Japanese Education System

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"Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher." -Japanese proverb

Japan is a resilient high performing education system that is recognized internationally, but factors accrediting to their durable success may be the Japanese society’s commitment to education. Japans meritocratic education system provides difference between Japan and England including access to a first rate teaching force. Teachers are dedicated, historically respected professionals and the foundation of the Japanese education system. Investment in life long training and meritocraticisom is a testament to Japans education system and a wise lesson learnt internationally.

Foundation of Japans education system
Japan has developed over the centuries …show more content…

Japan strongly believes that ‘education should not be a competition resulting in winners and losers. Education should be a competition against ignorance, and all should be encouraged to win.” (K A Brill,2002). This resonates passionately through Japans views on education. ‘To fail is to let the group down resulting in students working exceptionally hard to achieve, and are always working towards higher goals, because that is the way to earn acceptance and gain status’ (Cohen et al., 1982). This meritocratic system creates strong extrinsic motivation prompted by family and societal expectations. This form of extrinsic motivation can been seen replicated in China and Korea where strict social and cultural respect for authority is demonstrated. Initially students seek the approval from their parents which is valued highly through school attainment results and consequential to this is admission to a respected university and importance bestowed upon attainment by future employers and society as a whole. School reputations hinge on student attainment and subsequently teachers. The high performance of students may well be culturally situated therefore Japan may be an over lorded education system to copy from but there may be some key lessons learnt from …show more content…

Strong teacher accountability ensures content is delivered successfully to a high standard consistently by a first rate teaching body. England can be seen to have a narrow prescriptive curriculum and there is evidence of innovative teaching, however major impact on attainment is not evident as this is being practised locally. Additional pressure on England’s teachers include inspectorate, strict league tables and policies for tracking set as the parameters applying unquestionable performance measured pressure upon England’s teachers. For students within England the system promotes ‘a fear of failure even in high-achieving students (Pulfrey, C., Buch, C., & Butera, F. 2011) and consequently impacting on their intrinsic motivation. There is no inspectorate in Japan, accountability is for all with no performance measures but the country’s education attainment levels are one of the best in the

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