A Japanese 3rd-grade classroom: the individual within the group.

Often I say to my students, "You don't have to be number one, just be one. Just be a student. You don't have to be the best. [Say to yourself] `This is me and I can do this.'" I want them to show their ability in front of everyone. I say, "Everyone will know that this is your [strength], so then we can use your ability the next time we solve a problem. We can cooperate, and we can learn from each other and help each other." That is the main idea I want them to gain. Of course, this is basic study.

This is how Mr. Kotabe, a 3rd-grade teacher at an urban Japanese elementary school, talks to his students. Those of us who have heard tales of Japanese students going to cram schools and studying late into the night may find his view of education surprising. Mr. Kotabe recognizes, however, that more and more research points to the importance of elementary students developing cooperative learning skills and understanding in academic areas, rather than acquiring a litany of facts (Lewis, 1995; Sato, 1993; Stevenson & Stigler, 1992; Stigler & Hiebert, 1999).

In Japanese elementary schools, the learning of the whole child is central (Hess, 1991; Lewis, 1995), and social and academic growth are viewed as integral and interwoven aspects of education. As Sato (1993) says, "Cognitive, affective, and social spheres are not isolated into separate categories as distinctly as they are in Western thought. Likewise, cognitive development does not predominate school priorities: Cultivating all one's sensibilities is basic" (p. 122). In the United States, the dichotomy between intellectual growth and social development seems more pronounced (Lewis, 1995).

In the summer of 2000, I explored how one teacher, Kotabe-sensei (sensei means teacher), approached whole child learning in his 3rd-grade classroom. To attain a representative picture, I taped our discussion about his views of teaching and learning, videotaped his classroom for a day, and communicated with him via E-mail. Together, Kotabe-sensei and I collaborated in understanding how his view of education corresponded with what happened in his classroom. This article is both a description of a day in Kotabe-sensei's class and an analysis of how this day fits into his and his school's educational goals.

School's Educational Goals

In the interview, Kotabe-sensei elaborated on the importance of students learning to express their ideas, cooperate with classmates, and develop critical thinking skills. He showed me several pamphlets on research in elementary schools that had been carried out at his school. Kotabe-sensei's beliefs about teaching reflect the educational aims of his school, as elaborated in one of these pamphlets, Each Child Enjoying Learning Together: Science and Lifeskills. A diagram in this pamphlet depicts the school's educational aims: developing thinking skills, developing individual communication skills, and developing one's mind and body (see Figure 1).

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

The pamphlet enjoins teachers to help students develop thinking skills, the first educational goal, by creating an enjoyable classroom in which teachers and students can interact affectively, and in which teachers actively engage each student in problem solving. Developing students' abilities to individually express their ideas, the second educational goal, is defined as encouraging students to express their creativity within a group and positively communicate their ideas and needs. "Wholeheartedly developing one's heart and body," the third educational goal, is a Japanese phrase that needs further explanation. "Heart" is translated from the Japanese word kokoro, about which Sato (1993) says:

And to be a decent human being, one must develop one's kokoro (heart, center of physical, mental, social, and emotional being). Kokoro is an interesting concept because it is at once an individual self-concept (developing personal capacities) and a social self-concept (developing empathy, the capacity to relate to others). (p. 122)

Thus, "heart" is more than affective learning. It encompasses one's self-concept as well as an understanding of oneself in relation to others. The pamphlet suggests that kokoro also encompasses understanding and accepting each person and his/her differences.

What is particularly interesting about these aims is the crossover of interpersonal skills and feelings. For example, the explanation of "developing thinking skills" incorporates the concepts of students' feelings, independent work, and cooperation. Similarly, in the goal of "developing an ability to express one's ideas," both the individual and the ability to work with others are important.

The comment by Kotabe-sensei that began this article demonstrates that these three educational goals are prominent in his personal teaching philosophy. This article will attempt to answer an important question: Were these aims reflected in the way Kotabe-sensei facilitated in the classroom?

Elementary Education Curriculum in Japan

In Japan, the local government operates the elementary schools; however, the Ministry of Education determines the curriculum and what subjects are to be taught at each grade level (National Institute for Educational Research, 1999). A chart on a wall in Kotabesensei's classroom depicts the schedule of classes (see Table 1). The number of class periods for each subject corresponded with the amount of time the ministry expected to be allocated for teaching each subject. It is interesting to note that quite a bit of time is set aside for enrichment courses. For example, music, crafts, and gym together encompass six periods.

