Today, it is urgent that Japanese teachers take up individual studies to cultivate their teaching skills and acquire the broader knowledge and culture only achievable through life-long self-study.
Is there then any historical experience in Japan that has encouraged teachers to take up self-study? One could be the Government Examination for the Secondary Teachers' License conducted by the Ministry of Education in postwar Japan. Large numbers of young people tried to take the examination and the successful candidates occupied important positions as the leading teachers at schools in post- and pre-war Japan. The test was not merely an experiment but an effective system for checking the teachers' levels.
In this report, the authors aim to clarify the functions of the examination through interviews and questionnaires completed by 42 successful exam candidates in the subjects of education, ethics and civics. Through the survey, the authors make it clear that this examination offered powerful motivation to young teachers in primary and other schools to begin life-long self-study. At the same time, the authors point out that the test played a great role in establishing the paradigm of pedagogy in modern Japan.
Several educational scientists participated in making specialized questionnaires and interviewing candidates for many years. Thus, they have gained prestige as the representative scholars in the field of teacher education and the academic world.
The authors point out another topic, namely, for many candidates including the successful ones the examination was a chance to develop their academic competence rather than to promote themselves to the secondary teachers' level.
The authors will introduce their forthcoming project. It is to analyze the specialized pedagogical questions given in the examination and to observe the formation process of a paradigm in the educational science in modern Japan.
