A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Chapter 5 - The Training and Daily Lives of Teachers (Part 2 of 2)

Table 13 provides a summary of important aspects of the school day in terms of work environment and daily routine.

Table 13-Teachers' typical use of time

SOURCE: Third International Mathematics and Science Study, Case Study Project, 1994-95.

The most common description teachers gave us about how they felt was exhaustion. Whether they remained at school all day or returned home early in the afternoon, the task of teaching young students at a time of increasing demands on teachers, the frequent introduction of new curricula, and the desire for fostering all-around development of students have led teachers to feel greatly overworked. Changes in family organization, a growing number of working mothers, and other social changes have meant that many of the tasks that were once handled by parents have now become the responsibility of teachers. The effects of these changes on teachers' daily lives are somewhat different in Japan, Germany, and the United States.

Japan. One stereotyped view of Japanese schools is that they are rigidly scheduled by a Ministry of Education that dictates, through its national curriculum, not only what will be taught but also when each specific topic will be covered. This inaccurate view depicts all fifth-grade teachers in Japan, for example, teaching the same topic at the same time on the same day. Teachers' days are not so rigidly scheduled, but vary throughout the week, with different patterns on different days and flexible starting and ending times for treating a topic. Classes are well organized and teachers attempt to remain on target, but there are occasions when events are of such importance that teachers feel free to depart from their lesson plans in order to interact with the children.

Elementary school teachers have a specialty, such as reading, mathematics, music, or physical education, but they usually are expected to teach all subjects. In junior high and high school the teachers are specialized. They teach, for example, classes in mathematics and possibly one other subject.

Teachers are expected to arrive at the elementary school around 8:00 in the morning and to leave no earlier than 4:00 or 5:00 in the afternoon. This means that most of the work of being a teacher, both the time spent actually teaching and the time spent in preparation of lessons, grading, and other activities, occurs at school. Elementary school teachers have many other duties, such as organizing outings for the class, gathering money for workbooks and test sheets, visiting students' homes, eating lunch with students, leading student clubs, and cleaning the school in cooperation with the students.

This arduous schedule is eased somewhat by the fact that teachers know the children very well. Elementary school teachers teach the same group of students for 2 or more years, and at the secondary level are responsible for a homeroom class that remains together until the 10^th grade. Student-teacher interaction is further strengthened through excursions and field trips, and by teachers' strong efforts at finding out as much as possible about the children and their families through visits to their homes and conversations with their parents.

Schools are in session for around 240 days. These days are not all devoted to academic activities, for included in the 240 days is the time spent on field trips, sports day, the school fair, and other nonacademic functions. Teachers are also on duty throughout the summer except for short personal holidays, making it possible for much of their work in planning lessons and activities to be done during the summer months.

Teachers in secondary schools have a somewhat less demanding schedule in terms of hours of teaching, but they have other time-consuming obligations. Central among these is the need to prepare students for the entrance examinations for admission to high school and college. For this purpose they must cover the large number of topics found in the examination, hold special tutoring sessions, and counsel students about their prospects for gaining admission to various schools and universities. Teachers must also supervise student clubs, both those that are required and those that are voluntary.

One seldom sees an assistant in a Japanese classroom. Some science classes may have a laboratory helper, but for the most part, arrangements for demonstrations or experiments and all other teaching tasks must be done by the teacher. No substitute teachers are hired in Japan or in Germany when a teacher becomes ill. Instead, the principal or assistant principal may teach the class or arrangements may be made with teachers who have a free period to supervise the students' lessons.

Teachers at all grade levels said that they are asked to do too much and that they need better support. A middle school teacher told us: "It isn't good for people to work from 8:00 in the morning until late at night. Staying at school until 10:00 [p.m.] and going home to sleep-that really is a life only of school."

Teachers expect to retain their appointments until the time they retire. It is inevitable, however, that some teachers will be judged to be ineffective. When this occurs, efforts are made to help the teacher improve, but if this is not successful the teacher continues, we were told, to be "carried along. Like baggage."

Interactions among teachers are frequent. Large teachers' rooms, where all teachers have their desks and teaching materials, are found in all Japanese schools and serve, among other purposes, to provide teachers with easy access to each other. Interactions also occur incidentally in the halls between classes, on the playground, or after the school day is over. Teachers in the same school, like employees of Japanese firms, often get together during their holidays and free time at resorts, hot springs, and local coffee shops.

