Hence, the antagonism that American students often develop for their all-powerful teachers is far less prevalent among Japanese students, who are more likely to direct their frustration towards the big bad national Ministry of Education. As the teacher is perceived as only trying to help all of her students over of the various hurdles set by these anonymous examiners, there is less teacher-student hostility in the classroom, which yields an atmosphere more conducive to learning. This examination process of course produces its own frustrations and anxieties, but they are distinct from those generated by the grading system in American schools. Teachers also adopt a series of interactional strategies to make their own role in learning less heavy-handed. They skillfully avoid telling individual students whether their answers to questions are right or wrong, and instead encourage other students to perform this evaluation.
Teachers manipulate classroom discussions, but almost never give overt evaluations.
Class meetings are held regularly, or as needed, to deal with discipline issues. Thus a degree of student consensus is obtained without the open use of authority by the teacher. Compared to getting everyone to pitch in cleaning the bathrooms, getting everyone to cooperate in a science project is probably a cinch. Classes are divided into small groups called han in which students are required to work together as a group in order to accomplish certain tasks and assignments. The han that serves lunch, practices basketball drills, and sweeps the hall together, discusses social studies issues, performs science experiments, and decorates the bulletin boards.