Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS IN JAPAN 1965 > CHAPTER 6 (2)

CHAPTER IMPROVEMENT OF CONTENT OF- EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENTOF ABILITY

When school instruction is provided in the same manner to all pupils in a group in a classroom, pupils vary in their ability to comprehend the instruction provided. Programed instruction is essencially a revolutionary method to help each student from some inefficiency of group instruction where all students are locked into the same place and all teachers into the same routine.

The characteristic feature of this new method is to let each individual student move forward at his own best pace and go as far as he can through processes varying according to individual needs and according to a separately planned program for each individual. The teacher usually takes the student by short logical steps through his learning experience, aid makes sure that he understands each step. The teacher keeps the student active-answering questions, practicing the responses he is expected to learn. Programs are usually presented by so-called teaching machines.

Research into the possibilities of programed instruction was initiated in the United States of America. According to a recent investigation con-ducted by the National Education Association of the United States, only 5 per cent of elementary and lover secondary schools reported that their districts used this method to some extent in 1956, while 15 per cent of elementary schools and 13 per cent of lower secondary schools reported the use of it in 1961. It is expected that programed instruction will be adopted in more than a half the nation's elementary and lover secondary schools in a few years.

In 1960, programed instruction with teaching machines was introduced in Japan. As a result of Japan. As a result of study and experimentation, technological devices have been developed to utilize this teaching method with teaching machines.

The active research of programed instruction which started in the United States of America has awakened the interest of teachers and educational authorities in European countries and the U.S.S.R., and also in African and Arabian developing countries, and led to considerable debate since it apparently involves revolutionary changes in teaching method. The research and practical use of programed instruction has only begun. Many problems remain to be solved, such as the problem of better programing, though it is expected that this new teaching method will play an important role in the future to educate individual pupils according to individual abilities.