[in Japanese]

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The present article reviews studies focusing on aspects of clinical practice in instruction in schools, the occupational development of teachers, and current issues such as absenteeism, and then attempts to construct a teacher-oriented school counseling system, focusing on homeroom teachers and specific to Japan. In addition, studies of school counseling activities are reviewed. Finally, six points are proposed as a perspective for the future:(1) the importance of not only individual and group counseling, but also of consultation, coordination, and peer counseling programs ;(2) the necessity of interventionby the school counselor in a wider range of issues in school,(3) clarification of the role of psychologists and the contribution that they play in the planning of individualized educational programs,(4) promotion of empirical and practical investigations of instruction that focus on a clinical point of view,(5) promotion of empirical and practical investigations focusing on clinical aspects of education, in order to enhance teachers' occupationaldevelopment, and (6) promotion of empirical and practical investigations to clarify what teachers do when they are teaching, what psychological professionals do, and the coordination between these two fields.

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We review recent progress of human memory research by focusing on the following five topics: working memory, implicit memory, prospective memory, memory distortion, and autobiographical memory. Research on working memory has begun to specify the central executive component that remains as yet poorly understood. Implicit memory research has attempted to delineate the nature of conscious, as distinguished from unconscious, memory processes, thereby identifying three salient features: intentional remembering, output monitoring, and subjective awareness. These features are further elaborated by ecologically oriented approaches. Prospective memory has been found to differ from retrospective memory in reliance on self-initiated retrieval, which is reflective of the executive function. Monitoring retrieval processes is considered to be another reflection of the executive function, and its failures lead to memory distortion and creation of false memories. Remembering autobiographical knowledge appears to depend on the current configuration of self. We suggest that exploring the executive function and its relation tomemory processes constitutes an important issue for future memory research.

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The present study surveyed the current status of investigation in schools that makesteachers confirm their own everyday educational practice, and considered what pointsshould be investigated in terms of the way educational practice is carried out by teachersand what kind of competencies should be improved. The results suggest the possibilitythat investigations in schools have only been carried out in the frame of a culture thatschool teachers had developed and shared, and were limited to pursuing teachers' image ofan “ideal practice”. Therefore, investigations in schools were far from realistic and henceunable to cue a fundamental reconsideration of the state of educational practice. Theresults also suggest that investigations in schools have become a kind of routine work, focusing on issues that are separate from teachers' everyday educational practice. Thusit was discussed that the understanding and treatment of the frame of practice should bethe competence expected of teachers, and that the next step should be the re-establishment of the settings of investigation in schools.

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[in Japanese]

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In this article I make the assumption that we are especially well adapted forreasoning about the mind. The cognitive processes underpinning this ability seem tofunction very early in development and play an important part in the growth of relatedforms of intellectual faculties. In particular, it seems that an early understanding of mindis essential for language development. There is a bi-directional influence, though, becausebeing able to communicate with language then allows the child to gain much deeperpsychological insights: Verbal communication allows a window on the minds of otherpeople. However, we have recently obtained evidence to suggest that until about the ageof 6 years, children's bias to interpret speech literally is an impediment to their apprehensionof utterances as a product of minds. When children overcome this problem beyond 6years of age, they have potential to gain even deeper psychological insights from verbalinformation. The account I present depicts development in understanding the mind as aprocess that continues over a long period ; it contraducts theorists who say that children acquire a theory of mind at the age of 4 years in a singular conceptual shift.

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Recently, the mechanism of communication deficits in autistic children hasbeen argued from various theoretical background, such as “cognitive theory (Theoryofmind) ”,“affective theory,” and “affordance theory.” Most studies consider the jointattention to be a precursor of communication skill. We can realize well functioningspeech or reciprocal communication in a social context, when both the speaker and thelistener have common affective states or mind shared with one another. Then, how canhuman being develop the ability to have affective states or joint attention? The authorproposes “body-experience sharing theory (BEST).” This theory insists on the importanceof sharing body-experience or reciprocal communication through body sensation suchas warmth and softness, as the premise for developing affect sharing and joint attention.Based on the shared good body-experience with caregivers, children come to be able to getinto a world in which common meaning is shared. In this article, the author suggests thatthe disturbance of shared body-experience causes joint attention deficits in autistic children, and discusses the BEST based intervention strategy of developing joint attention.

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