After World War I though science education in Japan has developed greatly in the method of teaching, there was not very much change in the basic idea; it is practica!ism, holism and positivism New viewpoints, however, have been brought up in proletarian education. Hidehiko Wakita (1910~1941), a representative teacher or elementary school, criticized science education in those days as follows: 1. As the science textbook compiled by the State lacks connections based on science between one chapter and another, information here does not lead to commentary there. 2. The textbook is written without considering the development of child's recognition. 3. Descriptions of the textbook are too simple. 4. The experiments and obseravations in the tewtbook are treated lightly. Children, therefore, cannot understand the basic laws and concepts of science nor grasp the building of science as a whole. He insisted that the above mentioned things have been caused by the old view on science of the Department of Education; i. e. the traditional view of Japan on science tends not to inquire into the principles under the various kinds of matter. He emphasized essentialism in compiling teaching materials and child-centered principle in teaching. Such Kinds of ideas existed in proletarianism in the 1930's. It was an innovation in Japan, but it did not become popular due to the pressure of the government.

Multiply programmed activity for inquiry learning is effective in cultivating attitude to keep on inquring scientifically through continual life. Science teaching based on multiply programmed activity for inquiry learning was designed and carried out in the unit "Decomposition and Combination of Material by Heating". The students'understanding of the fundamental and essential concept of science, their acquisition of some processes in scientific inquiry method, and their interest concerning the lessons were examined by means of written test, performance test, and questionaire survey. Consequently, the following results were obtained by this research. 1) Through the learning activity by multiply programmed activity for inquiry learning, the students keep on inquiring with much interest. 2) Voluntary attitude can be cultivated through this learning activity. 3) This learning activity enables the students to understand the fundamental and essential conceps of science in this programme and to aquire some processes such as obterving, experimenting, and inferring in the scientific inquiry.

A major aim of secondary school science is to cultivate the students' ability and attitude to keep on inquiring the around world scientifically. This ability and attitude can be acquired by having the students experience many voluntary inquiries. Through the learning activity of “Species and the structure of Animals", which is taught at the earliest stages in secondary school, it is important for the students to understand animals in relation to their surroundings. It is also necessary for the students to have some joyful experiences of discovery through their own inquiries. Science teaching based on multiply programmed activity for inquiry learning is one of the most effective learning methods in having the students such experiences. The following results were obtained from the practical study of this science teaching containing a lot of field activities. 1) In the field activities, all groups of students were able to find many questions by themselves. And most of the students tried to inquire with much interest voluntarily. 2) Although all groups inquired into the structure of animals and scheme of motion, no groups inquired the relation between animals and surroundings how they caught food, and how they propagated. But, by presenting interim reports of the students, all groups could inquire voluntarily all the learning contents which were expected at the later stage of the learning activity.

Multiply programmed activity for inquiry learning, in which the students study in multiplied ways based on their interest or curiosity, is considered to be effective in cultivating the attitude to keep on inquiring scientifically. Multiply programmed activity for inquiry learing consists of the following three activities. 1) Activites to find out themes. 2) Multiply activities. 3) Discussion. A multiply programmed activity for inquiry learning was designed and carried out in the science lesson on "Decomposer in the Biological World" in secondary schools. Aims of the learning on this lesson are making students understand that many creatures exist in the soil and many soil microorganisms work as decomposers in the soil, and making students cultivate the scientific attitude of inquiring. The following results were obtained through this study. 1) The students found out many themes, and kept on inquiring with much interest. 2) The students could understand the work of decomposers in the soil. 3) The students prefered the learning activity by multiply programmed activity for inquiry learning.

According to the Piagetian theory, it is said that children aquire the conservation concepts of quantity in the invariant sequence, as they grow from 7 years old to 12 or 13 years. The sequence is, as well known, the conservation of substance, weight and volume. Before the conservation of volume has been aquired by children, they have to pass through the stage in which they can discriminate between two concepts of weight and volme. In this study the author has intended to survey the children's ability to do these discriminations in the various situations for the pupils from 4th grade to 7th grade, using the written quetionaires formulated by the author. The subjects employed were 400 to 500 children in each grade selected ramdomly from elementary schools and junior high schools in Tokyo. The data obtained were processed statisticaly and dicussed fully. One of usefull findings of this study is that there were many children even in the seventh grade who could not discriminate between two concepts of weight and volume.

When some experimental apparatus or materials are delivered to the students in a science classroom and the students are asked to do anything they want using those things before them, they spontaneouly start and continue to do free experiments in group or individually. The learning activities in such a classroom have been called "Messing about" by the Elementary Science Study group. It has been said that we could obtain many effective informations by observing, recording and infering the behaviors of the students engaged in Messing about activities. The auther have applied several times the same methods to the students, in his high school physics course at tha begining of the instruction of the wave. They were delivesed the springs for the wave experiment (slinky) each one to two students and allowed to engage in the Messing about. The data collected through the observation of the students' adtivities, were classified and arranged in the correlative charts or processed statisticaly in some cases, and discussed fully. The main results sugestive for the wave instruction are as follows. 1) Though the diverse activities the students had manifested were apparently orderless and rondom, there seemed to be a developmental suquence among these activities from the macroscopic point of view. The sequence was that they at first concentrated on the propagation of the waves on the spring, next the velocity of the waves, the reflection, the superposition, the standing wave, the decrease of the wave width etc. 2) There were many activities which had apparently no relationship with the wave learning but are inherently very effective for the understanding of the wave concepts. 3) The students have generally the tendency to interpret the wave phenomena with the concept of force. 4) Though there was not the dominant distinction between the sexies, the boys observed the wave phenomena more in detail than the girls.