Background on the Preschool in Three Cultures study (Mar. 18)

Q. 1) The preschool in three cultures study focused on children from the US, Japan, and China. Of what value, if any, do you think this study is to those prospective US teachers who will almost certainly not be teaching students from China or Japan?

A.) I think it is important because no matter where a child is from there are similarities about the children. Seeing different teaching styles can help open your eyes to different teaching methods, changes you should make to your own and ideas you may try. Learning more about others can help open your eyes to the different children in your class. They may not be exactly the same, but it can help you to relate to them if you have seen a similar circumstance before. Knowing more about others and their culture never hurts anything. It's important to know different cultures so you can bring what you know to the classroom to teach your students.

Q. 2) There are clearly differences in preschools between these three countries. But, there are also differences in preschools within the US. Which differences do you think are "bigger" and what might be the implications?

A.) I think the difference between the America and the other countries are bigger then the preschools within the America. For one thing in America the classrooms are way smaller then in the other two classrooms. So of course because of that there will be more one on one time with the child in America. The structure of the classrooms are also pretty different. In America there are a lot of small group activities that allows the children to talk, in china there group activities where the children are not allowed to have spontaneous talk because it distracts others, and in Japan there is a lot of large group activities where they all can talk and whatever way they chose to participate is okay. Overall the structure the teacher has for her students are different in all three countries, but there are also similarities.