The NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute has been conducting “surveys on school teachers’ media usage” since 2013 to study the actual status of media environment in school classrooms across Japan as well as to understand the whole picture of the usage of NHK’s educational services such as broadcasts, websites, and events. The survey is targeted at individual teachers and were introduced as a replacement of the “NHK School Broadcast Utilization Survey” (1950 to 2012), a regular survey of “schools.”
The 2019 survey–the second attempt focusing on junior high school teachers, following the 2015 survey–added two more school subjects to investigate to four (science, social studies, Japanese language, and foreign languages) and introduced new questions on the media use for moral education and other subjects that are taught mainly by classroom teachers as well as questions on teachers’ attitudes towards the usage of smartphones by students for learning.
From the results of the survey it is revealed that (1) an environment where teachers can use media devices including TV sets and computers has been put in place to a certain extent, (2) notably, tablet computers are available to more than 60% of teachers for all of the four surjects, and many teachers utilize one–to–one device environments. Differences in media usage depending on school subjects are also found such that radios and CD players are used more by teachers of Japanese and foreign languages. Meanwhile, as to the internet environment in classrooms, although wireless connection accounts for more than 60% now, problem–free video playing is yet to be achieved.
More than 80% of teachers of all four subjects use media learning/teaching materials on those tools, and it is worth noting that the use of “NHK for School has increased in science to 63% (from 55% in 2015) and in social studies to 56% (from 35% in 2015). Among subjects that are taught mainly by classroom teachers, almost 60% of moral education teachers use media materials.
In regard to the use of smartphones by students for learning, many teachers have negative opinions about it both for learning at school and at home, which reveals the issues of smartphone use for learning.
As the idea and practice of “one to one device” is likely to take hold, it is required to develop and provide not only media materials for teachers but also learning/teaching materials that can adjust to individual student’s academic ability and offer active learning opportunities.