Psychological Collaboration in Kyoto University of Education has researched into developmental process of knowledge systematization. The present reports are the parts of the research series.
REPORT All
The Longitudinal Analysis of a Test for Structure of Thinking Operation.
Thinking Structure Test has been administered longitudinally to children from 1968 (Group A: from kindergarten to second grade, Group B: from second grade to fourth grade). The test consists of items which are devised to measure the achievement level of “concrete operations” with reference to the experiments by Piaget. It includes four groupments and two concepts ; addition of classes, multiplication of classes, addition of relations, multiplication of relations, space concept and conservation.
Through longitudinal analysis of the data, we found out the following points:
(1) The developmental rate, at which children enter into concrete the operation stage from the intuitive stage, has not much correlation with the rate at which they grow to complete their operations through the concrete operation stage.
(2) We found the two types of processes in which children systematized multiplicational operation of relations and conservation ; the one, completion of multiplicational operation precedes to formation of conservation, the other, conversely, formation of conservation precedes to completion of the multiplicational operation.
(3) In Group A, the children, who had tended to complete the multiplication operation of relations earlier, showed more gains in test scores for two years, than the children who had completed it later.
(4) We devised a new factorial approach, analizing the correlations between each operation (or concept) which indicated co-changeability in respect to progress or stagnation of each operation for the given period. The results suggested that co-changeability between logical and infralogical structure development was not so high. This approach, though it is a tentative one, may be an effective technique for analysing longitudinal data in future research.
REPORT IX
Longitudinal Investigation on the Development of Social Concept “War” In the course of our study on concept formation, we have adopted several concepts in respect to social studies. The present report is based on a longitudinal analysis of the concept “war”. Thirty-one kindergartener were asked to answer “Do you know war? What does it mean? How does it come about?”
After two years, the same questions were repeated to the same children who were in second grade.
We have come to find out that these who showed a better answer in second grade, had mentioned richer iconic images of “War” on the test in kindergartener-age. The kindergartener who had given superficial verbal definition of war earlier, did not show so much progress afterwards. The degree of progress in concept formation by each child was coincident with the one in his score of Thinking Structure Test.
REPORT X
Preparing to Test for Thinking Structure in Verbal Form.
We made up a Thinking Structure Test in verbal form to measure developmental process from concrete operation to formal operation stage. The Test, consists of 23 verbal questions involving operations of formal logic with reference to A. Morf's questions, was administered to children from third grade to ninth grade.
We examined cross-sectionally percentage of right answers of each item and could predict the developmental sequence of formal operation ; the disjunction form was easier, the incompatibility and implication forms were more difficult.

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The problem of motivation has often been ignored in laboratory studies on human learning. This might be because i) a set of instructions works as a procedure producing quasi-motivation, ii) the effect of motivation can be neglected when E controls Ss' learning activities, and iii) knowledge of results is sufficient to reinforce Ss' responses. But as in classroom learning, where a learner can seek information outside of E's control or has to deal selectively with relevant information, motivation should be considered. On the other hand, traditional motivating procedures used in the classroom have extrinsic in nature, i. e., publicizing performance or letting pupils compete with each other. The concept of intrinsic motivation instigating and rewarding learning without depending on factors other than learning processes themselves has been promoted recently. This symposium was conducted in order to clarify the present state of and future research on cognitive motivation or curiosity, which is “almost a prototype of the intrinsic motive” (Bruner).
Inagaki hypothesized two mechanisms of cognitive motivation: diversive curiosity maintaining an optimal level of information processing and speciE curiosity reducing cognitive incongruity or dissonance. She has been concerned with the learning aroused by specific curiosity. She asserted that the following three characteristic behavioral events were observed: i) cognitive curiosity was aroused by incongruity-producing information and this made pupils interested in getting further information, ii) actual information gathering behavior, such as writing a postcard asking questions, was elicited, and iii) one and the same unit or block of information was more effectively acquired, and generalized when it functioned to reduce incongruity than when it didnot.
Itakura postulated that scientific knowledge i) can be acquired only by experiments, and ii) is a kind of social knowledge. These basic principles imply that science education can be effective only when each pupil has an intention to explore a certain phenomenon and to share knowledge. He and his co-workers have developed a method of science education called kasetsujikken- jigyo (hypothesis-experiment-instruction). Instead of textbooks and notebooks, pupils and teachers are given “instruction papers” containing problems of appropriate intellectual interest and difficulty, whose correct answers may be demonstrated clearly. Usually a problem has 3 or 4 alternative solutions, each representing a discrete hypothesis. Each pupil must choose an alternative. The teacher surveys the distribution of answers, summarizing it into a table. Some pupils are asked to explain their ground of anticipations. Then the teacher encourages discussion among pupils differing in their anticipations, but no one is forced to speak. Ideally, during the discussion, the child becomes concerned with the underlying process, while retaining his interest in the outcome -that is, he wants to know “why” as well as “what”. Finally, the teacher-conducts the experiment, conclusively demonstratingt he correct solution. Itakura asserted that difficult problems, not amenable to solution by mere common sense, should be presented in the first part, and easy ones requiring application of knowledge later.

