What impressions have the college students about the science education in their elementary and secondary school days? The author made his college students write their impressions about the science education which they had received in their past school days. The author classified and analyzed these free described discriptions, and gained some findings about the effects of science education in the affectional domain. The major findings are as follows. (About experiments and observations) 1.Outdoor activities were very impressive and attractive. 2.Plant cultivation and animal breeding were both very impressive and instructive. 3.Experiences of anatomy were incentive. 4.The observations through microscope were introduction to another view of nature. 5.Generally speaking, hand-on experiments were very incentive. (About subjectmatters and teaching method) 1.Interests were stimulated by the materials about the daily lives and the surrounding matters. 2.Abstractive and theoretical matters were not so interesting if those matters were taught without concrete examples. In such cases, science teachings affect minus effects. 3.Even if the subject matters were needed to be memorized for the entrance examination, the compulsion of memory were one of the most unpleasant learning. It affects as minus factors for affectional domain. 4.The teaching in lecture-only style were also unpleasant for students, but sometimes the teachers' interesting introduction and speech techniques made them very interesting and attractive.

It is well known that the concepts of electric currents, voltage, electric power, etc, are difficult to understand in first steps of studying electricity. The authors investigated the difficulties of studying electric currents in elementary school and reported formerly. This work involves investigations of some problems of studying electricity in lower secondary school. Process of research is as follows: (1) Research for the understanding of electric currents studied in elementary school (pre-test) (2) Planning and execution of lessons of a unit "Electric Currents", based on the course of study of lower secondary school (1977) and refering to the results of above research (3) Measurement of effects of the learning, one (post-test) of which was the same as the pre-test and the other (examination) was a new test concerning electric currents and voltage, prepared by one of the authers (4) Full analyses of correlations among auswers of two or three problems of each test and between two tests Main results are as follows: (1) From analyses of the results of the pre-test and the post-test, there were found four types of thinkings of pupils about electric currents and they were characterized, though it was very difficult to know how pupils were thinking them. It was concluded, also, that these four types corresponded to each step of the understanding of electric currents. (2) From the analyses of answers in the test (examination), a guiding line in teaching-- the unit "Electric Currents" was proposed, which is to enphasize a law of conservation of electric currents in a closed circuit and to promote the understanding of the relations between electric currents and voltage.

Genetic formation process of scientific recognition is carefully studied through records of teaching and learning at classroom. It is intended to clarify how it will contribute, in turn, to the classroom activities. The procedure runs as follows: (1) presentation of theme in form of an inquiry is made by the teacher, and, (2) speculation is made by individual student and predictions are recorded in the notebook, (3) student's ideas are reported and are followed by arguments, (4) appropriate experiments are to be carried out, (5) result of experiment and of observations are recorded in the notebook by the students. Following these procedures, the author analysed the cognitive process of upper secondary school students of the concept of force in relation to the laws of dynamics, especially law of inertia. As the consequence, the following findings were obtained : (1) Consider the case in which a given force is acting on a body, but at the same time there is another force cancell out its effect, hence no resultant force. This helps a great deal the students understanding the law of inertia, because we are convinced that there is acting no force in this case. (2) To discriminate clearly the concept of "impetus" or the "force" to go ahead from the concept of impressed force which we have discussed in the class is very important. (3) Verbal expressions given by students themselves seems to play an important role in the analysis of the cognitive process.

In the science education, it is one of the most important abilities in the spatial cognition to observe the enviromental events from another position by locomoting the viewpoint. In this study the author surveyed the theories of locomoting the viewpoint with respect to the science education and psychology. Following these theories, he classified the functional properties on the viewpoint locomotion into 4 categories (IA・IB・ⅡA・ⅡB). The categorization types were as follows : Type IA (Active locomotion of the viewpoint as the concrete operation) : The learner actively moves to some other place. Type IB (Passive locomotion of the viewpoint as the concrete operation): The object possively moves to some other place. Type ⅡA (Active locomotion of the viewpoint as the mental operation): The learner mentally moves to some other place, without the concrete operation. Type ⅡB (Passive locomotion of the viewpoint as the mental operation) : The object is mentally moved to some other place by the learner, without the concrete operation. On the ground of the cognitive ability on left-right direction in 1st grade, "Cognitive functional hierarchy of the locomoting viewpoint" was clarified (IB→ IA→ ⅡA・ⅡB).

