The UK did surprisingly (exhibiting unnecessary pessimism is as near to patriotism as this newsletter gets) well in the recent PISA rankings. Only that bastion of forward thinking, progressive education – Estonia – ranks above the UK in terms of European countries. And, pleasingly, a lot of European big hitters – France, Germany, Italy and even Finland – rank well below.
But before you break out the bunting, please consider that the UK is still outperformed by the majority of Asian countries: China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan. In fact, Japan regularly outperforms the UK in the PISA scores and the difference is particularly acute when it comes to Maths.
So what can we learn from the Japanese when it comes to teaching kids Maths?
For starters, in Japan the students all sit round the teacher in a U shape. This seating plan is designed to encourage the type of collaboration that the lesson will foster. In the UK we sit in rows, uniformly, and this reflects the type of learning that we often espouse.
The lesson then revolves around structured problem solving (as opposed to, say, rote learning or solving the same type of problem over and over). The lesson is then split into 4 stages:
- Hatsumon – Presentation of the problem, followed by the estimation, planning and anticipation of the solution.
- Kikan-shido – Instruction at the pupils’ desks, followed by individual work.
- Neriage – Group work, followed by whole class discussion of ideas, strategies and solutions.
- Matime – Summary by the teacher, followed by further development and extension work.
What are the implications of the success of this method?
- Firstly, it is very clear that collaboration and team work are encouraged, which might seem groundbreaking for a UK Maths teacher. This system not only prepares Maths students for real world scenarios like, say, working as part of an engineering team, but amplifies different ideas and ways of thinking.
- The students are not prescribed set methods for problem solving. This encourages deeper thinking and conceptual understanding.
- We the rise of AI in education, we will all hear a lot more about “mastery” as method for learning. What this will mean in reality – and the first of such schools in the UK opens its doors in January – is kids sitting at computers answering questions on a single topic (with the question often being asked in the same way) until they answer enough correctly to have ‘mastered’ the topic. This method will not enhance problem solving, deep thinking, lateral thinking and collaboration – all components that have made the Japanese method so successful.