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Four young scholars, Shimizu, Terada, Fujishima, and Tanaka, attended as proposers to this symposium. They proposed and discussed under their psychological and/or educational point of view about education for mentally retarded children that were intended to improve their development.
Shimizu insisted as follows. In spite of the necessity of early diagnosis and early education for mentally defective children, skills and methods of diagnosis are incomplete, and the organizations for diagnosis and counselling are insufficient. It's very difficult to maintain a contact relationship among diagnosis, remedy, and education. So, mentally retarded children couldn't fully develop their ability. These conditions especially have negative effects on the before four-year old feeble minded. Counselling, remedy, and infantile education organizations must cooperate to overcome such conditions.
Terada pointed out as follows. Phases in cognitive development that Piaget, J. A. and Bruner, J. S. insisted on are also seen in mentally retarded children, but the inner structures of these phases are incomparable with those in normal children. Moreover, retardation of cognitive functions in mentally defective children is attributed to lack of their spontaneities of adoptingouter stimuli(experience)positively. Themanyelements in real life are essential to their development, but do not reconstruct the cognitive function itself, Systematic learning that contain iconic, symbolic, and conceptional stages must be done in touch with the developmental stages of the children to facilitate its reconstruction.
Fujishima insisted as follows. Educational contents for mentally retarded children must be reciprocal. Mentally retarded children are interested in the events concerning everyday life, and acquire new behavior systems through learnings in everyday life. Thinking it the best learning system, he recommends what is called “the bazaar unit learning”, a kind of learning through work, which integrates elements of life under the exhibition of children's works.
Tanaka brought forward four problems about the real situations surrounding mentally retarded children.
(1) A number of children refused to school is increasing, though classes and schoos for mentally retarded children are increasing.
(2) Individual differences between the beginning salaries for the graduates are getting larger as an enterprise gets large.
(3) The purpose of education is changed to build up a part-individual, and to cultivate easy usable workers in the society.
(4) les necessary to grasp the cognitive development in mental defective children in relation to the group to which they belong. On the basis of his practice at Omi Gakuen, he insisted that he could improve the cognitive activities of mentally retarded children byplacing them systematically in three groups, that is, a life group, a learning group, and a working group.
Next we had a discussion on the basis of the propositions as abovementioned. The conclusion of it is as fallaws. There is no sense in discussing whether the learning by unit of experience or the learning by systematized subject matters is more effective, because the contents of both learnings aren't defined clearly. It's a matter of course to begin the education for mentally defective children with empirical and concrete materials in life. And it's necessary to systematize the logical knowledges in such materials and to reconstruct them in active, working, and grouping forms. Mentally retarded children should not be considered that they have no ability. The ability can be improved by devising learning materials and teaching method, and by giving them a variety of children's group.Treatment, counselling, and educational organizations which guarantee the possibility of development in mentally retarded children must be closely connected with each other and must be enriched institutionally.

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In the post-war education, the right of equal opportunity of both sexes has been emphasized conceptually, as a result, it seems that practice of education has been carried out without regard to sex difference.
In this symposium, therefore, four members were requested to report to what extent sex difference is discriminative in each stage of school education and how teachers should accept it in today's schools.
At the stage of elementary school, Baden collected opinions of 204 elementary school teachers as to sex difference in their pupils, and she compared this result with scores of standardized tests of children's achievment, personality and behavior charcteristics. She found more discriminative sex difference in school achievement than in personality and behavior characteristics.
Analysis was made by Nakagawa on the contents of official school reports of 985 3 rd-grade junior high school students who were sent to senior high schools as a partial requirement of admission. He concluded that despite the fact that there was no sex difference in the totaled rating scores of school subjects, boys tended to excel more in science, mathematics and social sciences as compared to girls who excelled more in language and music. Hirose reported marked sex difference in the attitude of his senior high school students toward selves, parents, teachers, school subjects and suicide (measured by SD technique) and many items related to their daily life (measured by questionnaire).
On the college level, Akita drew our attention to the marked sex difference to be found in male-female ratios of college students, their choice of optional subjects and extra-curricular activities. He raised a question as to whether college administratorshould pay more attention to this fact.
In the first stage of discussion, opinions were divided on the issue of sex difiirence in school education between those who defy the difference and those who defy the difference and those who accept it for the purpose of education. However, by this discussion we reached a conclusion that today's school should not take a role of merely transmitting sex roles to children as an established fact, but they should give to their children opportunities of learning their sex roles as a more flexible and dynamic factor to re-create values in our changing culture.

