2019 Volume 28 Pages 108-118
This study examines the impacts of teacher education under normal school system on developing the skills for teaching based on the School Survey of Elementary Schools in Ozuki and Three Other Villages of Yamaguchi Prefecture of 1921.
This research found that normal school had positive impact on the skills for teaching by test-score of students. Students taught by teachers with normal school education obtained better scores than students taught by teachers without normal school education. No significant correlation was found between students’ level of intelligence and the test score. In this respect, it can be said that the difference between the student outcomes represented by the test scores was not based on students’ level of intelligence, but on the differences in teachers’ teaching skills. Furthermore, the students’ home backgrounds did not explain in difference in student-outcomes. The students of Kiyosue and Okaeda were mostly of children of farmers’ families, and thus they were thought of being disadvantaged background by comparison to the students of Nishiichi Elementary School, whose family were mostly merchants. However, the student-outcomes showed no notable link to their home backgrounds, and thus it can be said that the difference of test-scores reflected the difference of teachers’ teaching skills.
This study thus concludes that normal school education had impacts on improving teachers’ teaching skills, and its teacher education practices could offer an important insight into today’s teacher training.
