The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of class size and small group learning on pupils' academic achievement by using Multilevel Models. Since 1950s to early 1990s, class sizes were reduced to 40 pupil classes. After the 1990s, instead of continuing to reduce class sizes, the Ministry of Education has adopted learning group systems to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio, for example, small group learning and Team-Teaching (TT). Do the class size and these new learning group systems have positive effect on the pupils' academic achievement? This is the theme of this research. Thirty-four elementary school principals and 843 pupils responded to the questionnaires and pupils took brief academic achievement tests for Japanese and Mathematics. This research focuses on the analysis on the effect of adopting teaching methods like small group learning on mathematic tests. The results like many former research findings suggest that small class size and small group learning have positive effect on pupils' academic achievement. To work small group learning effectively, it is necessary to arrange full-time teachers and to group pupils by the similar ability.

The purpose of this study is to re-evaluate the educational significance of the Hawaii Music Curriculum Project (HMCP), which is one of the most inclusive efforts affected by the Contemporary Music Project's Comprehensive Musicianship, with special reference to its underlying principles of the curriculum structure. An analysis the curriculum of HMCP revealed the following three distinguishing facets: (1) its goal to develop "musicianly behavior" in the students, (2) its spiral structure to attain the above goal, and (3) its stress on playing music and having the students trace a performer's mode of inquiry into music. These facets represent the curricular foundation, music should be considered as a discipline. The idea that a subject should have nature of a discipline was a distinctive dimension in the educational reform led by Sputnik Shock in 1957, and HMCP's curriculum was an early effort embracing this trend in music education. In addition, the curriculum had the logical consistency derived from the systematic ideology of Western music. After all, the HMCP's curriculum was founded on these two principles, i.e., nature of music as a discipline, and the intellectual structure of Western music.

This study addresses two issues on the perception of Japanese long vowels and geminate consonants by American learners of Japanese: (1) whether they can identify existing heavy syllable units including special moras and (2) which phonetic differences, namely, the position of a heavy syllable (1^st syllable or 2^nd syllable), moraic types (long vowel or geminate consonants), the position of an accented syllable (1^st accent, 2^nd accent, or no accent), or the combinations of these features, influence learners' perception.

The participants in the study are native English speakers who are novice-level learners of Japanese. They were auditorily presented with a series of pseudo-words and were asked to judge whether the words included a heavy syllable unit, and where it was located.

The results show that it is significantly more difficult to perceive the existence of a heavy syllable unit than its absence, and geminate consonants are more difficult to perceive than long vowels. In addition, the heavy syllable is significantly easier to identify when it is accented and in the word initial position than when it is unaccented or in the word medial position. This may be attributed to L1 transfer since an accented syllable has a high pitch and is lengthened in English.

It's one of the aims of multicultural education to eliminate prejudice and discrimination against minorities. One of the aims of multicultural music education, therefore, is to reduce prejudice and discrimination through learning the music and culture of other ethnic groups. The purpose of this study is to get to the root of the discrepancy between the ideal and practice of multicultural music education in the United States through its development since 1967. The following two factors are considered the cause of the discrepancy. One factor is that "multicultural music" has been used synonymously with "World Music", whose causes are 1) intention of achieving the aim of multicultural music education within a range of music education, 2) the change of the concept of music with the learning development of ethnic music and World Music. The other is that learning of multicultural music education can't completely separate learning of musical elements. According to the above understanding, multicultural music education in the United States shows a hybrid in multicultural education and music education.

The purpose of this study is to identify characteristics of verbal behavior of native speakers of Japanese and learners of Japanese, focusing on repetition and rephrasing in direction-giving discourse. This study addresses the following three questions. (1) In relation to what kind of information are repetition and rephrasing used? (2) At what points are repetition and rephrasing used? (3) What kinds of reactions are expressed by interlocutors following the use of repetition and rephrasing?

The results reveal the following differences among the native speakers and the learners of Japanese. (1) Among native speakers of Japanese, the use of repetition and rephrasing depends on specific information in the discourse, but this distinction is not evident among learners. (2) Among native speakers of Japanese, either repetition or rephrasing occurs only immediately after the relevant utterance, but among learners of Japanese, they may also occur at other points. (3) Among native speakers of Japanese, characteristic and distinct reactions to repetition and rephrasing are evident, but this kind of distinction is not evident among learners of Japanese.

The above findings demonstrate that the acquisition of "repetition" and "rephrasing" as a discourse development function is inadequate among learners of Japanese. The results of the present study also suggest the possibility that the meaning and function of utterances differ according to the speaker's native language status.

This study examines the content and development of a Swedish preschool's individual development plan. The study /the plan aims to clarify a child's educational development in preschool and throughout the compulsory education.

The study results showed homogeneity of the structure of the individual development plan created at a preschool and s compulsory school. A child's educational development from preschool to high school, is documented by the local government to create an individual plan for every child. A major feature of the Swedish school system is an institutional framework for learning from preschool to high school education.

The purpose of this study is to clarify the present conditions of the internal quality assurance system in teacher preparation programs and to analyze the challenges of establishing the system. The present conditions were examined through a questionaire survey for teacher preparation programs. It consists of three items, which are efforts for internal quality assurance, works of monitoring learning outcomes, and challenges in establishing an internal quality assurance system.

To consider the challenges, the US perspectives were applied. In the US, an internal quality assurance is one of the key factors in the accreditation of teacher preparation programs. The accreditation agencies, National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NACTE) and Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TAEC), require programs to have an internal quality assurance system. This requirement especially focuses on assessment. Teacher preparation programs are expected to conduct assessments and make use of those assessments to improve their programs.

Based on the requirements of NCATE and TEAC, the results of questionnaire survey were analyzed. First, a monitoring system is necessary to assess the practical skills of the prospective graduates and the effectiveness of curriculum. Second, clarification of the programs' goals is important to make use of assessments for the improvement of the programs. By clarifying the goals, programs are able to identify what they have or have not achieved. Third, the connection between these goals and efforts for quality assurance should be considered to make clear which areas have to be improved to achieve the programs' objectives.