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Just Mumbling around Career Education

Episode 60: July 23, 2021

  • Dear Readers:

    Welcome to the "Just Mumbling around Career Education" series. This series is part of the official website for the Career Education Research Section in the Faculty of Human Sciences and the Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan. You can read the English version from "Episode 60" here.

    First of all, please allow me to explain why I am starting from "Episode 60".

    Among the things created in ancient China and introduced to Japan during the same period were ten symbols called "Jikkan" and twelve symbols called "Junishi", which alone or in combination represented the date, year, month, time, and direction. When the decimal system "Jikkan" and the duodecimal system "Junishi" kept cycling, they would return to their initial combination on the 60th time. For this reason, "60" is still treated as a milestone number that signifies a second start. The fact that in Japan, the 60th birthday is often celebrated with a festive atmosphere is an example of this.

    Please note that the English version will be posted at a later date than the original Japanese version due to the time needed for translation.

    Shortly (or hopefully), I will be extracting some of the articles from "Episode 1" to "Episode 59" and translate them into English as well.

    Thanks,
    Teruyuki FUJITA, Ph.D.
    Professor, Faculty of Human Sciences, Univesity of Tsukuba

    ✽

    Episode 60: The significance of having "the perspective on the connections to learning across the lifespan" (July 23, 2021)

    On June 15th, the OECD released a report titled OECD Skills Outlook 2021: Learning for Life. I knew I had to read it, but I succumbed to my usual procrastination habit and ended up reading it only today. As a part of my profession, I often have to read OECD reports, so I no longer get the sort of bolt-from-the-blue shock brought on by the findings. But this time again, many aspects made me reflect on the issues that schools in Japan now face.

    In this episode, I'd like to share with you some of the things that made me go "Yes, I totally agree!", focusing on the Press Release and the Country Findings: Japan.

    ✽

    First, let's look at the Japanese version of the Press Release. It begins as follows:

    Countries must intensify their efforts to ensure that people continue to learn throughout their lives and that they can manage to survive the rapidly changing work environment shaped by globalization and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. (I have retranslated Japanese into English.)

    Hmmm, as usual, the OECD's Japanese is not very sophisticated. The original text is "Countries must step up their efforts to enable people to continue learning throughout their lives to navigate a rapidly changing world of work shaped by globalisation and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic." There was still a bit of room for improvement to make the translation more accurate.

    Well, I can't go on if I keep making these quibbles, so I'll just quote the notable remarks from the original English version of the press release here:

    The pandemic may also affect the learning attitude of children and youth. The disruptions to regular schooling led many children to progress less than expected in skill development. In the short term, the pandemic could lead to increases in early school leavers. In the medium and long term, lower engagement could result in the current generation of students failing to develop positive learning attitudes, at a time of profound structural changes that will require individuals to upgrade their skills throughout their life, warns the report. Furthermore, the report identifies potential cause of gender inequality in training opportunities. Up to 28% of "inactive but motivated" women mention family obligations as a barrier to participating in training, compared to only 8% of men. The gender gap widens when children appear in the family.

    This truly is noteworthy. There is an undeniable risk of delays in students' learning due to the continuous temporary closure of schools, which may increase the risk of dropping out of school and may also hinder lifelong learning. And such burdens are more likely to be suffered by women than men.

    Moreover, the Country Findings: Japan highlights a critical issue that cannot be overlooked.

    What happens at home, in early-learning centres and schools is important to equip children with strong skills, as well as the readiness and willingness to learn throughout their lives. [...] One such attitude is self-efficacy, which expresses the degree to which individuals feel confident about performing academic tasks. In Japan, 15-year-old students reported levels of self-efficacy that were below the OECD average.

    Here, though, it says plainly that Japan's "15-year-old students reported levels of self-efficacy that were below the OECD average". Since Japanese children's self-efficacy is at the low end of the range (or, to put it more bluntly, at the very bottom) among the countries surveyed, this is a very serious problem. And when the following situation is added to this, it becomes quite a double punch.

    In Japan, 57% of adults do not participate in adult learning and report being unwilling to participate in the learning opportunities that are currently available to them (i.e. they are disengaged from adult learning). This rate is higher than the 50% average disengagement rate across all OECD countries. [...] Estimates indicate that before the pandemic, workers in Japan spent on average 4 hours per week engaged in informal learning, compared to 5 hours per week in OECD countries. Estimates indicate that in the presence of widespread shutdowns of economic activities, workers might have spent 1 hour less per week on informal learning, compared to the OECD average of 1 hour and 15 minutes.

