Another visit to a Japanese High School

Today I returned to Kanagawa Sohgoh High School with two math teachers from my school.

We observed three math classes and a technology class. During first period we watched two different teachers teach the same lesson. They were sophomore level math classes. We were in the first class for 45 minutes and then switched classes to the other teacher for the remaining 45 minutes. The most amazing thing is that they were teaching the same lesson on the same day at the same pace. We walked into the second class almost exactly where the first teacher left off. I don't think that this is common, but it was amazing!

Curriculum

I am continually amazed that on the surface, Japanese schools and American schools don't look much different. The teaching styles are similar enough that most people wouldn't notice huge differences between Japanese teaching and American teaching. American teachers would categorize Japanese teaching as very traditional. What is drastically different is the curriculum.

Again, we watched a sophomore level math class (Math I) and they were studying Number Theory. Specifically they talked about:

• Categorizing according to divisors and reminders. For example categorizing numbers according to 3k, 3k+1, and 3k+2, where k is an integer.
• Proved theorems that involved categorizing numbers. For example proving that the square of any odd number minus 1 is a multiple of 8. Or proving that multiplying n consecutive numbers makes a number that is a multiple of n!.
• Finally they proved and then used the Euclidean Algorithm to find the Greatest Common Divisor.

I didn't learn the content that they were learning until I was half way through my undergraduate mathematics program. Not that American students couldn't learn this material, it just isn't found anywhere in our curriculum.

The third class we attended was a senior level class. There were a total of five students in this class and they were preparing for College Entrance Exams. They played math games for the first half of the class and then reviewed one very challenging math problem during the second half of the class. This problem involved triangles, circles, inscribed angles, area formulas, trigonometric identities, and vectors. Even if the problem was written in English, I don't know if I could solve this problem. This again shows how integrated their curriculum is, and I admire them for it!

I found out today that there are many different levels of textbooks. The mathematics textbooks that are used by Kanagawa Sohgoh High School are some of the hardest textbooks offered. This may explain why the content was so challenging. There is a lot of talk in American schools about Standards and about the Common Core. The Japanese school system does have content standards, but they value the textbook over the standards. This works very well because their textbooks have a very demanding curriculum.

 

Games

This third class played a number of games during the first part of the class. They were very interesting. I will share them with you.

Game 1: Police and Thief

One player starts as the Police and the other player as the Thief. The Police get to go first and they can move one space. The Thief can then move one space. Through playing the game the players learn that the triangle at the top is a very important part of this game. If the thief goes in there, then they will be caught. Otherwise they won't be caught.

Game 2: Two Groups of Stones

The game is played by drawing two groups of stones one with 25 stones and the other with 18 stones. The first player can remove as many stones of the same color as they want, the second player can remove as many stones of the same color as they want, and it returns to the first player. The goal is to be the last person to take a stone.

I won't tell you the strategies of how to win this game. The trick is to play it several times and begin to notice patterns. What I will tell you is that one of the players (player 1 or player 2) has the advantage. But I won't tell you which. If you have any guesses, please leave them in the comments below.

Game 3: Three Groups of Stones

A third game is a similar game about removing stones. The rules are the same, two players alternate turns by removing stones of the same color and the player to remove the last stone wins. But now there are three groups. The first version has 3 stones, 2 stones, and 1 stone. Like this:

Another is with 7 stones, 5 stones, and 3 stones. Just like the other stone game one of the players has an advantage and will win, unless they make a mistake. I won't tell you which player has the advantage. But if you think you know, please leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Games

I was so glad that I watched this class play games. These games are very different than the games I have ever played in American schools. These games still required critical thinking and problem solving, and it took some mathematics understanding to understand the strategy.

Student Presentations

I wanted to mention some of the things that I saw in the technology class. The students were giving presentations from PowerPoint that they prepared on technology in the future. For example they talked about designing Smart Phones so they can be used by blind individuals, 4D televisions (including things like smells), food that can be stored in data and then reproduced at will, and a way of finding lost items using a Smart Phone. The students had three minutes to present their ideas and they were graded by their peers by answering 13 yes or no questions, and overall score, and comments. These kinds of things are not uncommon in America, but I was very impressed by these presentations.

Teachers

A learned a few more things about Japanese teachers. First of all many high school teachers don't have degrees in education, they have degrees in their content area and then get a teaching certificate later. They also teach about two out of the four 90 minute periods each day (not three like is common in America). So the teachers have much more time to plan and collaborate.

Finally their school is divided up into committees. We have this at my school as well, and I am guessing this is not uncommon. But in case you are interested here are the committees at this school:

• Research (look at how they can prepare their students for entrance exams, decides how many home room classes to have, and fills out reports).
• School Management
• Career Advisory
• School Activities
• School Behavior (discipline)
• International (this school has several sister schools around the world and their students travel all over the world)

I just thought it would be interesting to compare the kinds of committees at this school and your school. Also there are between 5 and 10 teachers on each committee. Committees between 8 and 10 are the most common.