2017 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Is An Alternative Concept of Learning Driving East Asian Academic Achievement? Comparisons of PISA Performance with Implications for Policy Reforms
| Project/Area Number |
17K14019
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| Research Institution | Kyoto University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
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| Keywords | educational achievement / PISA / pedagogy / Japanese education / East Asian model / culture / self / ontology |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Research achievements to date have been excellent. I have published 4 papers in major journals. Based on these results, I have been invited to partake in several international symposiums (invited lecturers), including (i) a Featured Panel at Mexico City (March 2018); (ii) A Featured Panel at the Comparative Education Society of Asia conference (May 2018); and (iii) An EU-Doctoral training program next year in Cyprus. In addition to this, I have published several newspaper and blog articles. The following articles were published in the first year: (i) A PISA Paradox? (Comparative Education Review, 2017), (ii) A New Global Policy Regime Founded on Invalid Statistics (Comparative Education, 2017); (iii) Did the Shift to Computer Based Testing Affect 2015 PISA Scores (Compare 2017), and (iv) How to Make Lesson Study Work in America: a Japanese perspective on the onto-cultural foundations of (teacher) education (Research in Comparative and International Education, 2017).
In addition to these results, I have expanded the study to include critical analyses of the stereotypes that prevent non-East Asian observers from engaging with learning in East Asia. This has produced two additional papers: (i) Stereotypes as Anglo-American Exam Ritual? Comparisons of students' exam related anxiety in East Asia, America, Australia, and the United Kingdom (Oxford Review of Education 2018); and another paper on learning time that is currently under second review at the British Journal of Educational Research.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
In terms of research results, the project is moving ahead more quickly than expected. As stated previously, I have conducted analyses that has already been published and presented at several international conference. However, at the present stage, I have not had much time to set-up the established partnerships with researchers in the UK and China. I have been successful in setting up partnerships with researchers in the United States, Japan, and Taiwan. To date, the primary focus has been on working out a number of hypotheses from the OECD PISA data itself. As this hypotheses generation has advanced more than expected, I have been able to publish these results without yet finding the need to explore qualitatively (fieldwork) in these different countries (UK, China, and Taiwan).
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
I will continue my research in various ways. First, I still plan to try to establish partnerships with the UK and China. There is a chance I might move to Hong Kong where I already have a strong relationship with researchers at the Education University of Hong Kong. Second, I plan to look not only at PISA scores in the main fields of Science, Math, and Language, but also at new studies that include creative problem solving (2015) and creative problem solving (2018). Recently the OECD has also turned to happiness and well-being purportedly showing the East Asian students are not happy. In preliminary analyses it is clear that this result is a distortion of the research instrument. By extending the analyses to these new texts, I hope to further clarify the East Asian model of learning.
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| Causes of Carryover |
I will use the remainder in the next fiscal year.
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Research Products
(10 results)
