A comparison of the development of expertise in preschool teaching in China, Japan, and the United States.

In Teaching Expertise in Three Countries, Akiko Hayashi shows how teachers from  Japan, China, and the United States think about what it means to be an expert teacher. Based on interviews with teachers conducted over the span of fifteen years and videos taken in their classrooms, Hayashi gives us a valuable portrait of expert teachers in the making. While Hayashi’s research uncovered cultural variations in the different national contexts, her analysis of how teachers adapted their pedagogy throughout their careers also revealed many cross-national similarities. Younger teachers often describe themselves as being in a rush, following scripts, and “talking too much,” while experienced teachers describe themselves as being quieter, knowing children better, and being more present.
 
Including a foreword by scholar of early childhood education Joseph Tobin, Teaching Expertise in Three Countries provides a foundation for understanding the sequence and pathways of development over the first decade of teaching in three national contexts, demonstrating the value of the field of comparative education in the process.  
 

"This study provides a deep portrait of teachers' professional development over the course of their careers—what they learn and how they learn it—going beyond the more typical novice-expert single-moment studies and beyond induction studies that end by the third year of teaching. It also makes a notable contribution to comparative studies of pedagogy. It accomplishes both while offering a text readable enough to engage undergraduate education students, or to entice those harried university instructors to enjoy the book with their feet up while discovering a better way to improve teaching than writing ever more exhaustive lecture notes." - Education Review