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By: Carol Kinney
On a sunny morning in May, Ms. Endo, who is in her eighth year of teaching, finishes a quick breakfast of toast and coffee and assembles her clean gym clothes and a picture of her cat for art class. During the slow drive through heavy traffic, she thinks about ways to help the students get along with the Korean girl who joined their class this March.
Arriving at 8:20, she calls out a cheery greeting as she enters the teachers' room and squeezes into her seat at the fourth grade teachers' block of desks. The five-minute morning meeting ends promptly and the fourth grade teachers briefly confer. Teachers gather whistles and change their shoes as they discuss the school garden and head outdoors for weekly play period. After announcements, Ms. Endo encourages her students to play dodge ball in their area of the playing field. After 15 minutes, the principal blows a whistle and the field becomes quiet. The four teachers talk about plans for a science experiment and an unexpected absence as they follow students up the stairs.
Students noisily settle into their seats. At 8:55, Ms. Endo begins playing the electric piano. Students stand and sing "Grandfather's Clock." Next, two students lead the morning meeting while she silently grades papers at her desk. Today's facilitators announce arithmetic, and class begins. Ms. Endo ends with a contest between groups using multiplication. Japanese language class follows, and although today's facilitators call out "stand up," "attention," and "bow," students are still talking, so Ms. Endo has them start over. Appearing more prepared, the students sit quietly and begin raising their hands excitedly to answer questions about flowers. Chimes ring to signal the end of class at 10:30. Ms. Endo leaves her class alone in the classroom and joins the other teachers in the teachers' room, where there is a cup of tea and a cookie on each desk, for a fifteen-minute break. She quickly drinks and eats while several teachers tease a young man about his upcoming honeymoon, then she rushes out to change into sweat pants and tee-shirt. She enters the gymnasium and spends the first few minutes listening carefully to the Korean girl and two other girls who are in tears, while other students do warm-ups. P.E. ends at 11:30 after basketball drills and games. Ms. Endo next initiates a class discussion for fifteen minutes about respecting differences and getting along together. Then, she plunges into funny stories about her cat to discuss portraying movement in sculpture for a shortened art class. Class ends at 12:15, 10 minutes early, to allow time to prepare the room for lunch.
Students call "teacher, teacher," asking her to join their group. They all talk and tell jokes during lunch. Ms. Endo then supervises student cleaning in two restrooms and her own classroom. The 1 hour and 20 minute break for lunch, cleaning, and recess draws near its end as Ms. Endo stops briefly in the teachers' room to debate topics at an upcoming PTA meeting.
After science and social studies, the daily student-led "going home meeting" continues until 3:40p.m. Students slowly pack up their belongings after changing out of their gym clothes at their desks.
Ms. Endo chats with remaining students while tidying the classroom; several girls stand in the doorway giggling. She hurries to the 4:00p.m. teachers' meeting, then heads back upstairs at 5:30 to look over student diaries. At 6:30, the school is quiet as she calls out "o saki ni shitsurei shimasu" (I'm leaving ahead of you) to the four teachers working in the computer corner of the teachers' room and to the vice principal who is sitting at his desk toward the front. After a 55-minute drive, she arrives home before 7:30p.m.
I spent 2 months during late spring of 1995 in public elementary, middle, and high schools in Naka City, Japan—the primary Third International Methematics and Science Study (TIMSS) case study site. After an initial introductory and scheduling visit to each school, at least 2 full days were spent in each of the nine schools studied. I followed at least 2 teachers in each school for an entire schoolday and observed their classrooms, meetings with colleagues, break times, and preparation times. Observations began before the morning teachers' meetings and usually continued until after 5:30 p.m. In addition, 12 school administrators, 2 school board members, 2 board of education members, and 20 teachers were interviewed at length in their offices or classrooms. During my time at each school I spoke extensively with other staff and teachers and observed club activities, teachers' after-school interactions, curriculum meetings, and other committee meetings.
