The new textbooks should be used effectively to ensure that lessons involve students proactively considering and discussing ethics.
The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry has announced the screening results for ethics textbooks that will be used at junior high schools from the 2019 academic year, when ethics becomes a "special subject." All textbooks submitted by eight publishers passed the screening.
In the past, ethics tended to be treated lightly, as the class hours allocated for ethics lessons were often altered for school events. There even was criticism that learning ethics involved no more than reading supplementary materials.
It is noticeable that the textbooks that passed the screening contain true stories about Olympic and Paralympic athletes and disaster victims who overcame adversity. Some textbooks also contain various opinions, themed on letters readers sent to newspapers. There are signs the publishers have used their ingenuity to attract students' interest.
With ethics becoming an official subject, curriculum guidelines are being adjusted to switch the focus to "thinking about and discussing ethics." Questions designed to deepen a student's thinking based on reading materials are contained throughout each textbook, which also encourage group discussions. These textbooks should be a good way to promote a new form of lesson.
Each textbook is packed with content. Textbooks for one year contain more than 30 stories and reach about 200 pages. With just 35 classes a year and 50 minutes each week, can students be given enough time to properly discuss these issues?
Help stop bullying
The guidelines require 22 items, including "moderation and abstention" and "consideration and gratitude for other people," should be covered at all school grades. The screening also checked whether all elements of these items were covered evenly. It is hard to escape the feeling the screening went overboard on ensuring the format of these textbooks.
As a result, a noticeable number of the textbooks have all-around content. Some textbooks even use several items of reading material that have been printed for many years in the ministry's supplementary material. This must indicates publishers struggled to select learning texts.
If students end up being swamped trying to wade through a textbook, there is no point in making ethics a subject. Teachers will need to get creative in their lessons, such as by being flexible in how they use educational materials in class and adapting to the actual circumstances of their students.
The drive to make ethics an official subject was prompted by the 2011 suicide of a bullied junior high school student in Otsu. It is only natural that all the textbooks emphasize the topic of bullying.
The textbooks accentuate the importance of not only students directly involved in bullying, but also the students around them, in dealing with this issue. The textbooks also extensively cover problems that can occur on the internet. Heightening students' awareness of these issues through discussions in the classroom should help to prevent them from falling victim to such behavior.
Ethics will become an official subject at elementary schools from the 2018 academic year. As at these schools, teachers at junior high schools will assess each student not by giving numerical grades, but with a written report that includes details such as what the student understood during the lessons.
Based on how students talk with each other in ethics class and their written essays of their impressions, providing an assessment from the viewpoint of supporting each student's growth is vital.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, March 29, 2018)
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