鹿児島県小・中学校における放射線教育の現状とその放射線リテラシーに及ぼす教育の効果

抄録

  Teaching of radiation-related subjects for school children takes an important part in promotion of social radiation literacy; however, the effect of school education on radiation literacy of students, as well as the current status regarding how and when children acquire their knowledge on radiation, have not been elucidated in Japan. In 2005 and 2006, a written surveillance on radiation education was conducted twice in Kagoshima prefecture targeting elementary and junior-high students under the consent of school teachers. Based on the results of these surveillances, the followings were revealed;
(1) The elementary and junior-high students receive the information on radiation mainly by the conventional media, including books, television and radio, rather than by school education.
(2) More than a half of all junior-high schools are teaching radiation-related subjects, in classes called “Integrated study”, “Social studies”, and “Science”.
(3) The cross tabulation analysis revealed that among the Novel Prize winners on radiation-related fields, “Pierre and Marie Curie”, “Yukawa” and “Tomonaga” were recognized by junior-high students by the conventional media, whereas “Roentgen” and “Koshiba” appeared to be recognized by school education.
(4) Among the scientific terms, junior-high education seems to have some effect on recognition of “radiation”, “radioactivity” and “natural radiation”. “X-rays” was highly recognized, however, the contribution of school education to the recognition was not significant.
(5) Among the application examples of radiation, sources other than school education had a large effect on recognition of “food irradiation”, “sterilization” of medical instruments, “research on cultural assets” and “dating”, although the recognition was marginal. In contrast, the “cancer treatment” using radiation was highly recognized through the effect of school education.