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Florizalll
Joined: 01 Apr 2006
Posts: 42
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 Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 9:15 am Post subject: ARRGGHHH! The "Banking" Philosphy of Education |
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Orginally, I started as a JHS ALT mid-year and today was my first day of the brand new school year with those wonderfully "Genki" first graders.
. . .who of course enter into JHS with all levels of English speaking abilities due in some circumstances to their exposure and practice of English in their ESs and whether they go to juku, language schools, etc.
What drives ME nuts is the JTE's approach to planning for her classes (I don't want to generalize so I'll keep it to the one particular teacher). This BLANK SLATE or BANKING PHILISOPHY to education- assume the children know nothing and start from scratch, regardless of their English language abilities thus far. "Fill their heads" with knowledge like a new bank account. How archaic!
During our intro lesson, by eliciting vocabulary and grammar structures, it was quite clear many students had some solid English abilties, but afterwards the teacher said to me, "As you can see, students know some English. But we don't want the other students to feel bad, so let's still do the ABC's tomorrow." She referred to the textbook (which could have been bought at a 100 Yen Shop) and pointed out that some grammar points wouldn't been presented for weeks. No problem with review, but c'mon, this philosophy of "keeping everybody mediocre so nobody will feel bad" drives me crazy! New teacher's in the US are trained in "differentiated instruction"- creating and adapting lessons for students of different levels, having high expectations so all students have the opportunity for challenges.
Are Japanese teacher education programs really that behind in progressive teacher practices? Are new philosophies and approaches ignored? Is some sort of professional development offered to teachers?
Anybody have a similar (or different) experience with a JTE ? |
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bearcat
Joined: 08 May 2004
Posts: 367
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| Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:07 am Post subject: |
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Playing devil's advocate here...
Do you consider that the same goals and priorities within Japan's and other countries education systems exist? Or are they different and reflect the needs or perceived needs of those cultures?
I'd say a fair amount of your observation is more so based on your viewpoint from your own cultural perspective. Ask your JTE what are the goals for the class overall, the goals (as the JTE sees them) for education at the school, and lastly that of the society.
Once you have that full perspective from the JTE, compare it with other teachers(If you have the opportunity to ask them) at your school.
Then ask yourself again, if your perception warrants consideration or if in fact that your perception on the education system should be modified to be more attuned to the needs of those within the system.
Just something to chew on, perhaps... |
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Florizalll
Joined: 01 Apr 2006
Posts: 42
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| Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 12:30 pm Post subject: To the devils's advocate. . . |
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Thank you for your post!
Yes, of course. Part of the purpose of education is socialization. In the case of Japanese society, to learn how to blend in and be "part of the group" is rewarded. Just as in American society, people wish for others to perceive them as individuals, with special talents and requiring special attention. Not to say one is wrong or better than the other- it's culture.
I am imposing my own cultural beliefs on the Japanese classroom. I can't deny that. But in my opinion, when people's abilities are disregarded or suppressed, it's a normal reaction to, well, react. An apparent observable reaction in the classroom is for many students to just be apathetic- put the head on the desk, not respond at all because "what's the point." And teachers allow it.
But, as I play to your devil's advocate position, just because that's how society exists, is it beneficial for the student to be ignored? Isn't it in the student's best interest to be engaged, challenged and motivated? In turn, isn't it beneficial for society to have members who are engaging, challenging and motivating? |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 12:45 pm Post subject: |
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Yes, that's how Japanese society is. I'm frankly surprised that you haven't learned as much in half a year.
Is it good for the students? That's for Japan to judge, not you. You are an ALT (and if I guess right based on entering halfway through the year, perhaps even a JET ALT). Regardless, the point is, whether you are qualified and experienced as a licensed teacher, or serving as a typical JET ALT with little to no experience and only an assistant, you are obligated to understand how things work here. You are also probably not going to change things.
Is that defeating? Yup.
Is that the end of the world? Nope.
Let me ask you this. What percentage do you estimate are students in your class that are above the level at which the JTE is teaching? If it's a significant percentage, then your teacher has a lot to learn, but are you in a position to teach him/her?
If the percentage is low, then roll with the punches and ask if you can do things outside of his/her lesson plan that give these kids some extra work and encouragement. Perhaps the lesson plan itself should have its sights set higher, but until it is, you aren't in a position to dictate much. Why not have "extra credit bonus points" for some of the higher level kids to excel in (but don't really count it in their final grade, because they're just going to ace whatever you give them anyway, and the whole class grades get "adjusted" by the JTE no matter what you do)? |
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shuize
Joined: 04 Sep 2004
Posts: 1270
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| Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 12:51 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
What drives ME nuts is the JTE's approach to planning for her classes (I don't want to generalize so I'll keep it to the one particular teacher). This BLANK SLATE or BANKING PHILISOPHY to education- assume the children know nothing and start from scratch, regardless of their English language abilities thus far. "Fill their heads" with knowledge like a new bank account. How archaic!