    "57% of adults do not participate in adult learning and report being unwilling to participate in the learning opportunities that are currently available to them (i.e. they are disengaged from adult learning)." ...Oh, we need to do something about this.

    Although we must correctly recognize the widespread practices of corporate in-service training through on-the-job settings and the unique characteristics of the adult education programs provided outside business enterprises in Japan, I must say that the "disengagement" from adult learning is a very serious situation that needs substantial improvement.

    A while ago, we used the term "knowledge-based society," and now we use "fourth industrial revolution" much often. However, the characteristic persists that ever-evolving knowledge is the foundation of society. To participate in such a society and to thrive in it, you must continue to learn. If you do not, you will be left behind by the times before you realize the obsolescence of your own knowledge and skills. Moreover, as I quoted above, the possibility of lifelong learning being hindered is even higher due to the temporary closure of schools to curb the spread of COVID-19.

    Among the "Basic and General Competencies" expected to be enhanced through career education programs at schools in Japan, "Self-understanding and Self-management Competencies" include "the motivation to learn for future growth" and "Career Planning Competencies" include "understanding the significance and role of learning". It is indeed necessary for the students to enhance these skills now.

    ✽

    The preamble to the new Courses of Study, the newly revised national curriculum standards, which have been fully implemented in primary and lower secondary schools, as well as in upper secondary schools starting next school year, concludes with the following remarks:

    Primary School: The Course of Study for Primary Schools is hereby established with the expectation that it will be widely used to develop the vision of how students should learn based on the foundation of early childhood education while creating the perspective on the connections with education in lower secondary school and beyond and further to learning across the lifespan.

    Lower Secondary School: The Course of Study for Lower Secondary Schools is hereby established with the expectation that it will be widely used to develop the vision of how students should learn based on the foundation of early childhood and primary school education while creating the perspective on the connections with education in upper secondary school and beyond and further to learning across the lifespan.

    Upper Secondary School: The Course of Study for Upper Secondary Schools is hereby established with the expectation that it will be widely used to develop the vision of how students should learn based on the foundation of early childhood and compulsory school education while creating the perspective on the connections with education and work beyond upper secondary school and further to learning across the lifespan.

    The new national curriculum standards have been established with the expectation that they would be widely used while creating the perspective on the connections to learning across the lifespan. The significance of this has been reaffirmed by the OECD report above.

    ✽

    Most schools are now in their summer recess, and many lower and upper secondary schools are holding their intensive summer classes. As you might expect, schools with old-fashioned slogans such as "Summer is the make-or-break time towards entrance examinations" are no longer so common, but slightly softer slogans such as "Spend the summer as planned and grab your ticket to a successful entrance exam" may not be rare even today.

    But wait... Grab your ticket to a successful entrance exam!?

    In recent years, with the prevalence of IC cards and other digital tools, there are fewer opportunities to buy paper tickets to travel by train or bus. However, when you use such a paper ticket, whether you go through an automatic ticket gate or have a station attendant check, it will be returned to you at the departure station. But what happens to your ticket when you arrive at your destination? If you use a ticket gate, it will be automatically collected and not returned to you, and the station staff will also collect your used ticket. And for us passengers, it would be nice to have our tickets collected after arriving at our destination, since they are useless scraps of paper right after reaching the goal. That's what a ticket is. You need it until you get to your destination, but after you arrive, it becomes garbage.

    So, what does the slogan tell the students? Maybe it says, "The knowledge you're working so hard to acquire is necessary for you to pass the exam, but after that, it's useless trash. But you still need it to win the game, so stick to the plan and work through it during the summer break." If that's the case, "learning" becomes a torment that is required only to be accepted successfully in the entrance exam. It would be insane to spend a lifetime doing something that would be completely unnecessary without exams.

    But this goes against the philosophy of the new curriculum standards, and there is no hope of improving the situation as the OECD report warns.

    Does your school issue a ticket to a successful entrance exam?

    (Translated and uploaded on September 11, 2021)

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〒305-8572
茨城県つくば市天王台1-1-1
筑波大学人間系

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