Since the 1970s, Japanese society has endured rapid and confusing socio-economic transformation. These changes brought a sense of decentralization into Japanese life. It was a sense of loss and a sense of reality, as the stable dependencies that had characterized the Japanese way of life for centuries vanished. In the years leading up to the 21st century, this radical departure from tradition meant that the concept of continuity existed only to emphasize its absence. Society goes through a process of rapid change, posing challenges not everyone might be ready to tackle. The unintended, but inevitable, consequence is the social disaffection of Japanese youth, who may be losing their motivation (or focus) at a time of sudden and sustained adversity. The Japanese government is promoting the revitalizing energy of education for sustainable development (ESD), and even publicizes ESD’s potential for giving life a robust meaning. This is by no means an exclusively Japanese problem. In recent years, and with Japanese leadership, other UNESCO nations have integrated ESD into curricula. To fully understand the nature of the Japanese system for sustainable education, scholars need to draw from cultural philosophy, social neuroscience, historical analysis, and the ideas of socio-cognitive and constructivist theorists. Such a mix of methods provides an inter-disciplinary “geometry” of the often deeply inlaid shapes, patterns, and relationships that surround the uniquely cultural, yet highly exportable models for zenjin-education (“whole-person”).

International assessment studies have shown since decades that Japanese students score highly on math and science tests. As a consequence, many scholars, education policy officials and journalists outside Japan share the opinion that quality of education is ensured and turn to the Japanese educational system to identify educational effectiveness enhancing factors. Simultaneously, a sense of educational crisis exists within Japan, which resulted into numerous education reforms. In this paper, we describe how quality in education has been ensured in Japan, what changes in the assurance of quality are brought forth by the most recent wave of reform measures as well as the reaction of scholars toward these measures.

In 2009, Warwick Mansell, Mary James and the Assessment Reform Group (ARG) wrote a commentary on assessment policy on behalf of the UK's Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP). The report, entitled 'Assessment in Schools: Fit for Purpose?', remarked on the confusion among assessment experts from Canada, America, UK, Continental Europe, Australia and New Zealand who convened to discuss methods for supporting thinking and learning. In that event, there was a consensus among the delegates that the term 'formative assessment' lacked clarity, and that the confusion was 'exacerbated by some policy-makers appropriating and using it in ways that contradict its true intentions' (Mansell et al., 2009, p. 23). In our briefer discussion, we attempt to bring some clarity to those Japanese policies, perspectives and practices that support interactive styles of classroom assessment. More specifically, we discuss a policy-initiative designed to facilitate interactive assessment which is gaining momentum in MEXTthe Open Learning Environment (OLE). In the Japanese context, it is gathering political impetus as a collective space in which learners may cultivate self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies or the meta-strategies (planning, monitoring and reflection) that support 'good learning'.OLEs are learning environments that reduce the psychological 'risks' associated with competitive interactions designed to focus students on the attainment of pre-defined outcomes or standards. In Japanese culture, OLEs are therefore founded upon the value attached to kankei (the Japanese word for inter-relationships) and the fundamental concept of 'good living'. In Japan, social and learning interactions are considered 'successful' when they can be described as equitable, reciprocal, harmonious, stable and balanced. The emphasis on the quality of relationships promotes effective interaction, revealing the recondite knowledge of learners to their teacher, and to each other. In considering the quality of classroom interaction, we may rely on Black and Wiliam's (2009) theory of the 'formative interaction' as one in which an 'interactive situation influences cognition'. They explain that it 'is an interaction between external stimulus and feedback and internal production by the individual learner which involves looking at the three aspects, the external, the internal and their interactions. (p. 11). This 'three aspect' conception of 'formative interaction', or 'formative feedback' is a relevant heuristic structure in any context where classroom interaction takes place.The cross-cultural clarity on the underlying logic of the 'three aspects' of formative interaction creates comparative policy-directions around the world, just as the use of formative-type (interactive) OLE models has spread throughout Europe and internationally. MEXT is attempting to create more opportunities for OLEs, as exemplified by curricula approaches to inquiry-based learning in Japan. Progress towards this goal began in the 1950s when MEXT moved away from the rote-learn...

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This research will discuss the assessment practices in global education in the context of upper secondary education in Japan. It will also aim to clarify some of the features, challenges and measures of methods for assessing learning outcomes, progress and transformation. In 2014, MEXT started a Super Global High School program, a national project toward fostering global human resources. A whole-school approach is utilized to design curriculum, such that teachers put an emphasis on global consciousness, and encourage the connection between local and global aspects by the students themselves. This leads to inquiry-based learning that inevitably results in the acquisition of competencies, and expands learning resources beyond classrooms. A comprehensive quantitative and qualitative analysis based on practical reports for each fiscal year and students' works that each SGH provided, and interview and questionnaire surveys to teachers and students was utilized. Some features, challenges and partial measures for formatively assessing student-centered inquiry learning that differs from didactic education types, will be revealed in reference to the diagnostic tool of curriculum evaluation that was originally developed based on the critical comments of MEXT's interim evaluation. The actual situation and issues to overcome regarding the formative and summative function of assessment and their linkage to global education in Japan, very relevant to the SDGs, will be considered in the discussion part to show the light and shadow.