Asian teachers also exploit the fact that the same instruction can affect different students in different ways, something that may be overlooked by American teachers. In this sense, Asian teachers subscribe to what would be considered in the West a constructivist view of learning. According to this view, knowledge is regarded as something that must be constructed by the child rather than as a set of facts and skills that can be imparted by the teacher. Because children are engaged in their own construction of knowledge, some of the major tasks for the teacher are to pose provocative questions, to allow adequate time for reflection, and to vary teaching techniques so that they are responsive to differences in student’s prior experience. Through such practices Asian teachers are able to accommodate individual differences in learning abilities, even though instruction is not tailored to each student.
Few who have visited urban classrooms in Asia would disagree that Chinese and Japanese teachers are highly skilled professionals. What is often not appreciated is how thoughtfully and adroitly they guide children through the vast amount of material they must master during the six years of elementary school. We of course witnessed examples of excellent teaching in American classrooms. But what has impressed us in our personal observations and in our data is how remarkably well most Asian teachers teach. It is the widespread excellence of Asian class lessons that is so stunning.