Chapter 6 - Cultural Connections

            The talk of the town has been about how America is “falling behind”.  Of the many ways this statement can be applied, one of the ways is the education or the pace at which our students are going at juxtaposed to those in other countries.  Take Japan for example, the text mentions how Japanese students have some of the highest overall scores whereas American students have some of the lower ones.  This is something I knew beforehand.  What I didn’t know was the difference.  I assumed students generally worked harder in Asian countries therefore higher scores resulted.  I didn’t even think to look at the difference in lessons.  When comparing American lessons to Japanese mathematics lessons, here are the findings:  Americans teachers will demonstrate a sample problem (an exercise, not a ‘true problem’) and then the students will be working on the problems as the teacher goes around to individual students who need help.  In a Japanese mathematics lesson however, they find that the teacher will give the students a complex problem and have them work on their own or in pairs.  Finally, the class as a whole will have a discussion (managed by the teacher) on different approaches to the problem.  What I did not know that is key to this example is that in the Japanese lesson example, the key thing to note is that the Japanese teacher will move around the classroom to give assistance as well as to take note of the students’ approaches to the problem.  The Japanese teacher plans on which students to all on during the discussion.  I would love to try and apply this method in my own classroom.