What Are the Differences in Learning Environments of Elementary and Junior High School in Japan ?

Abstract

This study investigated the differences in learning environments between elementary and junior high school in Japan and explores possible factors to decrease student's motivation through retrospective method. In total, 212 Japanese students in 7th grade (112 boys and 100 girls; average age = 12.33 years) in one public junior high school participated in this questionnaire survey. The questionnaire included two questions: “Do you feel more difficulty in following the classes in junior high school compared to elementary school” with the available answers being yes, or no. After this question, this survey asked "why do you feel difficulty following the classes in junior high school" for students responding “yes” in the first question by open-ended style. For the first question, 149 students (70.28%) responded "yes". The answers to the open-ended question provided 203 statements from the students. These statements were classified into 12 categories through the KJ method: (a) difficulty in the learning contents, (b) high speed of the classes, (c) increase of the amount of learning contents, (d) existence of regular tests, (e) many things to memorize, (f) absence of self-learning time due to club activities or cram school, (g) increase of the number of class, (h) inherently poor ability to study, (i) large number of tasks, (j) poor teaching ability of the teachers, (k) comparison in tests, (l) others. From this result, changes in learning environment and student's motivation in the periods of school transition from elementary to junior high school were discussed.



Author Information
Takuma Nishimura, The University of Tokyo, Japan

Paper Information
Conference: ACP2015
Stream: Psychology and Education

This paper is part of the ACP2015 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon