Educacion

1. Excerpts from The Learning Gap – Why Our Schools Are Failing and What We Can Learn From Japanese
and Chinese Education.
Chapter 2 – Academic Achievement
 Students from Japan, Taiwan and China spend 2-7 times the amount of time on homework when
compared to American students.
(Asian students and families express some amazement that American students do as well as they do
with the little amount of time they spend on their studies.)
 American students are overrepresented among the best and worst readers.
 American students scored far lower than Japanese and Chinese in Mathematics.
o Advanced Algebra Scores –
 Japan and China 80/100
 American 40/100
o First Grade Math
 Students fairly close in scores
o Fifth Grade Math
 Best American schools scored lower than the worst Asian school in math scores.
o 100 highest 5th
grade math students.
 China (88), Japan(11), America(1).
Chapter 3 – Students’ Lives
 Parents should set aside space for students at home to study.
o Over 95% of Japanese students have a desk at home. 63% of American students have
one.
o Many Asian parents go without a desk so their children have one.
 Most Asian schools assign work over breaks and vacations. Most American schools do not.
 Reading for pleasure each week.
o Japan 5.7 hours per week
o China 4.3 hours per week
o America 3.8 hours per week
 Asian parents allow play but only after schoolwork is done. American parents do not require this to
the same degree.
 American students have more home chores than Asian counterparts.
 Class sizes range from 38-50 in Asian schools
Activity Sendai Taipei Minneapolis
School 6.5 8.3 6.0
Homework 1.0 1.9 .8
Play 1.5 .6 2.4
Television 2.0 1.2 1.8
Reading .9 .7 .6
Sleep 9.3 8.8 10.0
Other 2.8 2.5 2.4

2.  Classroom management comes from teacher and by students. Group manages students as well as
the teacher.
 American students have far fewer opportunities to interact as a group than their Asian student
counterparts.
 Greater opportunities for Asian students to relax during the school day mitigate the need to relax at
home.
 Students working on their own on work sheets, exercises, etc. is never higher than 31% of the time
in Asian classrooms. In American classrooms it is about 50%.
 Asian students tend to like school more than their American counterparts by an average of 15%.
 Asian elementary classrooms are not highly competitive. The class works together.
Chapter 4 – Socialization and Achievement
 Parents abdicate the responsibility to educate their children to teachers; Asian parents do not.
 Huge jump in scores between Asian students and American students from kindergarten to first
grade.
o American parents believe the school should take on many of the responsibilities they had
previously engaged in.
o Asian parents now begin to gear up to invest large amounts of time and energy in
supporting their children’s academic activities.
 American parents expect their children to be successful in social acceptance, appearance, prowess
in sports and thinking skills.
 Asian schools require daily communication between parents and teachers through signed
notebooks.
 Young people and other successful people are held up as role models in society. In America athletes
and the dysfunctional (Bart Simpson) are held up as role models through media, advertising, etc.
 Difference in approach to shaming
o America – “You should be ashamed of yourself for acting like that.”
o Asian Culture – “You have shamed the family by acting like that.”
 Asian teachers spend little of their time lecturing.
 In Asia, students do not want to do poorly in fear of scorn by their classmates, rather than their
teacher.
 Asian parents regard the most important job for a child to have is to do well in school.
 Lack of achievement in Asian cultures stems from a lack of effort, not a lack of ability, as it is
perceived in American society.
 In American classrooms, teachers go to great lengths to avoid the appearance of failure as this may
reflect a student’s innate ability. In Asian classrooms, failure is not a fear as it just indicates more
work needs to be done.
 Grading is public in Japanese schools. In America it is secret.
 Japanese students were given an impossible math problem to work out, but it was taken away as
they would not give up.
 American students give up more quickly than their Asian counterparts.
 The pervasive focus of innate ability in American schools discourages hard work in students…

3. Chapter 6 – Satisfactions and Expectations
 The belief that native ability determines success prevents many American parents from
expecting the most from their children.
 American parents are much more satisfied with their children’s performance than their
Japanese and Chinese parent counterparts.
 All 50 states believe (as of 1988) that they are above the national average with their students’
testing.
 American students view themselves to be better readers and math students than their Asian
counterparts.
 American mothers were asked what score (out of 100) they would be satisfied with. 76 was the
result. Asian mothers asked same question. Their response was 94.
 Older American students often shy away from seeking distinction in their academic work
because it isn’t “cool” or because they fear being labeled “nerds”.
 American parents often point to the presumed higher rates of suicide and emotional problems
of Asian students as justification for giving kids “room”. Suicide rates the same for Japan and
the U.S.
Chapter 7 – The Organization of Schooling
 China devotes 3.7% of its budget to schooling. America it is 6.8%.
 Howard Gardner (multiple types of intelligence) disagrees with the Asian philosophy of
education.
 All Asian students study the same lesson at a given time. This is true country wide.
 White board formula is applied to all students.
 1990 Gallup poll should 70% of parents desired a national curriculum as it is done in Asian
cultures.
 American teachers often omit topics as they teach. It is hard to tell who omits what without an
integrated approach.
 A common technique used by Asian teachers in math classes is to have children present as many
different solutions to a problem as possible, and then to have the class discuss which methods
are the most efficient.
 Asian schools are in effect for 240 days a year. American schools average 180 days a year.
 Asian teachers do not spend large amounts of times lecturing. They present interesting
problems, they probe, ask questions, etc.
 90% of class time is spent on instruction in Asian classrooms; 67% of time spent on academic
work in American classrooms.

4. Chapter 10 – Defining the Solution
 National education policy needs to be set.
 National standards need to be set.
 Disengagement of American families
o Reengage families towards learning
 Decrease the teaching load.
 Improve teacher training.
 Children learn most effectively when they:
o Have a teacher who leads them to make discoveries that underlie further acquisition
of knowledge and to make generalizations to other material.
o Are presented with lessons that are well scripted and well organized and that use
multiple approaches to illustrating the principles being taught
o Are given an idea of why they are learning certain material and the material is
presented in a context with which they have had some experience
o Are given frequent opportunities during the course of learning to interact with
others in generating ideas, explain answers, and evaluating the adequacy of their
own and other children’s answers
o Are provided with clear information about the relevance and accuracy of their
answers and are not made wary of trying new ideas
o Have hands-on experience with the material being discussed
o Are presented with multiple examples of a conceptt so that they can deduce the
underlying principle, and are required to come up with some of the steps toward
the solution themselves.
o Are provided with opportunities to practice what they have been taught.
 Teachers should spend as much time as possible working with the whole class.
 Class discussion, manipulation of concrete materials, group solutions of problems increase
children’s understanding and add to liveliness of the class.
 Consider increasing class size.
 Increase break times during the day.
What families can do
 American parents should become more involved in their students’ education.
 Parents can express curiosity about the subjects their students are learning.
 Create a physical and psychological environment at home that is conducive to study.
 Become acquainted with schools and students’ teachers.