2016 Volume 57 Issue 2 Pages 143-154
The aim of this study is to analyze the influence of American Nature Study into ‘Rika’ (school science) in the lower grades of elementary schools in Japan, focusing on a case study of Seijo Elementary School in the Taisho Era (1912–1926). In this study, we first examined the objectives and teaching methods of Rika in the lower grades in Seijo Elementary School with a comparison of American ideas of Nature Study. We then considered the influence of American Nature Study into the theory and practice of Rika in the lower grades in Seijo Elementary School. As a result, we found that the objectives, teaching methods, and practices of Rika in the lower grades in Seijo Elementary School could be observed with the following points in common with American ideas of Nature Study: the objectives of Rika were to improve children’s lives, and cultivate the power of their observation, imagination and thought; the teaching methods of Rika were to foster children’s contact with nature itself, to observe and do experiments about natural objects and phenomena by themselves, to write, draw and consider the results of observation and experimentation, and to learn according to their demands and interests. We pointed out that the theory of Rika in the lower grades in Seijo Elementary School coincided with American ideas of Nature Study: American Nature Study was adopted as the theoretical foundation and reference to teach in Seijo Elementary School; teachers at Seijo Elementary School deeply sympathized with the theory and practice of American Nature Study.
