The purpose of this thesis is to look at the dangers of "classroom humor". Although many studies on Japanese "classroom humor" have focused on its usefulness, little research has been carried out into its negative aspects. It is also important to consider its dangers in order to be able to identify the ideal form of "classroom humor".

The dangers discussed in this paper are as follows:

(1) the danger of hurting others;

(2) the danger of having a negative effect on social relationships in classrooms;

(3) the danger of having a negative effects on lessons;

(4) the danger of forming fixed ideas about certain phenomena.

These are the main points which should be considered as disadvantages of using "classroom humor". It will be an important new step for Japanese "classroom humor" to discuss them and the findings may help teachers in using "classroom humor".

In this paper I focus on the subject "Thought and Morality" at the lower secondary school level in China. I will define the particularity of the contents of classes in this subject as well as its significance. With this aim in maind my analysis focuses on "Standards" and a tentative textbook. Based on this analysis it can seen that this subject aims to develop students who can: explore society, develop an active approach to life, analyze problems, develop their thinking skills, take an interest in society, and develop the abilities and skills to participate actively in society. To achieve these aims, the class contents are organized to look at students' relationships with themselves, with other people, and with their country and society. The range of this subject covers four fields: psychology and health studies, moral studies, law studies, and national information studies. In addition, this subuject includes topics relating to citizenship, such as standards of behavior in daily life, customs, and social phenomena. It also includes exploratory learning acitivities. Therefore, it can be concluded that this subject is intended not only to help students to understand society and the relationship between people and society, but also to understand how people participate in, and pley a formative role in, society.

With the extraordinary development of the Chinese economy, it is also necessary to raise the level of education. Thus, it has become extremely important to develop the skills of teachers, especially the skilles of teachers in rural China. Therefore, there are currently many programs aimed at developing teachers' skills.

This paper focues on such programs for developing teachers' teaching skills in order to explore the system and policies which support and promote teacher development. Based on my research in Xin-jiang Uy-gur, I analyze the actual contents of a program, i.e., developing the academic level of schools, providing bilingual training (the teachers' own ethnic languages and Chinese) and introducing a novel curriculum.

The basic charactersitics of this program can be summarized as follows:

(1) it is carried out on the basis of local historic causes;

(2) it promotes links and cooperation between present education systems;

(3) it seeks for consistency between national educational strategies and local policies, but it also aims to maintain flexibility at the local level.

Previous studies on "the use of literature in foreign language teaching" have proposed various pedagogical merits which literary texts may have. However, they have not taken into consideration whether a given literary work can really function as a literary text in the classroom. The present study introduces a Transaction Model, which enables us to discuss this issue. This model consists of three components (the text, the reader's trais, and the reading situation), and their transaction steers the reader to adopt a specific way of information processing towards the text. Based on this model, I exemplify what kind of research should be done from now on in order to unravel the relationship between reading foreign literature and learning (and teaching) a foreign language. Moreover, I answer a few questions which readers of the present study may ask. This study is expected to give a useful framework for studies on "the use of literature in foreign language teaching" and to develop this research area.

Diese Arbeit zielt darauf, anhand von Schriften und Aktivitäten Siegfried Bernfelds in seiner Wiener Zeit, das seit Herbart entwickelte historische Konzept der wissenschaftlichen Pädagogik am Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts zu analysieren und, aufgrund des Resultats von Bernfelds Bemühung, über die Grenze dieses Konzepts zu reflektieren.

Die Arbeiten Bernfelds müßten angesichts Bernfelds lebenslangen Anspruches um „Wissenschaftlichkeit" als seinen derartigen Versuch interpretiert werden, keine metaphysische Bildungstheorie mehr zu verfolgen, sondern eine neue wissenschaftliche Pädagogik zu begründen, durch Erforschung der menschlichen Mechanismen: einerseits von innen und andererseits von außen.

Zunächst bemühte sich Bernfeld, von der Jugendbewegung beeinflußt, um einen wissenschaftlichen Jugendbegriff als Grundlage seiner aus dem psychologischen und soziologischen Teil bestehenden wissenschaftlichen Pädagogik. Daran anschließend setzte er diesen Versuch in seinen neuen um, die "neue" Pädagogik zu erfinden mit der Psychoanalyse und der marxistischen Sozialwissenschaft.

Durch beide erreichtete er aber gleichzeitig einen neuen Aspekt, daß die Veränderungen der psychischen Struktur und des sozialen Orts miteinander zusammenhängen. Die psychische Kenntnis und die soziologische sind also untrennbar, so daß man keine wissenschaftliche Pädagogik mittels beiden begründen kann.

Von Herbart bis heute noch gab man sich große Mühe, um die wissenschaftliche Pädagogik zu erfinden. Angesichts der Arbeit Bernfelds stellt es aber sich als das unerfüllbare Ideal der Pädagoge dar.

A school textbook inspection system was established in China during the late Qing Dynasty. With the establishment of the Republic of China, authority over textbooks was transferred from the Department of Schooling to the Ministry of Education, under which the inspection system was further developed. During the early days of Republican China, a textbook inspection committee was set up for each region, but the regional system was only temporary and was not maintained for long. After much trial and error, textbook inspection by the Ministry of Education was re-established. In this paper. I will cast light on the re-establishment of the Ministry of Education's textbook policies and will reveal their distinctive features. The paper consists of the following sections:

I. Disorders resulting from the lack of textbook standards during the formative stage of Republican China

II. Regulations regarding textbooks under the "Temporary Laws Regarding Standard Education"

III. Changes in the regulations for textbook inspection

IV. The textbook inspection committee in Jiangsu province during the formative stage of the Republic of China

V. Regulations regarding the textbook inspection committee under the "Regulation for Textbook Inspections"

VI. Organization of the textbook inspection system by the Ministry of Education