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Teachers College Record.
Lessons Learned from a Chalkboard: Slow and Steady Technology Integration
by Bradley Ermeling — April 13, 2015
This commentary compares Japanese and US approaches for integrating technology in K-12 classroom
environments. While many American schools are consumed by a haphazard race to adopt the latest
gadgets and new innovations, often these devices function as little more than expensive and colorful
accessories with minimal influence on existing instructional methods. In other cases, devices sit
unused, collect dust, and soon become obsolete, costing thousands of dollars in upgrades. Despite
Japan’s much slower pace of technology adoption, one might argue that Japanese educators are well
ahead of the US in effective technology integration. Using the chalkboard and bansho (board-writing)
as an example, this article describes how Japan’s slow and steady integration approach enables
educators to deliberately study and build knowledge about which technologies best facilitate
particular learning opportunities. The US should take note and consider a more purposeful integration
strategy that emphasizes efficacy over hasty implementation.
Last winter, while observing and recording classroom lessons for a research project in Japan, I was
surprised to hear a sound I had not heard for many years—the sound of chalk. Over a three-week period
of observations in Saitama prefecture, I captured 17 classroom videos from various subject areas across
1st to 12th grade. Every classroom I visited was equipped with a large green chalkboard. There were
few computers, few projectors or smartboards, and no other visible forms of 21st century technology in
most of the classrooms. Japanese colleagues and researchers confirmed this was representative of the
average K-12 classroom in Japan. In January 2015, the Tokyo Broadcasting System reported
approximately 75% of Japanese classrooms still use chalkboards as the primary medium for
presentation of lesson content (Sankyuu, 2015).
My first reaction was one of astonishment. How could Japan, a society known for its creation of gadgets
and highly specialized technological devices, be so far behind in their use of 21st century technology?
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Page 1 of 6 As I continued to record lessons, I began to note the masterful way Japanese teachers utilized this
“primitive” instructional medium. I also noted how teachers and students alike maintained the
chalkboard with consistent and diligent care. Each class assigned one student to serve as the kokuban
kakari (person in charge of the chalkboard) who ensured it was clean and ready for use prior to the
opening bell for each period. Teachers treated each centimeter of this freshly cleaned board as
valuable real estate. They wrote in straight lines with clear and precise characters and paused to erase
stray marks or re-write illegible content.
Math and science teachers used meter sticks as a guide to draw perfectly symmetrical diagrams and
tables. Language arts and social studies teachers used a variety of chalk colors, each with a consistent
meaning and precise purpose related to grammatical terms, literary themes, or systems of government.
They used magnetic timers on the board to pace activities and posted magnetic labels of student
names to assign workspace for whole-class demonstrations. Most importantly, teachers carefully
preserved a lesson storyline as they progressed across the board. They added elements in a strategic
sequence that helped bring coherence to the lesson, and rarely erased content unless they reached a
major instructional transition.
CREATING LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES THROUGH BOARD WRITING
I also conducted post-observation interviews with teachers to ask about instructional planning and
decisions. It turns out Japanese educators possess a unique technical vocabulary for describing
chalkboard teaching practices, called bansho(board-writing) and bansho-keikaku (board-writing
planning). Like many instructional practices in Japan, bansho has been studied and refined over a
period of years through use of Japanese lesson study (jugyō kenkyū). During a typical lesson study cycle,
teachers conduct research, analyze curriculum, and design a detailed “research lesson” to address a
jointly selected investigative theme. One team member teaches the research lesson while colleagues
observe and collect data on student learning. The team then engages in extended discussion of results
and potential revisions. After two or more cycles of implementation, the process often culminates with
an open house where guests are invited to observe teaching of the refined lesson plan (Ermeling &
Graff-Ermeling, 2014).
Yoshida (1999) reports how lower elementary mathematics teachers used lesson study to test and
refine bansho methods with conceptually rich math problems. For each research lesson, teachers
carefully mapped out a chalkboard diagram, including space for whole-class review of previously
assigned problems, space for posting the new problem, space dedicated for student presentation of
ideas, and space for culminating remarks. More than simply displaying information or solutions,
teachers used the chalkboard to summarize, organize, and link a sequence of lesson events to facilitate
collective thinking. One teacher explained: “I try to organize the blackboard in such a way that my
students and I can see how the lesson progressed and what was talked about during the lesson…” (p.
439). Reports are available in Japanese bookstores summarizing key findings from
various bansho lesson-study projects.
Based on analysis of over 200 videos from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study
(TIMSS), Stigler and Hiebert (1999) also describe underlying cultural teaching “scripts” that influence
technology choices in different countries. Comparing Japanese and US 8th grade math classrooms, they
observed that nearly all Japanese teachers used a chalkboard as the primary visual aid, while many
American teachers (at the time of the study) used an overhead projector. More importantly, they point
out this was not merely a visual aid preference, but represented a fundamental distinction in teaching
approaches. American teachers often chose an overhead projector because they conceived of the visual
aid as a tool for focusing students’ attention on one problem at a time and shaping tasks into
manageable steps. Even when they used a chalkboard, they would often erase a problem before
starting a new one to maintain student focus on immediate information.
