4-4 Satisfactory Level in School Education (Q. 8)
It is fundamental to pose the question of whether or not students are satisfied with their school, especially when we take comparative approaches in discussing education. In this research, while acknowledging the cultural traits of two countries, we attempted to grasp the daily realities of both Japanese and American students, and then to address the educational issues. So far, we detect several intriguing findings.
Among the many differences, the satisfaction level toward their school marks one of the greatest distinctions of the whole research topic. Whereas the majority of American students are satisfied with their school education, three quarters of the Japanese students express discontent and one quarter go on to say they are very dissatisfied with their school education. This attitude is quite a contrast when we see one quarter of American students very satisfied with their school education and almost 90% of students fairly satisfied.
Nevertheless, one should take the social structure and cultural traits of the respective countries into consideration in discussing the function of schooling. Yet, so conspicuous are the extremely negative reactions toward school in Japan that we cannot help wondering whether or not there are critical defaults or a structural suppression that impedes students within the Japanese school system. Since the question was translated as "the quality of your school education" instead of merely as "your school education" in the English version, the satisfaction level dropped to 68% among the American students whose self-evaluation of their grades was above B+. However, it is by all means quite impressive to learn that almost 90% of American students are satisfied with their school education regardless of the grades they are receiving.
Moreover, the high satisfaction level remains the exactly same in terms of academic aspirations. For example, between someone who wants only a high school diploma and someone who pursues an M.A. or higher, the results are similar. Of course, for the students who believe their true ability is not reflected in the school grades, who strongly feel the school curriculum is irrelevant to their needs, or who do not comprehend the classroom instruction, the dissatisfaction level goes up, but still the amount of dissatisfaction does not compare with the Japanese cases.
Among the Japanese students, the degree of dissatisfaction toward school education becomes even more distinctive when the student's grade gets lower, when the student feels his or her ability is not reflected in the school grades, and when the students do not comprehend the classroom instruction as much. The fundamental stance toward Japanese education has to be questioned when we learn that the higher one's academic aspirations are, the lower the satisfaction level gets. This has a lot to do with a notion of conformity with a strong drive to adopt education as an equalizer. Among those who responded that they are quite dissatisfied with school education, the tendency becomes more salient, when additionally correlated with one's academic aspirations or the satisfaction level of grades given at school.
[Are you satisfied with the quality of your school education as a whole?]
大変
満足
まあ
満足
やや
不満
かなり
不満
Nihonbashi H
98
5
39
48
8
Seitoku Girl’s H
248
2
30
40
29
Tokyo Denki U
140
1
34
38
28
Japan Total
544
2
33
41
23
Northwestern H
76
9
74
14
3
Iowa City H
47
38
51
6
4
Macon St U
267
30
61
8
1
US Total
418
26
62
9
2
[Are you satisfied with the quality of your school education as a whole?]
In observing the correlation between the relevancy of curriculum and the satisfaction level toward the school education of the students, participants from both countries manifested a similar pattern. In Japan, the more the students are content with the school curriculum, the less dissatisfied (22%) they feel toward school education. Similarly, when the students were not satisfied with the school curriculum, the dissatisfaction level regarding school education rose to 90%.
In the same manner, when American students are satisfied with their school curriculum, 95% of the respondents expressed satisfaction with their formal education. Conversely, if the students' satisfaction level was low regarding the school curriculum, the satisfaction level toward their general education dropped as low as 31%.
Needless to say, it is rather difficult for high school and college students to precisely discern what is really useful in their future career. However, we should pay attention to the correlation between the strength of the convictionthat what they are learning is of use to them and the satisfaction level of students about school education. We also need to take note that such reactions from the American side are ample enough to suggest how we should reconstruct the educational principles in our country.