Germany. Teachers arrive between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m., and typically leave school before 1:00 or 1:30 in the afternoon. Secondary school teachers' schedules vary somewhat within the week, and they are able to leave the school, go shopping, or tend to other personal matters during their free periods. After-school interactions between students and teachers are infrequent since most schools in Germany do not offer extracurricular activities for students. Teachers customarily do not remain at school after the day's classes are over.

The school year is 184 days long and the teaching schedule ranges between 23 (Gymnasium and Gesamtschule) and 27 periods (Grundschule) a week. Out-of-class responsibilities of elementary school teachers include playground supervision, grade-level meetings with other teachers, monthly staff meetings, and communication with parents. Secondary school teachers must also assume the duties of being homeroom teachers, and must attend occasional school wide staff meetings, meetings with teachers of particular subjects, and meetings with parents. In addition, both elementary and secondary schoolteachers must substitute for colleagues who are absent. Teachers who take on career counseling duties have reduced teaching loads, as do teachers who are nearing retirement.

Because of their independence and a relative lack of committee work, German teachers find little need to cooperate with each other. There are brief interactions in the hall and short visits to the teachers' lounge between classes, but most teachers plan their lessons and grade students' papers after they return home.

Teachers repeatedly mentioned that changes in the population in Germany in recent years have increased the burdens placed on teachers. Accommodating the children of large numbers of foreign workers who do not speak German and who have little familiarity with German culture has increased the difficulty of teaching and classroom management.

United States. The school year in the United States is approximately 180 days long, and is broken up by a long summer vacation and shorter vacations in December and around the beginning of spring. Teachers are expected to arrive at school before classes begin every morning, usually before 8:00 a.m., and not to leave the school until the last classes are over. The length of school day varies a great deal from district to district, but generally the teaching day is long. Teachers seldom have fewer than four or five different classes each day and most teachers reported that they spend between 7.5 and 9 hours a day at school. In addition, teachers are expected to assume other duties, such as meeting the school buses, patrolling the halls, supervising the playground or cafeteria, or monitoring study periods.

Elementary school teachers typically teach all the major subjects, including mathematics, science, language arts, and social studies. In structuring their class day they must accommodate students who leave their classroom for activities such as gym class, music, or pull-out programs. Parents and other volunteers may be present in elementary school classrooms, helping children with reading or mathematics.

The teaching periods for secondary school teachers are generally of equal length, and are usually less than an hour long. Teachers at junior high schools tend to work in teams that teach certain groups of students and each member of the team specializes in teaching certain subjects. High school teachers work more independently. They often belong to departments, but their schedules are not coordinated with those of other teachers. Assistants are rarely encountered in secondary schools.

Teachers are responsible for setting up experiments in science classes, grading papers, counseling students, and handling numerous administrative chores necessary in a well-run school. Teachers are so busy during the school day that they generally have no opportunity to talk with each other about teaching practices or issues in education.

Japan. One teacher phrased the goal of Japanese teachers as "guiding students into being more fully developed human beings." In pursuit of this goal, teachers in Japan seek to promote the students' academic progress and social development. Academic progress is fostered through an interactive style of teaching that seeks to involve all students; social development is promoted by providing students with ample opportunities for social interaction during recesses, lunch, clubs, outings, and as members of small, heterogeneous groups of classmates.

During the elementary school years the pace of the lessons is slow, partly in order to be thorough and partly to allow all children time to understand the content of the lesson. Teachers intersperse their lessons with frequent thought-provoking questions. According to the teachers, a good question does not elicit a ready answer, but requires students to think. Attention of students is sustained partly because the lessons are well organized, because they know the teacher is likely to call upon them to answer questions or explain their answers, and partly because after every class period they are given opportunities for boisterous play.

Teachers profess to enjoy teaching children of all levels of academic ability, for they believe that it is through hearing different approaches that students come to understand what constitutes effective answers. Strong efforts are made by Japanese teachers to make lessons meaningful to children. This means that drill is minimized and that the day-to-day relevance of what has been learned is emphasized. Lessons are carefully planned, including the questions that will be asked, the examples that will be used, the sequence with which the material will be presented, and the kinds of information that will be conveyed through the medium of textbooks, worksheets, practice books, and notes on the chalkboard.

