Visit to Ibaraki University

June 16th
Ibaraki University

Today was one of the most interesting so far, because for the first time we were able to gather with Japanese students at the University level and engage in discussion about teaching practice, differences between US schools and Japanese schools, and discuss the state of affairs in the School of Education at the University level that trains the incoming teacher workforce.


At first we met with the President of Ibaraki University, who gave us an overview of the programs of study available. We were then privileged to be met by a group of professors who all work in the school of Education at Ibaraki University, though they came from disciplines as diverse as English, Biology and Social Science. After listening to their overview of what Ibaraki University has to offer, we then had the opportunity to break off into 3 sub groups that then were each met by around 15 college students, studying both at the undergraduate and graduate level. In our group then, we broke it down even further and I was able to speak with these two girls, Rie (to my left) and Hakazuki (to my right). We wandered through all sorts of topics ranging from foreign language opportunities in High Schools (there are none, or rather only one: English), as well as behavior issues, suspensions, and why they wanted to be teachers (all of the students who came to us were in the School of Education and planned to be teachers some day).

Of the professors sat in with us, and he wanted to know what strategies I use to pique interest in students who don’t want to be in class, or who hate my subject. So, after I explained some of the activities I do or approaches I use to get students involved, he said, “Oh, you are like an actor. You are very entertaining. I can tell you must be an excellent teacher.” This of course was a very nice compliment coming from one of the professors from the School of Education’s teacher training program. Earlier in the presentation by the Professors they noted that the education of teachers is moving in the direction of learning how to better inspire interest in students who lack motivation or desire to learn. They are trying to branch out from the traditional lecture based form of dissemination of information, absorption of information and regurgitation of information to a model that piggybacks on some of the creative ways in which teachers in America engage their students.

One significant difference between University teacher training programs in the US and Japan is the student teaching. Most US teacher programs require a semester of student teaching as well as an internship; in Japan, however, they only have two 2 week teaching practicum that they are required to do. The amount of academic credits they have to take are higher, but the time in the classroom is less.

Much like in our country, Japan is reforming its teacher education programs. For instance, it used to be that you would get your license and then you would keep it for the rest of your career. Now, they are moving to more of a system such as ours which requires teachers to reapply every 10 years, and in the meantime they must also take 30 credits of course work to qualify for licensure renewal. The teachers will have to do all of this at their own expense, or they will lose their jobs.

A few interesting notes for my colleagues out there: The average class size is around 40. club activities and sports are supervised by the teachers after school, but then they also have compulsory practice on Saturdays and sometimes on Sundays, which the supervising teacher must attend; the average teacher doesn’t leave school to go home at night until around 7 pm; the average teacher works very hard and has little time to spend with his or her own family if he or she has one.

Visiting the university, speaking with students, and learning about the perspectives on teacher training at the university level were are very interesting and feel very much like the kinds of things I expected to experience when applying for this trip.

After this visit, we had a very nice lunch at what appeared to be a French restaurant, and then we met with both the Mayor of Kamisu City and the Superintendent of schools for the city. The city has 16 elementary schools, 8 Junior High Schools and 3 High Schools. There is a prescribed script for formal occasions such as this. There is a script and almost without fail the Japanese follow it. It goes like this: Your group is seated in the office of the official; the official and his people arrive, and you stand up; greetings are shared, and then you sit down. Then there is
always a master of ceremonies figure who does introductions and runs the meeting. Everyone stands up and then a meishi, or business card exchange forms, looking like a wedding reception line. After that, a representative from the group gives an introductory speech, followed by a speech made by the most important official in the room. Then there is a gift exchange, a commemorative photo is taken, and then the discussion or meeting occurs. Although there have been slight deviations, every meeting we have had went something like this, but this particular script is what we followed with the Mayor and Superintendent. After our meeting, they took us outside to view what they call Kamisu pond. The kanji character for Kami, means god, and su means pond, so this is called the God pond, or pond of God. There is a bridge there called the bridge of Communication and Friendship, and it floats on the water on wood from redwood trees cut down near Eureka, CA, which is the sister-city of Kamisu-city. After this, we returned to the hotel, wandered around Mito, and wound up at a restaurant that was trying really hard to be American.