Kotabe-sensei's Class

Kotabe-sensei, who has been teaching for more than 25 years, teaches at an urban school outside of Yokohama that serves approximately 650 students in grades 1-6. Kotabe-sensei's 3rd-grade class consisted of 34 students (20 boys and 14 girls). The students were placed into five hans, or groups. In these hans, students worked together on science lessons, lunch preparation, and cleanup.

School started at 8:45; classes were dismissed at slightly different times each day, generally around 14:40 (2:40 p.m.). In addition, the students attended school every other Saturday, from 8:45 to 11:20.

Kotabe-sensei sent revised schedules home to parents in a weekly newsletter titled "Friend"; on the day I visited, the schedule outlined in Table 2 was followed. Since this class was in July and near the end of the term, swimming was a major part of the day's activities. For the first two periods, all 3rd-grade classes had swimming sessions in the school's outdoor pool; the last period was reserved for students afraid of the water.

On this day, Kotabe-sensei's class shared the swimming periods with two other 3rd-grade classes. The teachers, not special physical education teachers, taught the class. Also of significance is the fact that three periods were devoted to this "enrichment" class.

Science: Academics, Communication, Heart, and Body

The two-period science lesson provided an opportunity to examine how Kotabe-sensei facilitated the learning of a community of learners, or it might be more accurate to say communities of learners. For three weeks, the students had been investigating, primarily through hands-on activities, the qualities of air and water. Of this unit, Kotabe-sensei said:

In order for people to survive on the earth, water and air are essential. I want the students to think about the role of these in our lives. Since they are 3rd-graders, it is important for them to become aware of water and air and to compare the differences and similarities. I want them to discover these qualities and to gain a learning style of investigating and solving interesting problems.

During this lesson, Kotabe-sensei was the center of learning only a few times--when he introduced the lesson, when he checked students' work (by talking about the diagrams the students put on the board), and when he summed up the lesson at the end of the science periods. During the remainder of the class, the learning communities investigated water and air pressure by carrying out experiments and writing their results as a group. Kotabe-sensei stayed in the background to facilitate. Students, in their hans, took responsibility for the learning.

The lesson format follows:

* Kotabe-sensei introduced science concepts through demonstration and by posing a problem

* Students worked in hans

* Kotabe-sensei posted some initial results of student work on the board

* Hans investigated air and water pressure

* Students posted their group results on the board

* Kotabe-sensei demonstrated the principles, and then commented on group work.

As Kotabe-sensei introduced the science concepts to the class, he strove to capture the students' attention and stimulate their interest in the experiment; then, they could spend their time learning together how air and water pressure differ. He started the class by drawing pictures of two cylinders on the board: one containing water, the other containing air. Kotabe-sensei then held up a large, transparent cylinder that could be pumped (much like a syringe or a bicycle pump). Then the following interaction occurred:

Kotabe: What will happen when I pump it? What is the difference if it has water or air?

Student: You can touch water, but not air.

Student: Water will get in the way.

Student: Air comes out, but you can't see it. You can see the water shoot out.

Kotabe: What if I have water?

Student: Put water in, and air and bubbles come out.

Kotabe-sensei then drew some bubbles inside the air-filled cylinder on the blackboard diagram.

Kotabe: Oh, some bubbles are inside the air. What is the difference between air and water?

Student: I am not sure about air, but water comes out and you can see it.

Kotabe: OK. Now look carefully.

He pushed the syringe in the air-filled cylinder, and a cork flew out. Suddenly, students started yelling, "I know, I know" and "I remember." Kotabe-sensei then said, "Now, water." The students seemed surprised that their teacher would shoot water out of the cylinder into the room. Kotabe-sensei filled the cylinder with water from a container on a han's table in front of him and prepared to push the syringe. One student suggested, "Do it out the window and not in the room." Kotabe-sensei opened the window: "OK. How far can it go? Can everyone see it?" The students came over to watch as he pushed the cylinder and water spurted out.

Kotabe: What happened?

Student: Air took time to come out. You pushed halfway. But water comes out right away.

After several student responses, Kotabe-sensei handed out equipment to the leaders of each han, and he briefly demonstrated two other experiments for the students to try. He asked them to talk with one another to figure out what happens.

Kotabe-sensei spent eight minutes on his introduction, drawing students into the activity by posing a question and demonstrating experiments. The rest of the class time was used to learn, as a group, the relevant scientific principles.

As the students worked cooperatively on the experiments, Kotabe-sensei walked around and observed the students as they experimented, wrote down their ideas, and discussed their observations. Kotabe-sensei let the students follow their own ideas in the experiments. For example, when he stopped by one group, Kotabe-sensei put a cup in some water, connected the syringe to the cup, and asked a boy to push the syringe. When the boy asked, "What if you put the water in the syringe?" Kotabe-sensei responded: "OK, put water in the syringe." The group carried out the experiment as suggested by the student. The boy pushed the syringe and noted, "It goes to the bottom."

