Abstract
The Third Basic Plan for the Promotion of Education during the period between FY2018 and FY2022, the achievement of Society 5.0, was predicted to be one of the most important educational policy problems after 2030. The Fifth Science and Technology Basic Plan during the period between FY2016 and FY2020 defined Society 5.0 as a new society that followed the Information Society from 2016. The achievement of Society 5.0 is expected to become a new concept to guide the world under a new paradigm. It has been said that it is important for the Science Technology and Innovation (STI) to guide toward and to invent Society 5.0. The importance of the role that STI should play aiming at the achievement of Society 5.0 has, since 2016, been acknowledged in government, academia, and business. This research inquires into science education with the aim of contributing to human resources development leading the next generation of STI for the achievement of Society 5.0. Therefore, this research aims to consider elementary school teachers’ opinions and the demands of the STI human resources development education in the elementary school science class. Moreover, it examines teachers’ opinions of, and the demands of, science teaching methods. A mini debate by the elementary school teachers was executed. A follow-up questionnaire was administered and analyzed, and the results demonstrated that in the elementary school science class, with regard to the positive development of STI human resources development education, the opinion of its necessity was 60.0% group basis and 78.3% individual basis. Moreover, the opinions of what science teaching methods were thought to be effective for the science specialist teacher and the science researcher of the company to utilize were abundant. Additionally individually, there were a wide variety of opinions, including on how the classroom setting can correspond to students’ concerns, and how science teaching materials development research which emphasize science communication skill improvement, point toward potential avenues of future inquiry. The progress of the research and the practices of the science education are expected to invent and foster STI that will contribute to the invention of Society 5.0 .
