The teaching and learning of history for 15-16 year olds: have the Japanese anything to learn from the English experience

Article

By Yvonne Larsson, Richard Matthews, Martin Booth, published 1st March 2004

What would you expect the differences to be between Japan and England in how pupils learn history in the post-14 phase? Perhaps your guess would be: Japanese school students learn a lot of historical facts and focus upon their own identity and English school students talk a lot more in lessons and are more concerned with justifying opinions using sources. Phase III of the Ango-Japanese research study by Martin Booth, Yvonne Larsson and Richard Matthews shows that there is truth in such an assumption, but also that things are not so simple. They conclude that there are certainly lessons that the Japanese might learn from the English experience. Equally their work raises questions about what may be lacking in the English experience. Interestingly, the Japanese students, although mostly not encouraged to discuss and debate in lessons, acquire a far greater cultural breadth in their historical knowledge.

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