Kotabe-sensei then helped this group hook up a cup with two tubes and syringes so they could investigate how much water would be displaced by pushing the air out of the syringe. He asked, "How much air is displaced? Air is 20 units. How much water?" A student replied, "10." Kotabe-sensei thought out loud, "Strange; 20 units of air and 10 of water. Why is that?"

He stimulated the students to think about what they were doing. He did not furnish answers, but rather asked open-ended questions and expected groups to cooperate in understanding the qualities of water and air. The students were responsible for the learning in this class; Kotabe-sensei organized the experiment and asked probing questions. Lewis (1995) would call this type of learning "wet":

A "dry" approach is rational, logical, unemotional, and Western; a wet approach is personal, emotional, interpersonally complex, and Japanese. Most of the academic lessons I saw in early elementary classrooms were "wet" learning. Lessons were designed to spark children's personal interest and contribution, grip them emotionally, and involve them intimately with classmates. (p. 159)

Kotabe-sensei sparked his students' interest and inspired them to make suggestions and suppositions of their own. He was not looking for a quick answer; rather, he encouraged the students to investigate the phenomena to gain a personal and group understanding and to clearly express those results in a clearly written format. In so doing, the hans became the vehicles for individual and group learning.

Han Responsibilities: Process and Product

In Kotabe-sensei's class the five hans did more than work together on the experiments. They also wrote up their projects, the findings from which they posted on the blackboard. Kotabe-sensei used the students' posted work to communicate to all hans what was expected. To one group he said, "It is hard to read the writing. I understand the picture but the writing is not so clear." About another group's work he said, "This picture is good. Here is the syringe and the water. It is easy to understand."

Kotabe-sensei encouraged both process and product among the groups. At the end of class, after the groups posted their results, Kotabe-sensei offered more comments: "This is big and the important points are in color to see. [Only] one thing [is] in a picture; it is not cluttered." Of another picture, he said, "This one over here has too much. If there are four points, then one picture per point."

Checking Understanding

In addition to using specific student work to promote a clear way of expressing their learning, Kotabe-sensei also addressed the entire class to check their understanding on the qualities of air and water. Later in the morning, he drew pictures of the air-filled and water-filled cylinders on the board and said:

The water. You push the cylinder and it comes out. If there is no exit, the inside cylinder does not move back. With water, you can't push the cylinder and it doesn't come back. The cylinder is very hard. It is like concrete. You can't push it, even with lots of power.

One student yelled out, "Like Konishiki!" (Konishiki is a sumo wrestler.) Kotabe-sensei responded:

Yes, powerful like Konishiki. It is very hard to push with water. If you jump into our swimming pool and put your hands out like this, they will be smashed! The water and air are different. You can't shrink the water.

Kotabe-sensei checked the students' understanding by linking their observations to the world around them.

As lunchtime approached, Kotabe-sensei demonstrated the air and the cork coming out of the cylinder for the last time.

Kotabe: Do you understand today's lesson?

Students: We understand.

Kotabe: When you push, the air ...

Students: Shrinks!

Kotabe: If water is in and you push, the water ...

Students: Comes out.

Kotabe: The water doesn't shrink.

The conclusion of this science lesson linked the "wet" and "dry" learning approaches. This final exchange almost appears to be a "dry" approach, because Kotabe sensei was prompting the students' answers. However, the whole process leading up to this understanding was quite "wet," with the students very much responsible for the learning as individuals in a han. When this lesson was completed, the hans continued with their responsibilities by cooperatively cleaning up, dumping the large containers of water in preparation for lunch in the classroom. The division between academic and social activities continued to be blurred.

Lunch and Cleanup

During lunch and cleanup times, the students continued to interact as members of their hans. In Japanese elementary schools, students in different hans take turns serving a hot lunch in the classroom. After putting away their school work, all of the students spread handkerchiefs on their desktops. The student servers for the week put on white coats and hats. Other members of the serving han pushed in a large metal cart that contained the day's lunch--curry rice, Japanese-style vegetables, and milk. One student dished out the rice and another served the vegetables; Kotabe-sensei helped the group by serving the curry on top of the rice. The two monitors for the day stood at the front of the class and signaled the beginning of lunchtime by saying, "We thank the people who made this food." Kotabe-sensei stayed in the room, eating with one group.

Lunchtime was an opportunity for the students, as meal servers, to take responsibility for the classroom. While Kotabe-sensei facilitated the serving, he was not the focal point of lunchtime--the students were in charge. Kotabe-sensei continued his role as facilitator, while staying in the background.