The Japanese math teachers, as Yoshida (1999) also noted, used visual aids for a different reason—to
provide a record of problems, solution approaches, and key principles discussed over the course of a
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Page 2 of 6 lesson. In this way, the chalkboard played an important role in helping students make connections and
discover new relationships between mathematical ideas (Stigler & Hiebert, 1999). In addition, other
Japanese studies report the green color of the chalkboard provides a calming benefit for students,
enabling concentration more effectively than a white background (Sankyuu, 2015).
For these reasons, Japanese teachers’ choice to use a chalkboard instead of an overhead projector (in
the 1990s), or instead of computer-based slide presentations (in 2015), is more than simply a delayed
reaction to adopt new devices. It reflects a thoughtful decision about which technology might best
support particular learning opportunities for students. Similarly, research and development projects,
funded by the Japanese government, are now underway, investigating the kinds of learning
opportunities and instructional methods best facilitated by new digital technologies (Japanese Ministry
of Internal Affairs and Communications [MIC], n.d.).
COMPARING US AND JAPAN TECHNOLOGY APPROACHES
The more I observed Japanese masterful use of the chalkboard, the more I reflected on technology
approaches in US classrooms. Not only do educators rarely discuss the rationale for which technologies
might best support particular learning opportunities, many US schools are consumed by a haphazard
race to adopt the latest innovation. While many classrooms are decked out with shiny new tablets,
document projectors, smartboards, or infrared response systems, far too often these devices are
under-utilized, and methods of use vary widely across teachers. There are definitely exceptions to this
pattern, such as Project Red or the Digital Promise League of Innovative Schools, where technology is
carefully implemented through ongoing research and development efforts (Digital Promise, n.d.;
Project Red, n.d.). But there are many more classrooms where digital devices function as little more
than expensive and colorful accessories with minimal influence on existing instructional methods. In
other cases, devices sit unused, collect dust, and soon become obsolete, costing thousands of dollars in
upgrades.
Despite Japan’s slower pace of technology adoption, one might argue that Japanese educators are well
ahead of the US ineffective technology integration. Japanese government officials and other prominent
educational leaders openly acknowledge the need to begin incorporating 21st century technologies into
their teaching and learning environments. Several programs are well underway with this effort such as
the Future Schools Promotion Project, involving systematic research on infrastructure and effectiveness
of technology integration in selected Japanese pilot schools (MIC, n.d.).
Passed down over centuries from stories of Samurai, the Japanese have a frequently cited proverb
that fittingly describes their approach to technology integration: “when you’re in a hurry, take the
slow round-about way” (isogaba maware). Following this advice, the focus in Japanese education is not
on how many innovations they rush to implement or how many new gadgets students get to use.
Instead, educators focus on collecting evidence of effectiveness and leveraging technology resources
(whether it’s a chalkboard or a smartboard) with purpose and intentionality to enhance and facilitate
teaching and learning opportunities. As stated in a recent Japanese publication from the Future Schools
Project, “Traditional education will be valued while those parts of it that should be extended,
broadened, or deepened will evolve significantly” (MIC, n.d., p. 2).
What if educators adopted the same approach in America with devices such as smartboards, and
infrared response systems, as well applications such as screencasting, Google Docs, or Evernote? Teams
of teachers could treat these devices and applications as critical topics for collaborative inquiry,
develop plans for using them in the classroom, articulate hypotheses for how they will create specific
learning opportunities, implement, observe and collect data on the results of these lessons. Other
teachers could build on these lesson cases by studying, adapting, and refining methods of use for
various contexts and learning goals.
As Japanese schools adopt and incorporate emergent technologies, researchers and educators will be
studying and documenting effective methods with the same diligent analysis they have demonstrated
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Page 3 of 6 for decades with bansho. If the objective is to develop deeper understanding of how technologies are
used to create learning opportunities for particular learning goals, then “slow and steady” will again
prevail over “fast and furious.” The US should take note and consider a more purposeful integration
strategy that emphasizes efficacy over hasty implementation.
Photographs by Bradley Ermeling; subject to copyright protection.
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Page 4 of 6 Photographs by Bradley Ermeling; subject to copyright protection.
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Page 5 of 6 References
Digital Promise. (n.d.). League Research. Retrieved
from http://www.digitalpromise.org/initiatives/research#league-research
Ermeling, B., & Graff-Ermeling, G. (2014). Learning to learn from teaching: A first-hand account of
lesson study in Japan.International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies, 3(2), 170–192. Retrieved
from http://independent.academia.edu/BradleyErmeling
Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC). (n.d.). Creating the Learning
Environment of the Future.Retrieved from http://www.soumu.go.jp/main_content/000299868.pdf
Project Red. (n.d.). Project Red: The Research. Retrieved from
http://www.projectred.org/about/research-overview.html
Sankyuu, T. (Presenter). (2015, January 22). Chalk industry crisis: Decision to cease production of long
standing educational IT. [Radio Broadcast]. In K. Arakawa (Producer), Day Catch News Ranking. Tokyo,
Japan: Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings, Inc.
Stigler, J., & Hiebert, J. (1999). The teaching gap: Best ideas from the world's teachers for improving
education in the classroom. New York: Free Press.
Yoshida, M. (1999). Lesson Study: An ethnographic investigation of school-based teacher development
in Japan. Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. (AAT 9951855)
Cite This Article as: Teachers College Record, Date Published: April 13, 2015
http://www.tcrecord.org ID Number: 17931.
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