Abstract
The chapter describes the flipped classroom practice with video contents in elementary school arithmetic. Japanese students have acquired relatively high scores in international well-known competency-achievement tests like PISA and TIMISS, and then, it is believed that the educational system in Japan gets in good success to put the basic competency onto the students. However, the teachers in Japan feel that the students should acquire more ability to apply the basic competency to the real problems smoothly and actively. The authors performed flipped classroom at an elementary school using consulting preparatory teaching videos for partial flipped teaching, transferring “understanding subjects,” “recalling already learned items,” and “self-solving” to home learning, and closely connecting learning (preparation) at home and in the classroom to upgrade the students' abilities that can solve more complex and advanced problems smoothly.
TopBackground
School education in Japan is conducted based on the curriculum guidelines of the School Education Act to realize the purpose of education stipulated in the Education Basic Act. These curriculum guidelines are revised approximately every 10 years, in response to the reports of the Central Council for Education, which is composed of experts and based on changing times, children’s circumstances, and social needs.
Furthermore, the school education referred to in this chapter is paired with home education and indicates education in which children are inculcated with the abilities needed to enter society. The main provider of the former is the government, while the main provider of the latter is the family. Additionally, in the former, textbooks and other materials are used for systematic instruction, while, in the latter, parents pass on the necessities of life through day-to-day living. Parents must sometimes entrust part of their educational duties to a private educational institution.
Key Terms in this Chapter
School Education Act: This is a law enacted for the establishment of schools in response to the Education Basic Act. According to this law, Japanese schools are organized into six years of elementary school, three years of junior high school, three years of high school, and four years of university.
Active Learning: This approach is different from unidirectional lecture-style education by teachers; the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology defines it as a generic term for teaching and learning methods that incorporate the active participation of learners. This approach to learning is intended to improve classes but does not refer to a specific “type” of instruction; thus. the ingenuity of each teacher is required.
Curriculum Guidelines: Based on the Basic Education Act and the School Education Act, this is the standard of the curriculum established by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to maintain a certain level of education at any school in Japan. These guidelines are revised approximately once every 10 years, based on a report by experts at the Central Education Council. The textbooks and timetables used by students are created based on these guidelines.
Period for Integrated Studies: In response to a rapidly changing society, the goal of integrated studies is to identify problems, learn independently, think for oneself, make independent decisions, and develop the qualities and abilities to solve problems better. A period for integrated studies was introduced in 2000. As learning activities such as international understanding, welfare and health, children’s interests etc., span each subject according to the characteristics of the area and school, each school is expected to set the contents and method.
Education Basic Act: This is a law enacted to establish and promote the basics of education based on the Constitution of Japan. It consists of 18 articles, and the objectives, goals, principles of lifelong learning, school education, home education, etc. are broadly defined. In this context, school education emphasizes that children/students become more disciplined and motivated to learn.
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology: This is one of the administrative ministries in Japan; it deals with the promotion of four fields: education, science/technology and academics, sports, and culture. This ministry issues the Curriculum Guidelines and plays an important role as a secretariat for the specific content of education in Japan.
Work Test: In elementary schools in Japan, this is a test that covers the range of units created by an educational material company for each unit of each subject: it is also used when measuring one aspect of a child’s academic ability. It is not implemented in all subjects, but it is mostly purchased and used for Japanese language, arithmetic, and science and society.