ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how teachers at Nakamachi tackled the teaching of mathematics (sansu¯), a subject that takes up more hours in the Japanese primary curriculum than any subject other than Japanese (kokugo). In particular, the chapter looks at how this fitted into the teachers’ attempts to teach in a way that was in tune with the educational reform agenda – developing students’ ability to identify and solve problems by themselves – while also satisfying the long-standing objective of enabling as many children as possible to understand the maths they were learning. Nakamachi teachers gave children significant control over the direction and content of maths lessons, and many of the problems that the classes explored were created by the children themselves. Individuals had the chance to put forward ideas and explanations, but within the context of a class group whose members could learn from one another. Autonomy and self-direction were thus developed without sacrificing opportunities for mutual learning. The analysis also considers the lessons observed in relation to theoretical debates about how learning takes place, with particular attention to mathematical practices and school settings.