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The chairman first aroused the attention of the participants as to the importance of rec., gnizing the role of the computer in education, because of its faculty in the society overflowed with information. Four members were participating to report their opinions and suggested as follows.
T. Horiuchi reported the recent situation of utilization of the computer in education and presented a few examples containing the experimental project schemed in their university. He emphasized the importance of programmed materials for learners in contrast to that of hardwares and suggested CAI would have only supplementary role in instruction. CMI will be introduced, according to his prediction, in education without any particular opposition to enable more facile the administration of education, managent of individualized instruction and information retrieval required for guidance. He added also the computer should be designed to be suitable to the needs of teachers and pupils to familialize them with the computer.
S. Sato first of all clarified the meaning of modernization of instruction and pointed out the modernization, according to his definition, placed great importance on the fundamental concepts of science and technology, and on the subjects which ought to be taught to the young generation. He criticized the attitude of promoters of CAI who payed little attention to the movement of curriculum reformation and treated lightly the autonomous endeavor of teachers in curriculum development. He alarmed the critical fact that the concept of system approach gave the Ministry of Education a chance to centralize the power and to control bureaucratically the national education.
Y. Takakuwa brought forward problems as follows,
(1) Difficulty of prediction concerning to the response of learners in learning situation.
(2) Illusion or overestimation possessed by teachers that the computer could be almighty in education.
(3) Fixation and stereotyped curriculum brought by the standardization of instruction-learning process.
(4) Fact that the learning with computer is not necessarily saying the self-active learning.
(5) Importance of profitable employment of computer in the field of educational administration and management.
He did not forget to add the risk of cetralized control on the national education brought by the employment of computer.
T. Sakamoto enumerated the merits and demerits on the occasion of the employment of computer in education.Merits;
(1) Clarification of the instruction-learning process and necessity of the elaborate analysis of teachers' behaviors.
(2) Necessity of the elaborate analysis of learners' behaviors.
(3) Realization of the individualized instruction and the fine guidance in the situation of a crowded school.
(4) Enlargement of the communication channel between teacher and learner.
(5) Recognition of the importance of educational service. Demerits ;
(1) Expensiveness.
(2) Difficulty of the development of soft wares.
(3) Illusion to the capability of computer.
On the basis of these propositions, the following subjects were discussed.
(1) Curriculum reformation and programmed materials.
(2) Input and output facilities for CAI.
(3) Financial problem and centralized control on education.
(4) Problems of evaluation.
(5) Strategies for introduction of computer in education.

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Today, both from the standpoint of psychology of education and adolescence, it is very significant to do any study on college students' life. However, this sort of study is not necessarily matured ; and there are problems, such as students' power, marriage among students, deviate behavior of students, etc. which are untouched yet. Researchers, here, have been engaged in a study as is seen below:
Emphasis is made on the following four areas. And analysis is based on materials obtained during ten years.
(1) Consciousness and attiudes of students. The following problems are reviewed: Conscious way of life; View of life; Consciousness to value system, to colleges and universities, to college life and to social system ; Attitudes toward human relations, to society, to politics and to occupations, etc.
(2) Co-curricula activity at colleges and universities. From the following viewpoints review has been made: Participation to co-curricula activity, Life in domitory, Use of student union, Engaging in part-time job, Finding financial aid (Problem of being independent of family regarding finances), Use of leasure time including reading tendency and enjoying mass media.
(3) Maladjustment in college life. From the following viewpoints review has been made: Maladjustment of students with low academic standard or who have flunked out, Maladjusted students with psychological problems (action research, screening test, etc.), Orientation and articulation to college life.
(4) Counseling and psychotherapy.
Followings are the viewpoints: Role and function of counseling in colleges and universities, Problem of role taking of staffs and their team work in counseling activity, Technique of counseling, Worries and suicide problem of students.
By reviewing those problems, researchers have found out some problems to be studied hereafter. However, research has been limited to the problems about students in Japan, this time. And the writers hope to extend it to the problem of students in foreign nations and to the crosscultural studies.

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[in Japanese]

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