Last month, approximately 30,000 schools, which is almost all elementary and junior high schools in Japan, participated in the nationwide academic achievement / learning situation survey.
This survey has been held every year since 2007 for students in the last grade of elementary and junior high school. Research is conducted on subject areas of Japanese language, mathematics, and science.
A major feature of this survey is that it consists of two sets of problems: (A) problems for measuring "knowledge," and (B) problems for measuring "application." For mathematics, (B) includes many problems that ask students to evaluate the validity of ideas in realistic situations and describe their reasons in association with mathematical concepts. Click below to see the examples (although not the latest) of the survey problems.
http://www.impuls-tgu.org/…/…/National_Assessment/index.html
This shows well what matters in today's mathematics education in Japan. Mathematics should be an effective tool for organizing information and providing persuasive explanation. This idea occupies a significant place in our company's philosophy "Math for Life" and our products.