世論 What Japan Thinks

This is a rather short but still interesting survey from goo Research, conducted in conjunction with the Mainichi Shimbun, into the proposed reforms to the national curriculum, particularly with regard to elementary school education.

Demographics

Over the 29th of February and the 1st of March 2008 1,069 members of the goo Research online monitor group aged 20 or older were randomly-selected and completed a private internet-based questionnaire. More detailed demographics were not given.

Some of the reforms proposed are outlined in this article from the Japan Times.

These changes are to address the drop in academic level in international tests (or is it that other countries are improving, or a mix of both?) by studying more. Looking at the league leader Finland, it can be seen that there are neither long school hours nor much pressure, whereas Japan’s solution seems to be adding more hours and more pressures. I’ve seen television programmes investigating Japanese education, and the problem teachers identify is too much overtime for them to be able to prepare for lessons or to be at their best when teaching. Overtime has indeed steadily increased over the decades, so more hours in classes and a new curriculum to learn is not going to fix that.

Most foreigners I know who teach in schools also highlight the lack of classroom dicipline and too many events (sports day, culture days, etc), the preparation for which disrupt teaching schedules for both teachers and students.

The teaching of pi equals three is actually true to a certain extent. In the current guidelines, teachers should use 3.14, but in certain circumstances (what circumstances, the curriculum guidelines do not say) three may be used.

Research results

Q1: Do you approve of the recent reform of the national curriculum? (Sample size=1,069)

Yes (to SQ1)	78.7%
No (to SQ2)	21.3%

Q1SQ1: Why do you approve of the recent reform of the national curriculum? (Sample size=841)

Will foster the ability to think	41.9%
Will increase knowledge	38.3%
Will learn about morals	18.6%
Will be useful for examinations	1.2%

Q1SQ2: Why do you not approve of the recent reform of the national curriculum? (Sample size=228)

Will not foster the ability to think	63.9%
Teaches morals, patroitism	20.3%
Will only increase knowledge	8.8%
Will not be useful for examinations	7.0%

Q2: What do you think about teaching English from 5th grade of elementary school? (Sample size=1,069)

Too soon	19.6%
About right	49.2%
Too late	31.2%

Q3: What do you think with reforming teaching so that a pi value of 3.14 is used? (Sample size=1,069)

Agree	92.7%
Disagree	7.3%