This paper analyzed the process of making one special educational policy for Kaifu, a town in Tokushima prefecture, and focused on the agents and resources for that policy during the process. The policy allows the town to employ full-time teachers which is an exception permitted by the central government (Usually, full-time teachers are employed by prefectures).

Through the analysis, we can at least say that when creating a small scale educational policy for a rural area, it is very important to rely on experts with knowledge of educational policies with understanding of political issues, and not "the opinions of the general public on education". In addition, we can say that the political actions of the town mayor and council members are also very important in the process.

The purpose of this research is to explore the psychological factors which motivate learners to continue or discontinue musical performance activities, playing of musical instruments, and to construct a psychological model showing relationships between the factors and outcomes. A questionnaire based on the self-determination theory and the achievement goal theory was created and administered and the responses of eighty university students were analyzed using factor analysis and path analysis. The results suggested a positive causal relationship between the intrinsic regulation (fulfillments) and the period of the musical activity, and a negative causal relationship between an indentified regulation and the period of musical activity. They also suggested a strong causal relationship between all the psychological needs factors we examined and intrinsic regulation (fulfillments). Furthermore task orientation strongly correlated with the with the learners' relationship with both instructor and classmates.

New Zealand is widely known as the first country in the world to implement a nationwhidepreschool-education curriculum. This study focuses on the National curriculum named "Te Whāriki", and to examine the assessment procedure. In so doing, this study analyses the "Learning Story", the original evaluation method used in New Zealand, and its guidebook, "Kei Tua o te Pae". In addition, the author's personal observations during his visit to New Zealand has also been included in the analysis. The philosophy and background of the curriculum evaluation were examined with consideration to these factors.

As a result, the evaluation revealed a "Sociocultural" perspective as the basis of New Zealand's preschool-education curriculum evaluation, and the following three points were evidenced as fundamental elements:

1) A child's involvement in the learning community

2) A child's training as an autonomous learnier

3) Evaluation with continuousness of facilities and home

These three elements together were observed to lead to a strong link between the society, the curriculum, and the evaluation. These elements were found to encourage children to become involved in the community early in their childhood.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the practical knowledge and behavior of early childhood educators by video recording their interaction with their students, and by analyzing their comments on the visual data. The subjects of our study are educators of one kindergarten, and one educator from another kindergarten. The methodology and methods used in the study are as follows:

(1) Videos of educators in the classes of four and five year-old children were taken.

(2) Clips of educators who promoted Cooperative Play were compiled.

(3) Interviews were conducted of the educators as they viewed the compiled video clips.

(4) The results of the interviews were analyzed using M-GTA (Kinoshita 2003).

The principal findings of this study are twofold. First, educators for the class of 4-year olds not only promoted Cooperative Play of their students, but also prepared activities for the next day, even if the activities did not materialize. Secondly, educators for the class of 5-year olds also not only promoted Cooperative Play among their students, but they promoted the development of individual children by demonstrating each child's role in Cooperative Play activities.

Earlier studies of second language acquisition indicated that the "input" is one of the keys for success of language learning. However, teachers often focus on the amount of "output" that students produce, rather than on the input that students receive in the classroom.

In this study, two different styles of lessons "processing instruction" and "output-oriented instruction" were compared to measure their effectiveness. In the "processing instruction" lesson, students were provided with a significant amount of input without any output practice opportunity after the introduction of target grammar. On the other hand, the "output-oriented instruction" lesson included various output practices like the mechanical form-oriented practice to communicative practice.

Each group was made up of eleven students who were given comprehension and recall tests on four occasions: before, immediately after, five days after, and sixty days after the respective lessons.

After the "processing instruction" lessons, students showed better results in both comprehension and recall tests and retained language upto sixty days later as well. The result suggests that after the grammar introduction, it is more effective to give students sufficient amount of input to enhance students' understanding rather output practices such as drill exercises.

This research the method and the content of the education by social semiotics using a multimodal approach. The influence of Halliday's function linguistics is considered, and attempts made to analyze the language activity in the classroom according to the theory of social semiotics. Kress contemplated various forms of communication other than/in addition to language in social semiotics. He has enhanced the selection system function language theory by Halliday. When communicate meaning with each other, the multimode including the sight image is used.

The multimodal approach gives significance to the mode choices made by the teacher, the students, and others involved in the interaction. And the technique of the analysis of the teaching-learning process is selected voluntarily by the teacher.

Moreover, a mode choice and an educational content were related from the frame of a multimodal approach and social semiotics, and the relativity of the teaching-learning process and the culture was pointed out further. A recent trend that started setting the global standard of an educational content is questioned. It is necessary to discuss what culture forms the background of the teaching-learning process and what culture we try to produce in the teaching-learning process.

The society has a long time before the realization of its freedom from gender issues. Coeducational teaching has come to be for home economics classes inschools. However for Physical Education (P.E.) classes, a problem of evaluation based mainly on the physical activity exists. However, there are other skills to be learned in P.E. classes, such as social behavior/interaction, morality, and sentimental expression. I thereby wonder the educational value of P.E. classes cannot be raised.

The necessary reading of published documents on educational issues and their effects on students has been done. The possibility of coeducational teaching is assumed from the start.

The result consists of three aims:

1) A gender specific skill set is not assumed in sports

2) An increase in a sense of morality will be an objective/a goal.

3) Recognition of the value of cooperation and building of relationships over all else..