Japan-US Cooperative Study in Search of Quality Curriculum for Preschool Children-From Comparative Study to Collaborate Curriculum Planning

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This is a three-year case study attempting to describe the relationship between early childhood teacher education and classroom practices by comparing laboratory school models from Japan and the United States. This research examined the teacher training and pre-service in three settings, two in Japan, and one in north California, and how teachers integrated and applied knowledge from those contexts in their future practice.The goal of the research is two-fold ; (1)to elicit meta-cognitive reflection through cross-cultural experience, and apply this reflective thought to further understand early childhood teacher education in the US and Japan, (2)to use this deeper understanding to reflect on our own curriculum writing and to consider how and which aspects of the other cultural model to adapt into and practice.Research was gathered through observation, interviews and video commentary groups. All conversations and obsevations was either video taped or audio taped for analyses and corrobo … More ration. The classroom teacher in Japan was the videographer and editor for the tapes of the classrooms in America, so was the America classroom teacher. Researchers played the role of both participant-observer and data collectors. Data sources include discussions from collaborative viewings of video from the classes ; observations of University teacher education classes ; 3-4 year old laboratory preschool classrooms ; student teacher and Head teacher planning and evaluating sessions ; a University graduate's work in the field ; and whole staff planning sessions. Data also include collected artifacts related to student teacher evaluation and goals ; lesson plans from the university and laboratory school classes ; student university work ; university course syllabi ; and national education documents and frameworks.Three major findings are :(1)Teacher training in Japan and in US had many features in common. Both had rich foundation courses consisting of Child Development, Philosophy and Theory of Early Childhood Education, Family and Society, etc. Both had practicum in actual classrooms, taken and prepared seriously, though the duration of time differed. The Major difference was the way to bridge the Foundation to practicum ; the Japanese relied on skills, and the US on theory.(2)By collaborative viewings of video and discussions, it was clear that Japanese teachers had inclination to see things from the child perspectives. It maybe explained by the way they were trained. The video showed that Japanese student-teachers were asked to sit behind the children and played the role of a child, and saw the Head-teacher as a role model to the children and to themselves.(3)There was a gap between what was taught to the student-teachers about curriculum in US settings and what the California's curriculum guidelines requires. Less