At each school the staff selected the teachers to be followed for a day. I expressed a preference to "shadow" one male and one female, one more experienced and one less experienced teacher. In addition, I asked that at least 1 teacher at each school be a math or science teacher, and that the teachers be teaching 4th, 8th or 12th grade, depending on the level of the school. Schools could not always comply with all these requirements because their staffing patterns did not reflect this much diversity or because the teachers in a particular grade had previously spent considerable time with a TIMSS researcher. In most cases it seemed that a teacher who was known to be a good teacher either volunteered or was assigned to me, but due to my request to follow younger, or less experienced teachers, I observed a range of teachers. In the high schools I was unable to interview many female teachers of math or science, mainly because there are proportionally fewer women in these fields teaching at the high school level. All of the teachers I shadowed expressed some shyness before the morning meeting, but none acted as if they minded my following them around. I do not think that any of the teachers I followed were pressured to take part in the study. Most appeared to be speaking relatively freely about their teaching experiences, although one high school science teacher seemed slightly reluctant to talk with me after I observed his class until I turned off my tape-recorder.
Questions addressed during the interviews and conversations concerned the personal characteristics of teachers, teachers' assessment of their training, the working conditions of teachers, a typical workday, teachers' general views on teaching, and what makes a good teacher. While observing classes I focused on the interactions, instructional techniques, disciplinary actions, and general classroom atmosphere. In the teachers' rooms and other school areas I observed working conditions and the interactions among teachers and between teachers and students. All interviews were transcribed, translated, and coded, and all observations were written and then typed and coded. In addition, interview and observation data from schools in Minami City, collected by Naoko Moriyoshi, and Kita City, Japan, collected by Gerald LeTendre, were used as reference and supplemental materials and are reflected at points in the analysis.
There was a great deal of variation among the schools visited and among the teachers interviewed. The schools varied in the economic background of students and, at the high school level, in the degree to which they were academically challenging. Some teachers were highly energetic in their teaching styles and interactions with students while others were quieter, although all seemed serious about teaching their subject matter to all the students in their classroom. All teachers expressed dedication to their profession, and all expressed hope that teaching would be their lifetime career.
According to the teachers interviewed and observed, to become what Japanese teachers consider to be a good teacher requires more than knowledge and skills. Desire, motivation, liking children, and, as an elementary school principal in his sixties told me, wanting to "get those children's bright eyes to shine, to find out on your own how you can best help children," are all seen as essential in becoming a teacher. One elementary school teacher told me that the requirements for a good teacher were that:
You have to like the work. Of course, experience is also important and various knowledge is also important but if you didn't like it, it would be no good in the end. If you think 'oh, this is awful,' well, it is better to quit this work. Definitely! If you are tired of it, then it is no good for the children, you know. (Elementary school teacher)
And the principal quoted above continued to say,
They don't have things about these children written in a textbook. Only general things are written down. So you use the things in the book as the base and think about each individual as hard as you can and yes, that is a good teacher!
But how do Japan's schools attempt to recruit, develop, and keep teachers who not only are highly motivated and like children but also have the requisite skills and knowledge? The answer was hinted at when a principal told me they must nurture all types of teachers through their various life stages. More directly, teachers and administrators described extensive training opportunities. Equally importantly, according to the teachers and administrators studied, the closely knit communities of teachers in each school that I observed and the continual sharing of information and casual banter that develops along with a regular rotation of teachers, provide an atmosphere of support and learning. Underlying the nurturing, training, and sharing described to me by the teachers interviewed in this study is a sense among teachers that there is some respect for their profession, competition to enter teaching jobs, an adequate salary, work hours that compare favorably to those in companies, chances for advancement and new responsibilities, and job security.
The teachers interviewed reported that they believe their profession is fairly well respected and of above-average pay, although not high paying. Their work lives are busy, but teachers also report some flexibility in their use of time. Teachers report that the amount of time they spend outside of the usual 8:00p.m. to 5:00p.m. workday depends on their personality, their goals, and their stage in life. In general, teachers reported that they are both responsible for and in control of most of what occurs in their schools. Although both teachers and administrators described a few circumstances when administrators assert control and assign teachers to tasks or schools that were not requested, teachers see most assignments as part of what they expected when they became teachers. Teachers are generally required to be at their schools for at least 8 hours a day. Junior high school and high school teachers usually only teach 4 of the 6 hours of classes each day. Elementary school teachers sometimes teach more class hours and are expected to be at school for planning, meetings with other teachers, advising students, and socializing for about a half-hour before classes begin in the morning and for at least an hour after school ends in the afternoon. Most teachers reported that they do all their school related work at the school, which contributes to much interaction between teachers.
