and learning at primary and secondary schools nationwide.

The Positives

• Both private and public expenditure per student has increased.
• Access to all levels of education is high compared to other OECD nations.

The not-so Positives

• Classes in primary and secondary schools are overly large.
• Teacher working time is significantly above the OECD average…
• …although pre-tertiary level teachers are required to spend a lot of time at school compared to teachers from other OECD nations, actual teaching time is significantly less than at other OECD nation schools.
• Compared to other OECD nations, women teachers are significantly under-represented from primary school upward.
• Contrary to the OECD trend, men are more likely to move on to higher levels of tertiary education than women are.
• When men & women of equivalent educational qualifications are compared, a huge disparity in salaries is evident, in favour of men.

Other Interesting Points:

• INEXPENSIVE Early childhood education in Japan is one of the least expensive among OECD nations.
• EXPENSIVE Tertiary education tuition fees are among the highest in the OECD.
• PRIVATE EXPENDITURE Japan – along with South Korea – have the highest level of tertiary-level private expenditure among OECD nations).
• GDP Japan commits a relatively low proportion of its GDP to education, particularly when looking at pre-primary and post-secondary domains.
• GETTING PAID Although salaries for primary- and secondary school teachers have actually declined, salaries are still above the OECD average.

In response, Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) have formulated recommendations to address several of the issues that the OECD document expresses, which I will look at in a follow-up post.

1.  Japan Times ST

“It’s a new proposal to (challenge) the conventional high school education system….Rather than teaching what they know, a teacher’s role today should be to act as a coordinator who instructs students on how to search websites and compile information into something they can express by themselves”

Though for all intents and purposes, N High School is a correspondence school, it is offering a level of interactivity that should offer up interesting questions on the possible affective and educational benefits of the uniquely immersive experience of virtual reality.

Going forward, as the various requisite technologies mature, it will be interesting to see which reality variant – virtual, augmented, or mixed – will best serve the needs of dispersed learning communities worldwide.

Nobuo Kawakami (left), chairman of IT and media company Dwango Co., and Tatsuo Sato, chairman of publishing house Kadokawa Corp., introduce the correspondence N High School at a news conference held in October at event space Nicofarre in Tokyo’s Roppongi district. | SHUSUKE MURAI

]]> 2375 https://projectgenius.online/2016/09/14/teaching-idea-you-should-take-a-pill-for-that/ Wed, 14 Sep 2016 00:26:10 +0000 http://learnwithpeter.com/wordpress/?p=2371 A short lesson sequence practicing using modals of advice centered around the theme of health.

Japan is approaching what some are calling “the 2018 problem” — in two years, the number of college-bound 18-year-olds will hit an all-time low and continue to shrink thereafter, according to data from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). Which means Japanese universities may not be able to rely much longer on a regular customer base.

[Read entire article at OXY]

According to a Daily Beast article,

WorkFlowy link HERE

The Longest Working Hours in the World

Japan’s teachers are overworked. They toil away at school from early morning until late at night, and many go in on weekends too, preventing them from getting a proper rest before Monday comes round again.

In the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey, conducted in 34 countries and regions by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, researchers found that Japanese teachers had the longest working hours.

This was not due to the amount of time spent teaching. In fact, class time in Japan was below the survey average. The long hours result from various other duties, including meetings and lesson preparation. Most striking of all is how much longer teachers in Japan dedicate to extracurricular activities […continue reading]

Click on the link below for a description of the lesson sequence and for the worksheets.

WorkFlowy Link HERE

In Tokyo, children take the subway & run errands by themselves. This has a lot to do with group dynamics. SBS News: http://t.co/HD9mIpkJRH

— Project Genius (@ProGenJapan) October 6, 2015