Abacus Education in Public Education

Kohara Mitsuharu

President of the Technical Committee of National Federation of Abacus Education Organizations

Show Children the Charm of Abacus!

With the advancement of information and communication technology, great changes are taking place in Japanese education. The National Federation of Abacus Education Organizations produced instructional videos for mathematical “abacus” for Grade 3 and Grade 4 students in 2021 and 2022 respectively. These videos are both educational and entertaining, making learning easy both at home and at school. In addition, a textbook titled “Beginner of Abacus” was developed in 2023 for student in lower grades. There are many math questions in the textbook to help children understand mathematics better.

Why were instructional videos produced?

These video courses were produced when all kinds of schools and educational institutions were facing a major turning point during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the popularity of online classes and hybrid education, and flexibility and technological application were starting to be valued.

The abacus course, mainly in the form of face-to-face interaction, was no exception and called for a major reform. It was in this context that video courses came into being. Reducing the burden of primary school teachers is the main purpose of producing these video courses.

Video courses, as a form of online teaching, are widely used in various educational scenarios. Even if the teacher has no experience in abacus, he/she can also use the instructional videos to carry out easy-to-understand and interesting teaching.

Experiment class begins!

Since 2024, the National Federation of Abacus Education Organizations has conducted experimental courses in a number of primary schools to explore the use of these instructional videos and their implementation effects. At the same time, it has also carried out voluntary teaching in commissioned schools, as well as other activities such as online courses for more than 600 children. In addition, it has also invited in-service teachers to provide relevant teaching.

  The feedbacks on this experimental course, as well as the visit and assessment of in-service teacher’s classrooms, are provided below.

①    These video materials are very easy to use.

②    In the past, teaching was carried out in each classroom at its own pace, so there were differences in teaching progress. Now, the video course unifies the teaching progress, with most students giving good feedbacks, achieving more balanced teaching than the previous independent teaching.

③    Children give good feedbacks, while headteachers are cooperative, so the course goes well. However, some headteachers have their own insistence on video teaching, resulting in the suspension of video play at an inappropriate time during the teaching in some classes. In this regard, it is extremely necessary to reach a consensus among all classes.

Conclusion

It is found through this experiment course that, to popularize this teaching material widely in the future, research publication and publicity activities will be the focus. We expect that these materials can be more widely used not only in Japanese primary schools, but also in the areas with abacus teaching in more than 100 countries around the world.

(Video introduction website) Japan · National Federation of Abacus Education Organizations　

https://syuzan-rengo　

Supplementary Explanation on Volunteer Teaching Campaign

In 1947, abacus teaching was included in the teaching programme for the first time and became a compulsory content. Since then, although it has experienced many twists and turns, it has never been excluded from the teaching programme. In the 21st century, to maintain the position of abacus as a traditional Japanese teaching aid in primary school textbooks, the abacus community initiated a volunteer teaching campaign in primary schools. A workshop for dispatched teachers was held in 2001 and started in Tokyo in February 2002. Since then, the campaign has expanded across Japan, and there are now about 3,000 schools with volunteer teaching activities supported by the abacus community.

(This is a paper delivered at the Eighth Seminar for Academic Exchanges on Abacus and Mental Arithmetic on April 12th, 2024.)