Today, the Konishi couple came over. They are senior friends from my London days. Dai Konishi teaches finance at Hitotsubashi University, but says that he has recently become very interested in education.
![the Konishi couple](\"http://www.sakimura.org/london/show/rainer.jpg\"){kind=link}
He says: “In energetic classrooms where children raise their hands, children’s stress levels are high.” “A good classroom is one where both teachers and students speak quietly, and everyone, including the students, has learned to listen to each other.” “In many places, classroom conversations with teachers are dominated by a question-answer-evaluation pattern, but this is undesirable. Ideally, it should be kept to around 20%.” “Arranging desks in a U shape so that children can see each other’s faces encourages interaction among them and is effective for learning,” and so on.
On classroom-observation day, it is apparently better to look at the children’s faces from the front rather than from the back. Doing so makes it easier to understand the psychological state in which each child is placed.