The aim in 1st and 2nd level elementary school Seikatsu-ka class is often for students to have experiences in intellectual realization. This study focuses attention to students’ performances specifically in fieldwork activities in Seikatsu-ka classes in order to clarify what kinds of realizations they in fact experience. Analysis was made of the children’s reactions from a scientific viewpoint in terms of whether and in what way these fieldwork activities helped children from foundations in understanding of nature and fundamental Rika (school science) concepts. Attempt was made to assess and evaluate classes based on student performance as well as teacher reflection as to the degree and extent of intellectual realization that was anticipated by the teacher was actually achieved. After analyzing results of this investigation, it was able to confer that students had experienced many intellectual realizations which will lead to enhanced scientific thinking and a richer understanding of nature. Moreover, by means of restructuring of class plans and use of devised worksheets and teaching tools, the outcome of these fieldwork classes proved results to be in line with what teachers had initially aimed for.

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The aim of this research project is to develop a secondary school Home Economics study that increases self awareness through the study of family and child care; with all students experiencing the involvement with an infant and visualizing themselves as parents. This project considers the effectiveness of the Flour Baby Project (FBP) carried out by the Overland Trial Middle School, Kansas, USA and follows the steps on additional tests carried out by Japanese undergraduate and post graduate students since 2003. This research reported on the sixth stage and hands on practice of the FBP in the development of the middle school compulsory subject “Technology and Home economics (Home Economics field)”. As a result, when many students experienced the care of a FBP, that was the same weight as the student’s own birth weight, they became aware of the difficulties involved in raising a child, realized their true feelings for their parents, as well as increased their own self-awareness. Finally, many opinions and impressions concerning the meaning and the continuance of FBP were received from student’s parents.

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Lesson study is a comprehensive and well-articulated process for teacher reflective practice in Japan. We describe lesson study as a pedagogy of investigation forms for continuing professional development, and discuss three aspects of the process. Finally, we conclude that lesson study promotes opportunities for collaboration with colleagues within the professional community and we identify traditional features based on professional culture for effective continuing professional development in Japan.

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Our previous researches on English compositions written by upper secondary school pupils led us to hypothesise that both top-down and bottom-up approaches should be adopted to improve the volume and the accuracy of pupils’ compositions, with the former expected to improve the volume and the latter the accuracy. The present study was conducted to test this hypothesis. Eighty participants were divided into the control and experimental groups randomly. The control group received writing instruction in a top-down approach while the experimental group received writing instruction integrating a top-down approach and a bottom-up approach. The experimental group improved the volume of their compositions as much as the control group, although they had received only half of the top-down treatment the control group received. The experimental group also improved the accuracy of their compositions more than the control group, although the difference in the degree of improvement was not statistically significant.

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The present study is an exploratory research which aims to clarify what English listening strategies Japanese EFL learners use and how often, both prior to and following a study abroad (SA hereafter) program. The participants were 13 advanced learners of English who experienced a 15week SA program at two universities in Britain. They responded to a questionnaire about their English listening strategy use prior to and following the SA program (pre-test and post-test), and joined a group interview about their English learning and use during the program. The results indicated that the pattern of metacognitive strategy use became similar to one another. The characteristic pattern of cognitive strategy use was strengthened through the experience of studying abroad. Although most of the participants were not given any strategy instruction during the stay, the participants had come to listen to English in a natural way, as they listen to Japanese in the daily life.

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