Almost all teachers have graduated from 4-year universities and are required to have taken many credits in their area of specialization. Teachers interact with other teachers, attend in-service training, and many voluntarily participate in small research and study groups. Novice teachers are assigned formal mentors during their first year on the job. The teachers interviewed reported that throughout their teaching years they look to other teachers for guidance and help. Teachers told me they feel they are effective at the basic tasks of teaching, and they described being explicitly taught about lesson planning, the use of materials, and more basic skills such as how to write on the chalkboard. A variety of teaching techniques and presentation styles were observed and most teachers demonstrated a substantial repertoire of methods. Most teachers interviewed expressed a desire to improve themselves and their ability to reach out to all students.
Teachers reported and I observed that when discipline problems occurred, teachers attempt to get students to resolve problems among themselves and to discuss disagreements. Usually a homeroom teacher initially addresses a discipline problem and then, depending on the severity of the infraction, the head grade-level teacher, other homeroom teachers, or administrators may also be asked to get involved. No teacher expressed a sense of powerlessness in the face of student misbehavior, although a few described schools that had more severe disciplinary issues and how staff changes and other structural interventions helped improve those schools. Minor infractions, such as making a joke or talking out of turn during a lesson, were tolerated and even indulged. According to my respondents, enjoyment and social development are seen as important goals for students during the school day. I observed several teachers engaging their students in enjoyable, non-academic activities such as story-telling, games, and play activities outside during nice weather, even during regular lesson times.
Especially in elementary schools, but also in junior high schools and high schools, teachers reported that they saw the purpose of education as guiding students to become more fully developed human beings. All the schools I observed included times for enjoyable interactions through scheduling ten minutes or more of free time between classes or after lunch, encouraging students to interact with their friends on school property before and after school hours, planning school trips and other outings, and all-school participation in special school events such as festivals, music contests, sports exhibitions, and other activities.
Teaching in Japan provides adequate pay, some respect, and, compared to many Japanese companies, high job autonomy. Average monthly salaries for Japanese teachers, excluding other benefits, were ?309,400 for elementary, ?305,700 for junior high, and ?330,400 for high school teachers in 1992 (Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture, 1995, p. 121), salaries that compared favorably, especially for female college graduates, to the average for college graduates in that year: approximately ?397,000 for men or ?268,000 for women across all industries (Statistics Bureau of the Management and Coordination Agency, 1995, p. 112). The average starting salary for elementary and junior high school teachers was ?180,000 per month compared to the average starting monthly base salary for college graduates overall of ?187,000 for men, and ?180,000 for women across all industries (Statistics Bureau of the Management and Coordination Agency, 1995, p. 112). Approximately 58 percent of elementary and 36 percent of junior high school teachers were female in 1992 (Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture, 1995, p. 119). In Naka city in 1996, the recruitment brochure of the Naka City Board of Education listed teachers' starting monthly base salary as ?229,300 (approximately $2,290 at a ratio of ?100 to one dollar) for kindergarten, elementary, and junior high school teachers and ?231,000 (approximately $2,310) for high school teachers. In addition, like many full-time employees in Japan, teachers receive a bonus equivalent to 5.2 times their monthly salary (?11,920,360, or almost $12,000) divided into three bonus payments in December, March, and June. Although elementary and junior high school teachers are hired by the local city, town, or village, prefectural governments pay half of all salaries in order to ensure uniformity of compensation within the prefecture. The compensation in each prefecture is based on the pay received by national school teachers, which is specified by national law (Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture, 1995, p. 121). Teachers are also eligible as civil servants for extra monetary allowances for dependents, financial adjustments (such as cost of living), housing, transportation, assignments to outlying areas, administrative positions, periodic costs (such as those incurred when traveling with sports teams), and diligent service.
