Abstract
This report outlines the background, basic ways of thinking, and the influence on educational circles of the “Teacher's Reference Materials for Environmental Education”, which was published by the Education Ministry in 1991 and 1992. Japanese anti-pollution awareness, which started around the middle of the 1960s, shifted to environmental education in the middle of the 1970s. Thereafter, advanced practical studies for environmental education led to the publication of the “Teacher's Reference Materials for Environmental Education” in the early 90s. On the other hand, the “United Nations Conference on the Human Environment” held in Stockholm in 1972, the report “Limits of Growth” by the Club of Rome in 1972, and the subsequent international conferences and reports on the global environmental crisis, also supported and pushed the publication of the Instruction Material. The concrete aim of environmental education as shown in the Belgrade Charter in 1975 became a basic index of the Teacher's Reference Materials. The middle and high school components of the Instruction Material introduced the matrix system, and the elementary school component emphasized practice through an “integrated approach”. The publication of the Teacher's Reference Materials induced many local autonomous bodies to make their own instruction material for environmental education, and promoted local curriculum development.
