Another cultural factor that distinguishes Japan and Australia is the focus onthe classroom as a community of learners as opposed to a focus on individualdifferences. Community is built in elementary school classrooms through a rangeof strategies, including the thoughtful, deliberate creation and maintenance ofongoing small groups that form the underlying structure for lessons as well asfor out of class activities such as eating lunch, playing games, and cleaning theschool. This sense of community is in evidence in the ways in which studentsengage in the structured problem-solving lessons that form the basis for LessonStudy in mathematics.