The average length of service of teachers in Japan at the elementary, junior high, and high school levels in 1992 was between 15 and 16 years. The average teacher is about 40 years old; less than 20 percent are under 30 and only about 10 percent are over 55 years old (Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture, 1995).
Teachers must pass rigorous examinations to become teachers, usually taken after graduation from a 4-year college program. Graduates from teacher-training universities included 63 percent of elementary, 43 percent of junior high, and 20 percent of high school teachers; the rest graduated from general universities. Approximately 20 percent of elementary, 10 percent of junior high and 3 percent of high school teachers have 2-year degrees; the rest have at least 4-year degrees (Ministry of Education, Science, & Culture, 1995). In order to obtain a teacher certificate of first class, held by all teachers with a bachelor's degree, elementary school teachers must have a minimum of 18 college credits in their specialty subject and 41 college credits in teaching. Junior and senior high school teachers must have 40 college credits in their specialty subject and 19 college credits in teaching. For example, a junior high school teacher of mathematics must take at least 40 college credits in mathematics including 20 in some combination of algebra, geometry, analytical geometry, probability and statistics theory, and computers. Elementary school teachers are required to have taken a minimum of two college credits each in Japanese language, social studies, arithmetic, science, life environment studies, music, art and handicrafts, homemaking, and physical education (Ministry of Education, Science, & Culture, 1995). Although universities design their own teacher-training courses, the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture, or Monbusho, certifies courses and provides oversight of the content of the courses and the teaching faculty at all certified universities. Teachers and administrators are able to focus on motivation and liking students as key qualities for becoming a good teacher partly because the academic standards attained by all prospective teachers in Japan are high.
It is hard to determine the level of prestige and respect that comes with the profession of teaching. A few teachers I interviewed complained that they are often blamed for many problems ranging from bullying to academic competition to students' lack of interest in their futures. However, many argued that although societal respect for teaching has declined, it is still a respected profession. Although students and parents may believe that the effort put forth by students is more important for achievement, teachers regard their teaching skills as essential, and they hold themselves and their colleagues to high standards of work. I found many teachers continually striving to be well-rounded models and competent teachers for their students. Despite relatively high levels of support, training, and respect, teachers were quick to wish for even more support, criticize training as too systematic, bemoan the fact that sufficient training does not occur in every school, and state that the status of teachers cannot be taken for granted. When asked directly about whether they feel the profession of teaching is respected, my interviewees generally answered that it was still a respected profession but not as much as long ago. The following excerpts are from a conversation with three fourth-grade teachers about the level of respect for teachers in Japanese society today:
Mr. A: If I'm outside, like on the subway, and it happens that a child comes up and says "sensei!" (teacher) to me, right? I don't like that.
Interviewer: Why is that?
Mr. A: I wonder. Somehow, to be thought of as a teacher, I don't like that. I feel that maybe that means I don't think my position is being seen well by society. Maybe it is because I don't think of it as good work.
Ms. B: I really don't like that. I can't quite explain it fully to everyone, but it would be good if how busy we are could be understood. No matter how I'm seen, if I am trying as hard as I can and satisfying myself, I end up thinking that society doesn't totally grasp or understand our work.
But Mr. A. concluded that it was a dignified profession, after a long discussion of many aspects of their feelings about being referred to by students as "teacher" in public:
Mr. A: Parents think that those who teach their children are socially very important. When I go home to my own area, everyone knows that I am a teacher. If there is some problem, something in the neighborhood, like they need advice on the baseball team, or anything, they quickly come to me and ask me to do it. It's OK when you have a kind of dignity. People don't think "Oh, he's a teacher" (said in a negative tone of voice). It isn't necessary to feel inferior. What I said earlier about being embarrassed when called "teacher" on the subway, that is somehow different. I guess I am just a bit shy.
Although these teachers do not necessarily like to be pointed out in public, they are still viewed as reliable people in their neighborhoods and are asked to be community representatives or leaders, which indicates a degree of respect for their position. These elementary school teachers believed that high school teachers were highly respected.
