Teaching or Testing: The Role of the State in Japan
Japan rarely fails to get a mention these days when the inadequacies of Britain's system of vocational education and training are discussed. Whether it is the state-prescribed core curriculum proposed in the 1987 Great Educational Reform Bill, or the standard Ministerial complaint that British employers do not invest enough in their employees' training, comparison with Japan is often explicit. There is a firm belief that in the linkage between Competence and Competition (the title of a much-quoted report a US/ Germany/Japan/Britain comparison published by MSC/NEDO, Hayes et al., 1984), the Japanese have it better.
Skill Formation In Japan: The Broader Context And Recent Developments
Abstract Japan's approach to skill formation has been regarded by many commentators as worthy of emulation. Skill formation in Japan is commonly seen as predominantly enterprise based and mostly imparted through on-the-job training. This paper challenges that view by arguing that this enterprise focus has been overemphasised by researchers at the expense of a broader understanding of the skill formation process in Japan. The paper draws on official statistics and survey data from the Ministry of Labour and on enterprise case studies conducted by the author in the Nagoya, Hiroshima and Kansai areas in January- February 1993. One major finding of this analysis is that the Government plays a far more important role in the skill formation process than many accounts of skill formation in Japan allow for. Particular attention is drawn to survey data that show that enterprises in 1991 are making more use of the National Skill Tests compared with 14 years previously. Also important in the skill formation process ...
A Study of the Changes Over Time in State Anxiety in a Computer-Assisted Instructional Program
The purposes of this study were to analyze (1) the changes over time in the state anxiety level of children in a computer-assisted program of reading instruction and in classroom reading instruction, (2) the changes in state anxiety patterns as related to gender, achievement level, and ethnicity, and (3) the difference in anxiety levels of the students while in computer-assisted reading instruction and classroom reading instruction.