Junior high school is a time of transition from the interactive style of teaching that characterizes the elementary school to the greater content orientation of high school classes. Teachers know that they will be held responsible for providing the information required for the high school entrance examination and they feel pressure to cover all the material in all subjects. The recent elimination of classes on two Saturdays each month has increased this pressure, for although class time is decreased, the curriculum has not been lightened. Some of the students' burden of covering the material is relieved for those who attend juku. Instruction in juku closely follows the Monbusho curriculum and seeks to help students who have fallen behind in their studies.

At the same time, junior high and high school teachers face the difficult task of attempting to compensate in regular classes for the effects of differential attendance at juku by students in the class. Teachers find it difficult to prepare lessons that are equally challenging to those who have covered the material at juku and those who are encountering the material for the first time.

The pace of the lessons increases during high school and the teachers begin more and more often to assume the role of lecturer rather than that of guide. Because there is so much material to cover in the curriculum (and for the college entrance examinations), high school teachers suggest that they must proceed through the lessons rapidly and often report that they no longer have time to ensure that every student keeps up with the class in all the subjects.

Germany. Teachers said that the goals of education in Germany depend on the type of school being discussed. Grundschule teachers are likely to subscribe to the belief that their job is to promote children's intellectual and social development. Secondary school teachers, in contrast, seek to provide students with the broad base of knowledge that is necessary to prepare them for future careers. Teachers in a Gymnasium also face the specific task of preparing students so that their score on the Abitur examination will be sufficient for them to gain entrance into a university and to major in their chosen field of study. Vocational school (Berufsschule) teachers must keep abreast of what is happening in business and industry, for they attempt to teach their students the kinds of skills and knowledge that will be most helpful in finding employment.

Because the needs of students in the various types of schools differ, no single mode of teaching characterizes German education practice. All methods can be observed: lectures, interactive questioning between teacher and students, group work, and demonstrations. Most teachers adopt an eclectic style of teaching that incorporates several of these methods in each lesson. For instance, group work and peer tutoring are used more frequently by teachers in Grundschule and Hauptschule than by those in Realschule, but are rarely used in the upper levels of the Gymnasium. Gymnasium teachers focus on academic instruction though a lecture format. Their classes are fast paced and rather than attempting to stimulate thought, German teachers appear to be attempting to elicit the right answer. But they also attempt to incorporate class discussions and presentations by students into their classroom instruction and are facile in their ability to teach the concepts and skills they are seeking to impart to their pupils. Regardless of the level of the school, the teacher clearly is in charge of dispensing information.

United States. This is a time of great change in U.S. education, a time when the public is engaged in a serious debate about the unique value of the general purpose elementary and secondary schools that have characterized U.S. education. Under discussion are such topics as the utility of charter schools or academies, which serve special groups of students in special ways, the value of school choice, where parents may choose the type of school to which they send their child, and the contribution of different arrangements of public schools, including elementary schools, middle schools, junior high schools, and high schools with differing numbers of grades. It is also a time of argument about the subjects that should be taught and how they should be taught and about the utility and validity of certain types of courses. Each of these discussions is an expression of a different interpretation of the goals and purposes of schools.

Despite the questions that are being raised about education, most U.S. students still are receiving whole class instruction from a teacher who is in charge and who controls events in the classroom. Students are infrequently engaged in cooperative learning or group learning experiences. These approaches may characterize the practices in some schools, as do individualized instruction, hands-on experiences, and question-and-answer sessions, but the predominant mode of instruction is a sequence in which the teacher controls the interaction by asking questions, evaluating answers, and frequently providing the explanation as well. Judging from the schools we visited, changes in the goals of education do not appear to have led to widespread changes in the teaching that goes on in most public schools.

U.S. teachers are granted a great deal of autonomy within their own classrooms, but there is also a corresponding degree of control by state departments of education. In many states, the state curriculum guidelines define how much time teachers should spend each week teaching each of the primary subject areas. However, we found the decision about how to structure this time is generally left up to the teachers. Teachers in the same school may organize their lessons in markedly different fashions, but they know that their pupils will soon be taking the state competency tests. The tendency, therefore, according to teachers and principals is to modify preferred teaching practices to be sure that students will perform satisfactorily on the test. "Teaching to the test" has become a major worry in U.S. education, as it has in middle schools and high schools in Japan, for there is a tendency to give greater importance to a score on a single test than to a more thorough understanding of the material included in the curriculum.

