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In recent research, it has been argued that effective professional learning would continue over the long term and is best suited for a school community that promotes learning. This requires an examination of the teachers on a daily basis. In order to develop such a community, it becomes increasingly important for teachers to mutually observe and jointly reflect on practices at the classroom level. Educators in the United States have begun paying close attention to the Japanese tradition of lesson study. This paper aims to discuss the chief findings and issues that have hitherto been raised with respect to research on lesson study and to clarify current progress and limitations in the research in the United States and Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The chief objective of this paper is to develop suggestions as to how to learn from best practices in HRM across national borders. The analysis is based on survey data gathered from 232 HRM managers from American, Japanese and German top 500 companies. The managers provide information on how the HRM model of their respective country is characterized and from which of the other two country models they seek inspiration. The concrete attributes of the models considered worth adopting are described in detail and future developments with regards to convergence of the HRM models explored. The empirical data suggest that HR managers from all three countries expect a partial convergence towards a hybrid model. Curiously, the model that comes closest to this hybrid - the German one - is also the one that rates lowest as a source of inspiration. An argument is made that in order to better understand learning from best practice and resulting convergence tendencies, research should seek more insights regarding the knowledge of managers about foreign management models, their perceptions of these models, and how these perceptions are generated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how visual representations may mediate the teaching and learning of mathematics over time in Japanese elementary classrooms. Using the Zone of Proximal Development Mathematical Learning Model (Murata & Fuson, 2006; Fuson & Murata, 2007), the process of mediation is explicated. The tape diagram, a central visual representation used in Japanese mathematics curriculum, is explored for its roles and the student learning that is intended to be mediated over time, illuminating aspects of the process. The study argues that the consistent and coherent use of one representation can bridge student understanding over time, focusing on mathematical relationships and problem-solving processes. The study also suggests different instructional approaches between U.S. and Japanese curricula that are reflected in the uses of representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study seeks to uncover meanings embedded in the feelings and reflections of visiting Japanese students' accounts of their daily activities in the United States, especially their experience with the U.S. hosts. It aims also to conceptually delineate the communicative process of cultural learning. Seven themes emerged as important factors for cultural learning in intercultural interaction and are labeled as (a) preparedness, (b) expectations, (c) anxiety, (d) enjoyment=discomfort, (e) communication (success, problems, strategies), personality, and (f) "Japaneseness." These factors provide insight into their interactive relationships in cultural learning as part of intercultural adaptation and demonstrate the communicative nature of the process. On the basis of the 7 factors, the article proposes a grounded theory model of cultural learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study compares affective variable revealed in personal diaries of two groups of learners of Japanese in order to identify the effects of different environments on learners. Group I studied Japanese in a classroom setting in the US, while Group 2 was based in Japan, the target setting. Both groups experienced affective factors such as anxiety and embarrassment and developed personal approaches to the learning process. However a difference emerged in the two groups' reactions to the language environment: the US-based group addressed primarily issues within the classroom while the country group responded to the whole target culture as the learning environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]