抄録
This paper is examines the meaning of educational activities taking place in the framework of 'the discretionary periods of individual schools' found in the Course of Study for Upper Secondary Schools in Japan which was revised in 1978. First, 'the discretionary periods of individual schools' is viewed as a curricular policy and reconsidered in a historical context. Among the findings are its relation to 'the free study periods' which allowed for students in the very early stage of the revised upper secondary school system. It is pointed out that both are similar with respect to the aim of encouraging students' spontaneous study done either in a group or independently. Secondly, two schools are selected, one from the public schools and one from the private sector, and their educational activities are respectively considered as the model cases in order to clarify their uniqueness and also their problems. What is called 'Challenge Time' is a non-credit course for 10th graders. And the 'Form' system is a group of credit courses for 12th graders. Finally, it is emphasized that, in the framework of the newly revised Course of Study, individual schools could organize their curriculum more flexibly by using their increased discretionary periods.