During our intro lesson, by eliciting vocabulary and grammar structures, it was quite clear many students had some solid English abilties, but afterwards the teacher said to me, "As you can see, students know some English. But we don't want the other students to feel bad, so let's still do the ABC's tomorrow." She referred to the textbook (which could have been bought at a 100 Yen Shop) and pointed out that some grammar points wouldn't been presented for weeks. No problem with review, but c'mon, this philosophy of "keeping everybody mediocre so nobody will feel bad" drives me crazy! New teacher's in the US are trained in "differentiated instruction"- creating and adapting lessons for students of different levels, having high expectations so all students have the opportunity for challenges. |
Don't worry. They'll all learn to hate English equally soon enough. |
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Florizalll
Joined: 01 Apr 2006
Posts: 42
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| Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 1:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Glenski wrote: |
Yes, that's how Japanese society is. I'm frankly surprised that you haven't learned as much in half a year.
Is it good for the students? That's for Japan to judge, not you. You are an ALT (and if I guess right based on entering halfway through the year, perhaps even a JET ALT). Regardless, the point is, whether you are qualified and experienced as a licensed teacher, or serving as a typical JET ALT with little to no experience and only an assistant, you are obligated to understand how things work here. You are also probably not going to change things.
Is that defeating? Yup.
Is that the end of the world? Nope.
Let me ask you this. What percentage do you estimate are students in your class that are above the level at which the JTE is teaching? If it's a significant percentage, then your teacher has a lot to learn, but are you in a position to teach him/her?
If the percentage is low, then roll with the punches and ask if you can do things outside of his/her lesson plan that give these kids some extra work and encouragement. Perhaps the lesson plan itself should have its sights set higher, but until it is, you aren't in a position to dictate much. Why not have "extra credit bonus points" for some of the higher level kids to excel in (but don't really count it in their final grade, because they're just going to ace whatever you give them anyway, and the whole class grades get "adjusted" by the JTE no matter what you do)? |
Hmmm. So sorry to read such a pessimistic post. And it's so typical for the pessimist to take the idealist for naive or uneducated. I haven't said that I didn't know this is the way Japanese society exists. I implied I'm dissapointed that I haven't seen more in the way of teachers looking to support and encourage individual student development in the classroom.
And I see your point. Japanese schools in some degree are inviting new perspectives into their schools by having foreign persons work with the Japanese English staff. In fact, it's often a question by Japanese staff to foreign instructors- how are schools different in your country.
And your advice seems to contradict your stance- an assistant has no effect on student grades. And grading itself is too often used as manufactured motivation- isn't the goal for students to enjoy learning, succeed at it and want to continue doing so?
I do hope that negative views such as the one you've expressed are not widely held- although you may have been in Japan so long as the overstated issue at hand has affected you as well: You've become unmotivated, unwilling to look outside of the system- accepting and apathetic. |
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Florizalll
Joined: 01 Apr 2006
Posts: 42
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| Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 1:28 pm Post subject: |
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[/quote]
Don't worry. They'll all learn to hate English equally soon enough.[/quote]
Which is what makes working with kids challenging and interesting- it's not just teaching material, it's figuring ways to get students engaged in learning. At least I hope that's what people working with children aim to do. It certainly isn't worth doing at all if one expects to have no positive influence on student learning and let's face it, the pay generally sucks! |
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JimDunlop2
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Posts: 2286
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 4:53 pm Post subject: Re: ARRGGHHH! The "Banking" Philosphy of Education |
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| Florizalll wrote: |
| the teacher said to me, "As you can see, students know some English. But we don't want the other students to feel bad, so let's still do the ABC's tomorrow." ....... but c'mon, this philosophy of "keeping everybody mediocre so nobody will feel bad" drives me crazy! ....... |
As one who used to teach Jr. High, let me say a couple of things about that. First, I suspect the teacher wasn't giving you the real reason behind her actions -- it was just easier to explain it to you that way. Why do I know that? If my ichi-nensei classes were anything approaching typical, I had kids who didn't know the alphabet from a hole in their heads.
It has nothing to do with keeping everyone mediocre -- it has everything to do with not having the time and resources to individualize lessons. She can't very well split the class into two groups -- one that can do the alphabet and one that can't. She must assume that none of them can. And rightfully so. Can you imagine the parental complaints if they didn't start from scratch? Little Taka comes home and complains to mom that the teacher expects everyone to already know x, y, and z, so of course his English grades are low, right? It's not fair. At least this way they can try to eliminate any "gaps." Remember, they all come from different elementary schools (usually).
FWIW, I had san-nensei kids in Jr. High who STILL messed up lower-case "b"s and "d"s and couldn't write a proper letter "a".
Even with elementary school -- i MUST assume that no one knows anything. Yeah, it's possible that 10 out of my 40 kids go to juku or eikaiwa and already know that if I ask "How are you?" they can say, "I'm O.K." But the other 30 kids still think that "How are you?" means "konnichiwa." It's even more fun when you have a returnee kid or two.. Once I had a returnee grade 1 kid (6 yrs old)... and the ENTIRE class, he just kept interrupting me over and over and over again, saying: "I can speak English, you know." And I had to tell him, "I know you can. But look at your friends. They can't, so we have to help them, right?"
