Learning Gap: Why Our Schools Are Failing and What We Can Learn from Japanese and Chinese Education

by Harold W. Stevenson

From Simon & Schuster, The Learning Gap explores why our schools are failing and what we can learn from Japanese and Chinese education.

Authors Harold W. Stevenson and James W. Stigler compare United States elementary education practices with those in Asia (specificall Japan and China) and comes to some surprising conclusions.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Sociology, Teaching

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Sheralyn Belyeu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life-changing. I read this book when I started homeschooling my oldest son and it completely transformed my ideas about how children learn. All of my children are better than I am at math, because of the insights I gained from reading this book.

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Americans take misinformed pride in our public education system, despite the fact that it has reliably ranked mediocre at best in all metrics among our peers in the world of developed nations. Why do we feel so confident? Why are we failing? What is different among the world's top educators: that is, the public educators and systems of East Asia (in this work, Taiwan, China, and Japan.)

Americans have inexplicably replaced our long-held emphasis on personal effort with an obsession with innate ability. We have gone from a country of "anything you set your mind to" to a nation that pigeon-holes children as special-needs for the slightest behavioral or attentional aberration. Asians place only the children with the most extreme disabilities in special schools. Even so, a bottom-rung student in Japan scores in the top 85% of American students. How is this possible?

Asian students receive much more direct instruction from their teacher. Note, this is not individual instruction, but constructive and absolutely teacher-directed discourse to the entire class. Around 89% of an Asian student's time is school is spent directly interacting with her teacher, as opposed to around 23% in American schools, the remainder of time being spent in play, busy-work, and/or workbooks which duplicate homework to follow. Americans' emphasis on "individual instruction" means that American teachers rarely teach to the class as a whole, instead believing they can provide tailored instruction to the needs and pace of each child if they tour the room and attend to one student at a time. This means that a meagre portion of the child's day is put to highest use.

Teaching is Asia is led by confident educators who seek to lead students to proper conclusions and who refrain from assuming an authoritarian stance as much as possible. They are sage guides, not walking textbooks and answer keys. Rather than simply acting as a source of the "right answer" these teachers demonstrated through their consistent use of open-ended questions and other student-driven discovery methods, their preference in leading children to get to a deep and full understanding of concepts by allowing the class to reach the sought-after conclusion through debate and interactive problem-solving. For this reason, Asian classes move at a much slower pace than do Americans', Asian teachers' belief being that the more thoroughly you teach a concept the first time, the better it can act as the foundation for understanding to come.

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thought provoking. Review to come soon

[Brittany · Rating 2 out of 5]

although we certainly have a lot to learn about education and effective educational reform, the authors seem to believe that all of our problems will be solved by mimicing japanese education. they fail, however, to acknowledge the fact that american culture and japanese culture differ to such extremes that an attempt to implement the same educational system will fail. there is a thing or two we can learn here, but we would be better served to find reforms that will fit into our culture.

[Jaclyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Upon the heels of The Teaching Gap, I wasn't too shocked by the material presented in this. I found this particularly potent: "The American educational system as it currently exists is producing an educationally advantaged minority and a disadvantaged majority. The outcome is the perpetuation of and amplification of socioeconomic differences and potential conflict within the population." (pg. 223)

[Charlie Stigler · Rating 5 out of 5]

22 years later, I finally read my dad's book. It was pretty good.

Unlike pop science books, every assertion in this book is carefully checked and proven by research. He pulls together compelling learnings we can take from Asian education systems, and ends up with a convincing list of changes. It's dry and really hits you over the head with each lesson, but that only makes the key arguments even more persuasive.

[M L · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I very much disagree with some of Stevenson's conclusions, nevertheless this text contains valuable information comparing typical Chinese and Japanese approaches to learning with that of the United States.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

See my review here:

http://mshoughtonsclass.wordpress.com...

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[Jinna · Rating 4 out of 5]

So interesting!! What's the most surprising to me, however, is that people in America DON'T KNOW that we have such a huge problem in our (math) education system!

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a fascinating book, but fairly interesting. I had to read it for a class. It's about things American schools can learn from Asian schools.