Despite the overall uniformity within Japanese education, the backgrounds and views of these teachers provide a different picture from one of homogeneity. Partly this was due to my requests that, if possible, my interviews and observations be scheduled with both male and female teachers and both veteran and newer teachers. Since I was the last of the members of the team doing research in Japan, the schools had hosted at least one previous researcher. This meant that I sometimes was scheduled with the most reluctant, the busiest, or the least involved teacher, since these teachers may have not participated earlier. Partly, too, the diversity reflects the population of teachers who are a well-educated, generally creative group of individuals who have chosen teaching for a variety of reasons, often including not wanting a typical business job.
Teachers' responsibilities and the amount of time they spent on school activities were related to interests, abilities, and experience, and also to home situations. In a society where men still do little of the housework and child care, working mothers must spend more time on home-related work and less time on school-related work. One principal told me that it was important, however, to have various types of teachers at different life stages because children need many kinds of role models. He did not seem to mind the fact that women with young families could not spend as much time at school as teachers in other family situations and stages.
Elementary school. In general, a teacher is assigned to one class and follows that class for two years and is then assigned to a new grade the third year. Teachers reported that they enjoyed and felt they learned a lot about students through rotating the grade they taught from year to year. Most thought it was essential to teach all grades. Although it appeared that over time more men taught fifth- and sixth-grade classes and that women were more likely to teach first and second grade, almost all teachers had experience in all grades.
Several teachers were quite involved in activities outside of their current elementary school. These activities included involvement in many science research groups—where they share lesson plan ideas, observe or present model classes, and learn about new teaching ideas through reading and speakers—and on committees such as one creating a supplemental text for fifth-grade science teachers. Another teacher, in his early thirties, was planning a tour of schools to learn more about how history was taught in elementary schools in Switzerland and Germany. The prefecture provided funds for an interpreter for this trip, and the teacher was planning to visit local schools, national libraries, and international schools. He arranged all plans for his trip on the basis of his research interests. It was evident that involvement in the prefecture, and recognition by other teachers and administrators, could lead to interesting research possibilities for teachers outside of the classroom.
The route to administration, which involves recognition beyond one's immediate school and participation in research activities was being pursued more frequently by male than by female teachers among my interviewees. This was partly due to the time required of women for raising a family. According to several respondents, women's work at home often precluded their attending regular evening meetings and spending the extra time at school needed for these additional activities.
Academic backgrounds also varied for some of these teachers. For example, one teacher had continued as a graduate student in science and spent three years as an instructor at a private high school teaching geography after college graduation. During college (he took extra years to finish university because of his outside activities), he worked for seven years in a private after-school preparatory school (juku) attended mainly by junior high school children. He described his experience and ability as follows:
Juku costs a lot of money, right? So if you are no good, the children all leave. They come depending on your reputation. At that time, teaching junior high school students, I wasn't teaching science, I was doing math. Math. So you might even hear the name 'Suugaku no Nomura' (Math Nomura), I got that famous. And there was the 'Nomura method.' My math study plan. I made that, and made a manual....And I made it stylish. After that, I became a teacher and began teaching in elementary school.
Another teacher defined herself by telling me that she had "only" majored in kindergarten education (a four-year college program) and did not have a "real" major, so she said her teaching style was somewhat childlike. To the contrary, it seemed to me that her spirited way of interacting with her class conveyed both respect and fun and showed a real talent for acting. For example, at one point, as a way of introducing an art project involving making clay animals, she demonstrated how her cat lets its needs be known using amazingly realistic motions and poses. Her point was that their models were supposed to convey actual animal movement through the pose chosen, and her acting out of her own cat's movements made her meaning crystal clear.
