| "카게야마 교수법(Kageyama Method)"--선생의 탁월한 교수법이 곧 학생의 실력을 향상케 해! | |
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Educator's drills improve kids' skills Midori Matsuzawa Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer As soon as the sixth-year primary school boy said, "Ready, go," his classmates began calculating division problems at an amazing speed. The boy held a stopwatch as his classmates raced through worksheets filled with 100 questions. When the first student finished, the boy read the time aloud: 1.09 minutes. This was a scene from video footage taken during a calculation practice session in May last year at Yamaguchi Primary School in Asagocho, Hyogo Prefecture, where Hideo Kageyama taught until last month. Kageyama showed his students' performance as part of a demonstration of his methods during a recent symposium held in Ginza, Tokyo. He has become one of the nation's most famous teachers for helping improve academic performance through fundamental skills training. Audience members exclaimed in amazement at the students' performances, as those in attendance had struggled with similar division questions before watching the video. The questions were not simple ones like dividing 25 by 5, but more complex ones such as dividing 33 by 9 or 71 by 9. In the former question, for example, students must subtract 27 from 33 to find a remainder, a process Kageyama described as a major hurdle for children. "Most of my students can finish within two minutes," the 45-year-old Kageyama said, adding that those finish earlier then do additional exercises on the back of their worksheets for the remaining time. "They never lose concentration during the five-minute practice session." The March 29 symposium featured demonstrations by three of today's leading educators. It was organized by ENJIN (Encourage Japan Intelligent Network) 01 Bunka Senryaku Kaigi, a group of about 150 people from business, cultural and academic fields that aims to promote cultural development. For more than 10 years, Kageyama has emphasized intensive, repetitive, daily practice in reading aloud, writing kanji and doing calculations to help his students build a firm academic basis. His trademark item is the "100-box calculation chart" that he uses to improve addition, subtraction and multiplication skills. Boxes in the first column and first line of the chart each contain the numbers 0 to 9 in random order. Using these figures, students fill in the 100 boxes by performing a specific mathematical operation. Finishing within two minutes shows development in solid calculation abilities, according to the teacher. Keeping time is not intended to encourage competition, but to help build self-confidence because students can improve their times through repeated practice, Kageyama emphasized. "You have to produce a warm classroom atmosphere to enable slower students to feel comfortable even when faster students complete their work. Otherwise, it'd just end producing students who hate math," he added. Kageyama said primary school children always feel that they may not be able to do what is asked of them and therefore easily develop complexes. "Teachers should repeatedly tell them, 'You can do that if you try,'" he said. He added that such encouragement should be backed by materials that clearly show improvement, pointing to the 100-box calculation charts as an example. Kageyama also referred to his kanji-writing system, by which he teaches a full year's worth of kanji in the first month of the school year, so that students can review them repeatedly over the course of the remaining period. Implementing the "Kageyama method" has enabled the school to send an increasing number of students to the nation's prestigious universities-- unusual for a rural public institution. Increasing interest in his method may be traced to growing concerns over declining scholastic abilities among children. These concerns have increased with the official start last year of the revised primary and middle school curriculums that reduce not only class hours but also the materials studied. In light of these growing concerns, the Education, Science and Technology Ministry has moved to focus on basic scholastic abilities--a move seen as abandoning the policy of "cram-free" education. One of Kageyama's books, Honto no Gakuryoku o Tsukeru Hon (The Book to Help Children Acquire Real Scholastic Ability) has become a best-seller, while compilations of his worksheets are also enjoying brisk sales. === Kageyama's holistic approach However, some observers have criticized Kageyama by describing his intensive training method as knowledge-based education. In response to such criticism, the teacher said mastering his system is not an end goal, but "can save time for higher-level studies." "Hands-on studies are interesting, but they require a lot of time for preparation," he said, adding that he tries to finish calculations and other exercises for which answers can be easily found as soon as possible. "Frankly, I emphasize calculation practices, but in fact, by practicing these skills intensively, I try to spend less time on them." Kageyama has insisted there are three steps for children to improve their scholastic abilities. In the first stage, children should be exposed to healthy learning environment conditions, while the second and third stages emphasize repeating basic skills training and developmental studies, respectively. "It'd be impossible to let children do the 100-box calculation chart if they stay up late watching television and skip breakfast," Kageyama said. Children should be encouraged to build sound living habits--as schoolteachers have traditionally encouraged--before going on to training in basic scholastic skills, he added. In addition, Kageyama has asked the parents of students at Yamaguchi Primary School to improve meals served at home, based on scientific research that proves a link between students' scholastic scores and the variety of food they eat at each meal. The study was done by Masayoshi Hirose, a Tokyo schoolteacher and researcher, and Kageyama has distributed its results to parents every year since he came across it in 1994. Kageyama said a recent study conducted by a nutritionist proved that the students at his school ate healthier, more balanced breakfasts than students at neighboring schools. Basically, most breakfasts consisted of rice and miso soup, in addition to one or two accompanying dishes. "Despite our local community's sluggish economy, the mothers make every effort to guarantee better meals," Kageyama said. "The performances on the 100-box calculation charts can't be assessed without considering this fact. The mothers' efforts have really supported our school and our academic practices." On April 1, Kageyama took up a new job as principal of Tsuchido Primary School in onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, a post for which he was selected out of about 60 candidates. The prefectural board of education last year organized a public screening for the position after the institution was designated as a pilot school by the ministry to examine a new type of school management. The principal is given more authority in personnel affairs and curriculum programming, and the school does not observe district boundaries for admission purposes, opening itself to children living anywhere in the city. Kageyama said he decided to apply for the post as he had achieved everything he had wanted to as a classroom teacher. He is well aware that the public will keep an eye on him, waiting expectantly for what his new challenge will bring about in the field of education.(RW) |