EDU-JPN:Background of the success of Japanese PISA result compare to U.S -Part II

Education in Japan (Natalie Collor)

Discussion of PISA results

In the previous article, the most recent PISA results for the United States and Japan were given and compared in a general sense. Japan has much high scores than the U.S. on all three subject areas—science, math, and reading—of the PISA survey, and is one of the highest-scoring countries overall. A closer look at the results in each subject tells more about each country’s educational methods and how students feel toward the tested subjects. The first part of this article will provide a more detailed discussion of the results based on gender, while the second part will focus on what the socioeconomic status of students says about their performance on the PISA survey. Both parts will also speculate what the discrepancies in student performance say about education practices in both countries.

Gender

Gender differences are apparent in the PISA results of both countries. In the science and mathematics sections of the PISA test, boys scored higher than girls on average. When these students were asked about what field they expect to work in, a higher percentage of boys expected to be working in a science-related field than girls. The totals were 19% of Japanese boys vs. 18% of Japanese girls and 25% of American boys vs. 24% of American girls. Surprisingly, even though Japan’s average score in science is quite higher than that of the U.S., more students in the U.S. picture themselves in a science-related job later in life. This result suggests that students in the U.S. experience slightly more enjoyment in science-related activities, and further research may need to be done to figure out what exactly is the source of this difference.

A similar performance gap between girls and boys occurs in the math section of the test, but girls outperform boys in the reading section of the test in both countries. Although the performance gap is much less in the reading section, it is interesting that there is a flip in gender dominance when a non-scientific field is examined.