The East Asian Version of Whole-Class Teaching

Abstract

One of the hallmarks of teaching in Japanese and Chinese classrooms is the whole-class method of teaching. The development of this approach, wherein the teacher leads all students in the class through the lesson, stands in marked contrast to efforts in Western countries, where there are increasing tendencies to reduce class size and individualize instruction by dividing students into small groups. In this article we attempt to describe the form of whole-class teaching found in Japanese and Chinese classrooms and to point out the benefits of this type of classroom organization and teaching when lessons are conducted by well-prepared, skilled teachers. Information was obtained from the authors' visits to East Asian classrooms and from data obtained in a large observational study involving narrative descriptions of the behavior of students and teachers.