In their new book, “The Learning Gap” (Summit Books. $22), Stevenson and his coauthor, James W. Stigler of UCLA, say the cube incident highlights a major difference between American and Asian schools. Americans believe academic success is largely the result of nurturing innate ability; displaying mistakes is anathema because error is considered a “precursor of ultimate failure.” Asian teachers think of mistakes as “an index of what still needs to be learned,” Stevenson and Stigler say, and they expect that with effort, all students will eventually succeed. Stevenson, who based the book on a decade of research, says the American attitude dooms too many children to second-class status. “We have set up a curriculum and we don’t expect all children to learn it,” he says. “It’s a terribly pessimistic statement.”
Americans have a lot to learn from the way Japanese schools are structured, especially in the elementary grades, says Stevenson. In Japan, the goal is to start with a level playing field; academically oriented preschool is discouraged. Contrary to the stereotype, strict academics are not the main focus of the first school years. The curriculum stresses teaching children how to be part of a group. Teachers have an extra incentive to drive this lesson home; they routinely stay with the same group of youngsters for at least two years and thus personally reap the benefits of a well-trained class. Children do not sit silently while the teacher lectures. Instead, they usually learn in teams, figuring out problems with their classmates’ help. Asian youngsters also get lots of time to work off energy; there are generally brief recesses between classes.
It’s not a perfect system, however. “As you go up in their schools, I find less and less to admire,” says Stevenson. High school is dominated by intense preparation for university entrance exams. The universities themselves are not rigorous; almost everyone who gets in graduates. Those who go to the most elite schools get the best jobs. Despite these problems, Stevenson says Americans ignore the lessons of Japan at their peril. The first graders he began studying in 1980 are now almost through high school; every year, the Americans’ test scores have fallen farther and farther behind. Even more disturbing are the results of his poll of parents. Most Americans were satisfied with their schools; Asian parents wanted even more. Clearly, Asia are out to break records while America seem content to tread water.