The teacher who was about to travel to Europe is a Japanese history aficionado who finds multiple ways to bring his advanced knowledge into his elementary school classroom. When I visited his class he concluded his social studies class on the fourteenth-century shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu by asking students to discuss whether he was a good leader or a bad leader. The sixth-graders were spirited in their defense or attack of Ashikaga. Through bringing in original materials, such as copies of letters written by Ashikaga, and reminding students that Ashikaga had built the spectacular Kintakuji (Golden Temple) in Kyoto that they had recently visited on their school trip, this teacher made history relevant. He showed me the model weaving machine and bow and arrow he had made and brought in earlier in the year to coincide with study of earlier periods in history. He explained that his busy schedule also involves helping to organize children centered exhibits at the local museum and summer history workshops. His love of sharing his subject with children was obvious, and he seemed to be a very effective teacher. More than any sense of uniformity among teachers, their individual interests and approaches to teaching stood out among the sample of teachers interviewed, and their experiences as a teacher also varied since each teacher was involved in some school-wide and prefecture-wide committee work.
Junior high school. The junior high school teachers I interviewed and observed were also a diverse group. At Chuo, the junior high school of the highest academic and economic level in this sample, I interviewed another male teacher in his thirties who was scheduled for a two week trip to Australia for research, sponsored by the city. At Midori, the mid-ranking junior high school, I interviewed two teachers who were almost polar opposites in their approach to work. A male social studies teacher in his fifties reported that he works late evenings almost every night, either at the school or at various research meetings, and heads the group of third-year teachers at the school. On the other hand, the female math teacher, who arrived at this school in April, has two small children and a husband who, in her words, "doesn't help with the children at all." The school had given her a lighter load for this year and she did not have homeroom responsibilities. She usually arrived just before the morning meeting at 8:30 and left in time to pick her children up from daycare by 5:00 p.m. Although her classes were well prepared and effectively managed, she saw her time in school as a break from her busy home life and housework. At Shimogawa Junior High both teachers I observed had 6 and 7 years of teaching experience, respectively, but they had different academic backgrounds—the English teacher was 26 years old and had only a 2-year college degree while the science teacher was in his early thirties and had 2 years of graduate work in science.
There was a variety of responses to teaching. The young English teacher wondered how long she could keep up with the pressures of teaching. She reported that although she loved her job and felt privileged to associate with other teachers and to teach students, she wondered how she would find the energy and time to keep teaching if she were to marry and have children of her own. The older social studies teacher devoted almost all of his time to teaching and seemed to take extreme satisfaction in all aspects of his job—teaching his homeroom class, organizing the parent-teacher association, supervising the 3rd-year teachers, running the tennis club for girls, and being involved in many out-of-school meetings and activities. He often worked from 7:00 in the morning until 10 or 11 at night.
High school. As has already been seen in previous chapters, there are great differences between the three high schools. Because of the rotation system, which requires teachers to change schools about every 6 years, many teachers had taught at several types of schools. Most high school teachers teach three to four classes a day and have free periods in between. This schedule made it possible for me to observe and interview teachers and administrators during the school days and then spend the after-school time touring the schools or watching teacher meetings or student club activities. I focused almost exclusively on math and science teachers, interviewing nine. I observed eight different teachers' classes as well as briefly sat in on classes in the technical subjects at Naka Vocational. At the high school level I was unable to follow women teachers, mainly because there were not as many female science and math high school teachers–approximately 21 percent of Japanese high school teachers are female, and even fewer teach math and science (Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture, 1995). The head of the science department at Meiji High School was a woman, but she was out of the school on school business during most of my time at the school. Two of the women teachers who spoke with me at length were non-permanent staff members. They taught a full course load but were not considered full-time and did not participate in committees or lead homerooms. Both of these women described family circumstances that had forced them to resign their permanent teaching jobs—one due to her husband's transfer overseas and one because of a parent's illness. They could not be reinstated as permanent teachers without re-taking the extensive employment examinations.
The high school teachers were a diverse group. They included a man in his early forties who had spent three extra years at a top-ranking national university because of his involvement in a Noh drama club. He then spent several years teaching in a city with a very active teachers' union before moving back to his home town of Naka, where the union is less active. Both his union experience and his time spent at university during the late sixties made him willing to be different and buck the system at times. Another teacher in his late thirties reported that he spent much of his free time studying methods for teaching mathematics at the local national university and giving lectures on mathematics to community groups. His energy seemed boundless and he eagerly presented his ideas for practical computer classes to the math group meeting at a school that mainly is preparing for examinations. He and another math teacher and I went for dinner after school and he spent the entire meal discussing innovative mathematics puzzles that can be used to teach basic math concepts to students. During the mathematics section meeting, I observed he enthusiastically described new courses he wanted to develop, particularly a section on advanced computer usage. The other eight math teachers listened respectfully but clearly were not as enthusiastic about courses that were not directly related to college examinations. The meeting did encourage a substantial exchange of ideas about the purposes of mathematics education at this competitive high school. The teachers I questioned afterward reported that it had been a typical meeting and that the discussion would become more heated as the time for developing the following year's curriculum drew near. It seemed that the variety of opinions and approaches among the teachers led to in-depth discussions about the reasons for any given teaching method.
Another teacher had 35 years of experience in teaching and had been at Naka Vocational High School for 20 years. He had five grown children of his own and seemed to have great patience for encouraging students in the lower-track vocational school. An expert teacher, he cultivated an atmosphere where the math teachers felt comfortable asking to observe each other's classes and having their own classes observed. In his last year before mandatory retirement, he also was continuing to challenge the other teachers to not spend too much time just talking, but to actually help students. In this school, too, I observed a rather confrontational mathematics teachers' meeting where the four teachers debated how to address the problem of high school dropouts. Teachers' different outlooks and experiences led to an interesting argument about how the problem was best approached.
I spent one full day with each of two teachers at the six elementary and junior high schools and was able to discuss most issues with them when we sat down to talk, usually around 5:00 in the afternoon, after a hectic, but seemingly usual work day. At the high schools I focused on two to four teachers, but also interacted with other teachers in the teachers' room during class periods when not observing classes. Meiji High School and Naka Industrial High School both scheduled more opportunities for interaction than I had anticipated, including meetings with former principals, opportunities to sit in on student-teacher training, chances to observe similar classes taught by different teachers, and guided tours of all the technical divisions at Naka.
Almost all the teachers appeared to be eager to hear my comments and questions about their jobs, and many stated that they welcomed the chance to reflect upon their work. For example, one teacher told me at the end of our day together that it was "a good chance and I have also gotten to reflect on various things. I am really grateful." The two teachers observed at Chuo Junior High insisted I come to an elegant coffee shop with them so we could continue our conversations after I finished, because they were enjoying the chance to reflect on their teaching. They proceeded to discuss the merits of various study patterns among students and the problems with a new examination system. This type of discussion of methods of advising and teaching students seemed to be something in which they often engaged, and they told me that they had these discussions regularly.
Several teachers compared my presence as an observer to more formal teacher-training classes, which entails massive preparation. Naoko Moriyoshi, who observed in another site in Japan for this project, described such a thoroughly prepared fourth-grade science class and wrote in her notes, "other teachers also observed the class, and the presenting teacher seemed somewhat nervous. He had prepared a class plan and distributed it to every observer." About a 10th-grade math class observation, Ms. Moriyoshi concluded that the teacher was nervous and the students seemed subdued due to the 10 observers in the classroom. There appeared to be other differences between Moriyoshi's description of classroom activities and what I observed. She observed no chaotic-seeming classes and saw less individualized instruction and was generally given handouts detailing how all activities were related to specific learning goals. I was told that teachers generally did not make detailed lesson plans. I observed both carefully structured periods of teaching and more chaotic moments. In addition, most teachers told me they were not nervous and the students seemed to be energetic.
Although a few teachers wrote a brief outline of what they hoped to teach, I always observed alone and never saw an extensive lesson plan. Indeed, most teachers told me that although they have a general lesson plan that they make at the beginning of the year and review periodically, they do not write out a specific plan for each class period. Two veteran high school teachers openly told me that their only memos to themselves regarding each lesson was a mark in their textbook showing the date they had finished that page the previous year. This statement downplayed their preparations somewhat, since they both used mimeographed handouts that they had prepared over the years. They revised these sheets depending on the progression of material and the current class's needs. This amount of preparation seemed typical among teachers with more than three years of teaching experience. Teachers reported having spent many hours on each day's lesson plans during their early years of teaching.
[Chapter 5 - Teachers and the Teaching Profession in Japan (Part 2 of 7)]