Mathematical Education: A comparison between Japan and America Essay

Mathematical Education A comparison between japan and AmericaThe mathematical education provided in the United States has proved to be inferior compared to that of other countries. Specifically the Japanese and other Asian educational systems allege more educated mathematics students than the United States. American children tend to score lower on standardized testing than Asian students do. Many studies have been do by research groups such as the National Center for Education Statistics of the U.S. Department of Education and the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement presentation the differences in teaching methods between the United States and Japan. The teaching styles and the cultural differences can account for the gap in performance.One of the most famous studies of its kind is called act Excellence, the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. This study was conducted in 1995. The Mathematical knowledge of half a million students from forty-one countries was tested. Of these countries, the test shows that American students performed infra average in mathematics. During the same research project, classrooms in America, Germany and Japan were television receivertaped and analyzed. (1)When the curriculums in various countries were reviewed, researchers consistently found that American teachers spend a small add up of time on many topics where as other countries focus on fewer topics with more depth of topic and more repetition. Another variation is that American teachers, for the most part, have received more formal education than Japanese teachers, but have less classroom training and experience. Japan has a a lot higher focus on teaching quality than the United States. Most of t... ...needed to solve the problem at hand. Japanese teachers provide their students with the knowledge they need and the aptitude to think so that they can apply this knowledge in various situations. For this reason, Japanese s tudents have been able to perform better in studies than American students can.Bibliography within Scoop a worthwhile international comparison. National Education Association of the United States. 1997. (website- address unknown) Ibid Understanding and Improving Classroom Mathematics Instruction an overview of the TIMSS video study. Phi Delta Kappa Inc. 1997. (website- address unknown) Ibid Steffe, Leslie, Nesher, Pearia, Cobb, Paul, Goldein, Gerald, Greer, Brian. Theories of Mathematical Learning. New Jersey Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 1996. P. 6. Ibid, p. 6-7. Peer reviewed by Melissa Lenzi and Helen Hunt