We asked teachers and administrators in each of the three countries about major influences on teachers, such as the relation between the teachers and the principal, the kinds of responsibilities delegated to teachers, and the manner in which these arrangements are carried out. Their answers revealed clear differences in the role of teachers in terms of the school's administrative structure, scheduling, and daily procedures.

Japan. Japanese schools are organized in a bottom-up fashion; that is, major administrative responsibility is held by the teachers, rather than by the principal. Because of this, the administrative structure within even the largest Japanese schools is very lean, usually consisting of a principal, vice principal, and head teacher. Because of the practice of rotating both the administrators and teachers from one school to another after no more than 6 or 7 years, neither teachers nor principals expect to remain at any school for a long period of time. It is difficult, therefore, for an administrator to establish firm personal control over a school. Adding to the diffusion of power is the fact that principals are recruited after successful careers as teachers, which means that most principals do not assume this position until quite late in their careers, and therefore have brief tenure in this position.

The major administrative tasks in Japanese schools are the responsibility of very extensive sets of committees. As a result, the role of principal departs from that found among its counterparts in the West. The principal is not the "boss," carrying responsibilities comparable to those of the head of a factory, but is a mediator in conflicts and is responsible for the smooth execution of decisions made by the various committees. All teachers, through their membership on committees, are forced to participate in the management of the school. Committees, such as the grade level and subject committees, may be devoted to broad areas of common concern. Or committees may have a more specific task, such as planning sports day or developing mechanisms for guiding students. This administrative structure establishes teamwork throughout the school, with individual teachers working with other teachers and groups of teachers working with the school's administrative staff.

Germany. Like Japan, Germany recruits its principals from among the ranks of the school's teachers. In fact, many principals continue to teach while they hold this administrative position, thereby strengthening the relation between teachers and the school's administration. The similarity between the organizational practices in the two countries ends there. German principals are less reliant on committees of teachers to help administer the schools than is the case in Japan; they therefore exercise greater top-down authority than Japanese principals. This is especially true among the newer schools; older schools with long traditions are not so likely to have top-down decisions made by the principal without full discussion and participation by teachers. Similarly, well-established teachers are less dependent on discussions with the principal about teaching practices than are younger teachers working in newer schools.

German teachers may remain at the same school, teaching the same subjects, for many years. This produces a culture of teachers in the older schools composed of persons who have known each other for long periods of time and who have come to share many common beliefs and practices. This is not the case in newer schools, where teachers and principals spend a great deal of time discussing academic matters, especially techniques of teaching.

In general, teachers are assigned few administrative duties and are seldom asked to perform ancillary services, further limiting their participation in activities outside their regular classrooms. The primary source of information about what other teachers are doing comes from the class book, where the teacher is obligated to record the subject, what was taught, and the homework assignments for each lesson. This class book serves as the primary mode of communication among teachers concerning what students have studied.

United States. What is characterized as a typical organization of U.S. schools can immediately be countered by an example showing a different type of organization. There are commonalities across schools in the United States, of course, but there are also great differences. We can describe the organization that we encountered most frequently.

Principals in the United States, compared to those in Japan and Germany, have a great deal of power over teachers. Governance of the school is primarily in the hands of the principal and even such matters as the teacher's lesson plans must be approved by the principal in many schools. The principal, usually a former teacher who has taken additional courses in education administration, assumes responsibility for determining the various activities undertaken by teachers and the amount of time allotted for these activities. We found that little power was granted to the teachers in the management of the school, except perhaps in such matters as choosing textbooks.

Typically each teacher in the U.S., both in elementary and secondary schools, is assigned a classroom and is thereby separated from other teachers. There are no teachers' rooms such as those that exist in Japan, and many schools lack the lounges found in the German schools. Instead, there are small, often multipurpose rooms where teachers can go for coffee during their free periods or between periods.

The special value of the case study method is evident in the study of teachers. By engaging teachers in relaxed conversations and discussions we were able to elicit candid responses to our inquiries about their lives and professional training. We talked with many teachers and visited many classrooms, and we believe that we were able to obtain reliable, representative descriptions of the motivations and experiences of teachers in the three countries.

