Mathematician Hiraku Toyama’s “Happy Lesson” Theory

Reexamination of Game in Arithmetic / Mathematical Education

Abstract

This article aims to visualize the idea of the “happy lesson” theory by Hiraku Toyama.  Our objective is to give clear illustration to the followings, 1) Toyama’s teaching activities were to prove that instead of merging activities and the subject mathematics, activities were utilized as drilling for the teaching purpose.  2) Toyama upheld the idea of breaking down the conventional teaching format for children, while there are no evidence that Toyama agreed that teachers should cater the needs from students.  3) Moving towards the 1970s, and based on the idea of “comprehensible lesson” and the feasibility of improving the examination score of students, Toyama claimed it is not correct to incorporate any students’ scores or ranks to the teaching activities and thus focus should be on activities without any discrimination.  4) Toyama’s ideas of “happy lesson” and “comprehensible lesson” are not contradicting but co-existing.  This article includes clear explanation and detailed description about Toyama’s “happy lesson” from an untraditional and greatly different point of view.