In the United States, the science education for the handicapped develops more than that in Japan. In this study, we examine the trend of science education for the handicapped in the United States based on the available literatures, and we suggest a way to develop the science education in Japan. We report about the following matters: (1)Research of the science education for the handicapped by ERIC data. (2)Activities for the handicapped of the organizations which are concerned with the science education. (3)The present situation of the science education for the handicapped. (4)Preservice teacher education. Even though the research work done in the area of the science education for the handicapped is less than that of the non-handicapped in the United States, there is increase after the establishment of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (PL 94-142), and there is the mainstreaming movement in this trend's background. We summalize the trend of science education for the handicapped in the United States as following: (1)There are active scientists with visual, hearing or other handicaps. (2)The various acts for the handicapped are influencial, and they support financial assistance. (3)Organizations concerning the science education such as AAAS, NSTA tackle the handicapped. (4)Materials and curriculums for visual or hearing handicapped have been developing in the area from elementary school level to higher edu cation level. (5)SCIS or BSCS develops curriculums for the handicapped as extension of that for the non-handicapped. (6)There are programs for preparing teachers in science for the handicapped.

All the pupils in grades 5 and 6 of schools in the Federal Redublic of Germany have not been taught physics education and chemistry education. In recent years, however, the concern of the educational reform has begun to be placed on the orientation stage. In relation to this movement, these snbjects began to be taught at this stage between primary and secondary schools. Through this study followings were made clear : (1) With the introduction of the orientation stage, all the pupils in 5 and 6 grades to be taught physics and chemistry. (2) Generally the science education in this stage is divided into biology and physics/ chemistry. The number of class periods a week allotted to instruction in biology and physics/chemistry is 4, 2 in two years respectively. (3) After many years of elaborats work, a totally new course of study was designed with the cooper ation of teachers and scientists as well as the government authorities. (4) The viewpoint of preparatory education holds a greater position than the consideration of the developmental stage of pupils.

In order to know the real situation of the secondary school students concerning the ability to make a graph from the data obtained in the science classroom and to interpret it the author assigned some basic questions to lower and upper secondary school siudents to answere them by drawing a graph and interpreting it. The following usefull results for teaching the graphical representation were obtained. 1.There were few students who could write down a scale on the coordinate axes taking the extrapolation of the graph into consideration. 2.There were few students who recognized the origin of the coordinates axes as one of measured figures in the data showing the relation between the length of a spring and weight hanged on it. 3.There were many students who could not plot all data given in the question on the coordinate, wrote a broken graph and stopped the graph at a maximum measured point. 4.There were many lower secondary school students who were confused the shape of a graph with the relationship of two variables. although the relationship of two variables can be concluded from the shape of a graph. 5.The number of students who were able to draw a graph completely was about one-third for lower secondary students and one-half for upper secondary students. 6.It seemed very difficult for students to understand the technics of interpolation and extrapolation using a graph. The number of students who understood the extropalation technic was about half of the number of the students who understood the interpolation technic. 7.The number of students who were able to obtain the value of decline of the straight line on the graph was under three-fouth of the total upper secondary students and one-fouth of the total lower secondary students. 8.The number of students who were able to convert a straight line on the graph to an experimental equation was two-third of the total upper secondary students and one-half of the total lower secondary students.

Most of students misunderstand the direction of the distance on the earth because of having been used to a Mercator chart. Authors tried to introduce a new method for familiarising the students with the globe of the world through making a hemisphere. They had two classes one of which is a study using a Mercator chart and the other is a study including hemisphere making. They found that the latter method is effective for raising the spherical concept of the earth.

Recently the introduction of history into science education has come into notice again. To understand the value or aim of the introduction is essential in order to make it fruitful. In this paper, fundamental idea and aims of "the case history method" which was originally developed by J. B. Conant (1890-1978) directly after the World War II. were studied, and through this study followings were cleared. Incidentally, Conant's view and "the case history method" have had influence upon some secondary science curriculum projects in the United States, for example HOSC and HPP, and the discussion concerning the introduction of history into science education in Japan. (1) J.B. Conant asked students for deeper understanding science and developed "the case history method", because he thought the following matters. a. The rapid development of technology has made many people feel spiritually lost in the modern world. For the purpose of solving this problem, science have to be a:ssimilated into our culture, and intellectual exchange among the people have to be promoted. b. Because of the fact that the applications of science play so important a part in our daily lives, matters of public policy are profoundly influenced by highly technical scientific consideration. It is the pressing need of the hour to foster citizenry who can participate in deciding the public policy in our democratic society. c. Understanding the scientific methods is needed in order to make the discussions concerning the scientific methods fruitful, for example "how far may the methods by which the astonishing results in pure and applied science have been achieved be transferred to other human activities?" (2) But traditional science courses in general education have laid overemphasis on factual knowledge, and have been based on the viewpoint that there existed "the scientific method", formal, mechanical and easily definable operations. Consequently those courses were lacking in the integrative elements between science and other fields, and there was no hope of students' real understanding science. (3) Therefor, Conant, who has viewed science as "an human enterprise" and "an organized activity of society", developed "the case history method": close study of a few relatively simple case histories chosen from the early day in the evolution of the modern discipline. The advantages of this method are twofold : first, relatively liitle factual knowledge and mathematics are required; second, one can see science in clear light.