This paper aims to present the main objective and logic for new teaching contents in organic chemistry for high school chemistry education: “To distinguish between alkyl and functional groups in crude oil refining process based on hierarchy in nature.” The technical and historical analyses of crude oil refining were included in the contents, including the meaning of refining. The main objectives of crude oil refining are “establishing high quality by recognizing low quality,” and the meaning of refining is “making useful material from otherwise useless material.” The fundamental viewpoint of teaching contents is as follows: “An otherwise useless material becomes a useful material with inherent characteristics and not from any chemical change. In other words, an otherwise useless chemical substance may become useful by changing into another substance.” Based on the above considerations, the main objective and logic the teaching contents are presented.

View full abstract

Kudo, Y. (2003) considered a new way of explaining “example effects”, that is, the effect in which example used when teaching rules influence post-test scores, and showed that “example effects” can be explained by example-based induction. The purpose of this study is to investigate the remaining problems in Kudo’s study. Subjects were explicitly taught a rule of hay fever, using the example of cherry or Japanese cedar. The main results were as follows: Whether subjects could extract the rule or not, “example effects” occurred in post-test. Not all “example effects” could be explained by example-based induction.

View full abstract

The purpose of the study is to investigate ① when students are motivated in class, and ② what the relationships is between reflective-impulsivity cognitive styles and students’ learning motivation in elementary school mathematics. We conducted a survey on 247 elementary school students (with 222 valid responses). Three factors, including “preferences of the fulfillment and achievement”, “preferences of the relationship and self-respect”, “preference for active classes”, were found. Results of the ANOVA showed significant differences determined by reflective-impulsivity cognitive styles among the three factors. Reflective students gave the priority of both “preferences of fulfillment and achievement” and, impulsive students gave the priority of “preferences for active classes”. The results showed each cognitive style had different tendencies, when they were motivated for learning. In addition, reflective students were highly motivated in various situations.

View full abstract