After lunch, the students put away their handkerchiefs and chopsticks and prepared to clean up their room, as well as their assigned areas outside the room. On the wall was a rotating schedule that indicated each han's cleaning responsibilities. Students were responsible for cleaning the classroom, the shoe locker area at the entrance to the school, the hallway in front of the class, and the hallway near the library.

In the classroom, students in one han moved the chairs and desks to the back of the room and piled the chairs on top of the desks. In the hallway outside the classroom, a row of four students holding rags crouched down, preparing to clean the hallway floor as soon as sweepers finished with their jobs. In the room, the teacher helped sweep the floor while another row of students, using wet rags, washed the floor.

Although Kotabe-sensei helped sweep the room, he did not direct the students. The hans were responsible for cleaning their assigned areas. After cleaning, the day's two monitors thanked everyone for a good day and bowed, saying good-bye to the class.

Kotabe-sensei explained his beliefs about the purposes of lunchtime and cleanup:

The aim of cleaning up is to have students help each other and develop a "volunteer heart." It is natural etiquette for them to clean their own room and not depend on others. As for lunch, students need to establish a balanced diet and not to be picky eaters.

He encouraged cooperation and student awareness of their surroundings. These activities seem to be preparing students for becoming members of society as well as continuing life in school.

Conclusion: A Balanced Child

Focusing on only one day in a teacher's life could easily lead to misinterpretations of what school is really like throughout the year, because it only examines a narrow slice of classroom time. On the other hand, the slice offers a close-up view of how a teacher engages students in one classroom at one point in time. This class is not that unusual, considering research on Japanese elementary schools (Lewis, 1995; Sato, 1993). The description of one day helps enlightens us about a common misperception about Japanese education: lack of individualism. Kotabe-sensei aims to develop the heart and body of each child in each han. Contrary to common perceptions of Japanese education, individualism is not suppressed in favor of the group.

Kotabe-sensei's class depicts a balance between the academic and social aspects of learning. When I asked him how he would think about separating these more, he replied:

In Japan the social is more detailed and complex than in the U.S., and the teacher provides more guidance. A basic of education in Japan is for each child to develop a balance of academic, moral, and physical development.

Kotabe-sensei did not facilitate this type of classroom without some outside pressure, however. Parents demanded more academics:

Most of them [parents] ask that we do the same thing as cram schools. School is to provide students with a place for personal growth. Not only study, but kokoro (heart). But parents think about their children's futures and only worry about academics. They don't think their children need anything else.

Kotabe-sensei tried to provide students with a balanced education through opportunities to develop intellectually, cooperatively, and communicatively. Yet, he--like many teachers in other countries--must balance his aims with the demands of parents.

Table 1

Posted Schedule

Period          Monday           Tuesday          Wednesday

1 8:45-9:30     Japanese         Japanese         Music
2 9:30-10:15    Japanese         Science          Moral
3 10:35-11:20   Japanese         Music            Math
4 11:20-12:05   Math             Social studies   Gym
5 13:40-14:40   Social studies   Math             School activity

Period          Thursday         Friday           Saturday

1 8:45-9:30     Class activity   Japanese         Calligraphy
2 9:30-10:15    Gym              Gym              Crafts
3 10:35-11:20   Science          Social studies   Crafts
4 11:20-12:05   Science          Math
5 13:40-14:40   Math             Japanese
Table 2

Actual Day's Schedule

1st period   8:45-9:30     Swimming
2nd period   9:30-10:15    Swimming
3rd period   10:35-11:20   Science
4th period   11:20-12:05   Science
Lunch
Cleanup
5th period   13:40-14:40   Special swimming class for
                             children afraid of water

References

Hess, R. (1991). Cultural support for schooling. Educational Researcher, 20(9), 2-8, 12.

Lewis, C. (1995). Educating hearts and minds: Reflection on Japanese preschool and elementary education. New York: Cambridge University Press.

National Institute for Educational Research. (1999). An international comparative study of school curriculum. Tokyo: Author.

Sato, N. (1993). Teaching and learning in Japanese elementary schools. Peabody Journal of Education, 68(4), 111-147.

Stevenson, H., & Stigler, J. (1992). The learning gap. New York: Summit

Stigler, J., & Hiebert, J. (1999). The teaching gap. New York: The Free Press.

Scott Johnston is Assistant Professor, Education, Carroll College, Waukesha, Wisconsin. Tadahito Kotabe is currently a 6th-grade teacher, Suwa Elementary School, Yokosuka City, Japan.