Teachers in the three countries have very different conceptions of education, except in the broadest sense. They share a child-centered view during the elementary school years, when teaching is characterized by a relaxed approach and attention is paid to both the academic and social development of students. By the high school years, however, this approach is displaced by fact-filled, fast-paced lectures that are strongly influenced by the need to prepare students for secondary school and college entrance examinations.

Teachers find the heightened emphasis on such examinations to be among the most troublesome demands currently made of teachers in all three countries. Without an adequate score on the Abitur in Germany or on the college entrance examinations in Japan and United States, admission to a top-rated university is nearly impossible. Similarly, admission to a prestigious high school in Japan is extremely difficult without a sufficiently high score on the high school entrance examination. As a result of parental demands that their child be properly prepared for these examinations, teachers are forced to "teach to the test, " an action that they feel introduces distortions into the curriculum and, according to many teachers, substitutes memorization for understanding.

Teachers in the United States also differ in many ways from their colleagues in Japan and Germany. Teaching in the United States is conducted in an individualistic, isolated fashion. After completing undergraduate work in education and liberal arts and spending a term practice teaching, the new teacher is placed in complete charge of a classroom. In contrast, becoming a teacher in Japan is to engage in extensive interaction with other teachers throughout the teacher's career. Rather than relying primarily on university classes or practice teaching, Japanese teachers are expected to learn from each other on a daily basis throughout their career. In Germany, the acquisition of teaching skill is dependent upon a two-year apprenticeship, but unlike the extensive period of supervised training provided in Japan and Germany and the on-going opportunities for collegial cooperation in Japan, U.S. teachers have few opportunities to learn from or exchange information with their colleagues. This point has not escaped U.S. educators, who have expressed concern about teachers' failure to receive sufficient training in the management of the classroom and the structuring of lessons. Another point frequently mentioned was teachers' lack of mastery of subject matter in areas such as mathematics and science. Because of rapid advances in many areas of knowledge and their weak preparation in these areas as undergraduates, many teachers lamented their lack of preparation to teach some of these subjects, especially in elementary school.

It is not only in their training that U.S. teachers differ from their counterparts in Japan and Germany. Teachers in Japan follow a distinctive approach to teaching. In Japan, emphasis is placed in a mathematics class, for example, on presenting a practical problem in mathematics, eliciting different solutions from students, getting other students to evaluate the effectiveness of the solutions, and then bringing the lesson to a close by summarizing the lesson and stating the rules that govern the solutions to the problem. In Germany, teachers are less distinctive in their style of teaching, but the teacher, with a broad background in mathematics, is able to speak authoritatively and to respond readily to students' questions. U.S. teachers impressed us as being more eclectic in their approach to teaching, and as presenting their lessons with neither the high coherence of the Japanese lessons nor with the authoritative approach to mathematics evident in the German lessons.

The most salient picture that emerged from our discussions with teachers was that of persons who are dedicated to the teaching profession, but who, especially in the United States, are experiencing many frustrations and difficulties in their professional lives. The seriousness and frequency of problems were not the same in the other countries, but were roughly similar and equally disturbing to the teachers involved. U.S. teachers told us about their heavy teaching loads, insufficient time for preparation of lessons, concern about the adequacy of their professional training, their need to assume functions of child rearing formerly held by parents, families' lack of involvement in their children's education, the infusion of large numbers of immigrant children in the classrooms, and the need to adapt to ever changing curricula.

Attempting to respond to these demands has resulted in a high level of fatigue reported by teachers. Indeed, until serious efforts are made by policymakers and the general public to create more satisfying working conditions for teachers it seems likely that the precariousness of the teaching profession in terms of recruiting and retaining effective teachers is likely to increase.

A need for increased practical training was voiced by the teachers, both for themselves and for students. They criticized their own courses in education as being dominated by theories rather than application, and teachers profess the greatest need for techniques for handling everyday tasks.

After spending many weeks with the teachers in the three countries we were made to realize that the development of teachers and the improvement of teaching conditions pose very complex problems that simple answers will not solve. Teachers had little to say about the usefulness of extending the length of the school day or of the school year, of allowing parents to choose the school their child will attend, or of establishing charter schools. They focused, instead, on the importance of improving the qualifications and working environments of those who are ultimately responsible for students' education: the teachers.

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[Chapter 5 - The Training and Daily Lives of Teachers (Part 1 of 2)]

[Chapter 6 - Conclusions]