Welcome to the world of standardized education. Because we can't offer individual attention, the best we can do is try to get the kids who "know more" to be patient, and perhaps in the mean time challenge them with bonus projects or extra work to keep them, busy, motivated, and to learn more... But that usually can't happen during regular class time. |
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southofreality
Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Posts: 579
Location: Tokyo
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| Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 5:10 pm Post subject: English club |
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Florizall,
You might not be able to change much in the classroom, but if you have the time and your school will allow it, start an English conversation club. You'll be able to run things there and implement ideas and strategies as you see fit. Vary the topics from week to week. Go from music to movies to comics to whatever. Even if you get minimal participation, you'll definitely find it rewarding if you see some of your students become a little more capable of carrying on a basic conversation. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 9:59 pm Post subject: |
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Florizalll,
I'm not pessimistic; I'm realistic. Yes, I have been here almost 9 years, so I have a pretty good feeling for what goes on in the school system. How long have you been here?
I'm the one who's sorry to hear something, namely that you won't even take a realistic approach to this situation, including some very practical points that I laid out despite the fact that I believe you are not going to change the whole system here. You have to learn to work within it and make tiny changes, or you are going to continue going nuts.
| Quote: |
| I implied I'm dissapointed that I haven't seen more in the way of teachers looking to support and encourage individual student development in the classroom. |
Well, I can answer this in 2 ways.
1) Japan is a group mentality society, so to expect individual development is pretty much against the grain.
2) Despite that, my 4 years in high school (with a junior high school connected to it, so I've seen JHS teachers in action, too) have shown me that teachers are willing to bend over backwards to give study support lessons and extra classes and makeup exams just to get students to pass classes. English, math, and Japanese, mostly. I'm talking about 7 makeup exams exactly the same as the first one in some cases, yet the student still cannot pass. The quota system on grades here is ludicrous in my opinion, but I'm not going to change it. Very few kids are allowed to fail. In my old school, half a dozen kids in one year were going to fail, but the school didn't want to project a bad image, so it found ways to get most of them to pass. Stupid ways. The final straw was to have the last 4 kids merely transcribe word for word some English from a document. No mistakes were allowed. How can you fail that? Well, 2 did, but one was still allowed to pass!
Japan's mainstream school system is built on teachers giving not only academic but social development to students. There are usually no counselors or psychologists in schools, so teachers fill that role in many ways, direct and indirect. Before every year begins, teachers from one grade meet with teachers from the next just to fill them in on social issues so that everyone is informed. I've attended those meetings. They let you know what kids have shyness problems, attitude problems, good attitudes, psychological issues, and (get this one) who has a girlfriend or boyfriend.
| Quote: |
| Japanese schools in some degree are inviting new perspectives into their schools by having foreign persons work with the Japanese English staff. In fact, it's often a question by Japanese staff to foreign instructors- how are schools different in your country. |
You wrote that as if this is something new. JET has been doing the above for 20 years! It's not new. Sadly, only the very open-minded JTEs seem to ask questions that compare Japan's system with other countries. But that's something that is going to require a massive overhaul in the education system before most JTEs accept such thinking, and it's not going to happen soon. Negative? Pessimistic? No. Realistic. Turn the tables for a moment and ask yourself whether American schools would be willing to eliminate counselors and psychologists to let the teachers (pretty much untrained in these matters) take the helm. In many cases it works well in Japan, but why won't Americans do that? Rhetorical question, ok?
| Quote: |
| I do hope that negative views such as the one you've expressed are not widely held |
I'm sorry to disappoint you, but my views are pretty widespread.
| Quote: |
| You've become unmotivated, unwilling to look outside of the system- accepting and apathetic. |
Accepting? Yes. And, still only to a point. I do have to live with the system, I choose to, and I don't foresee major changes in the near future. But as for all of those other points, you couldn't be more wrong. Nice judgment call on knowing so little about me. Or hadn't you read my signature? |
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markle
Joined: 17 Jan 2003
Posts: 1316
Location: Out of Japan
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| Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 3:24 am Post subject: Re: ARRGGHHH! The "Banking" Philosphy of Education |
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| Florizalll wrote: |
| New teacher's in the US are trained in "differentiated instruction"- creating and adapting lessons for students of different levels, having high expectations so all students have the opportunity for challenges. |
How many kids in your JHS class?
How many in a typical US HS class?
Which one do you think 'differentated instruction' will work in? |
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Brooks
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1369
Location: Sagamihara
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| Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 5:29 am Post subject: |
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not all schools are as backward as the OPs.
My school has tracking and has 3 levels for English at the middle school:
returnee (my school is one of the designated returnee schools)
A level (previous study of English)
B level (no previous study of English)
From this year 6th grade students have to start with Mombusho books meant for 7th graders.
7th grade English is tedious when the kids have already studied English in elementary school. One American teacher I know used Mombusho books for 7th grade but had advanced students use graded readers. |
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