Today, there are many lists available for foreign language teaching, such as CEFR, Eiken Can-Do Lists. We must consider making good use of these lists in our teaching process. The students’ current abilities must be accurately understood. The purpose of this study is to 1) establish students’ proficiency and 2) establish an effective teaching method. The findings indicate that the Japanese senior high school students have more difficulties finding topic sentences than topics. It is also suggested that the position of the topic or the topic sentence is a significant factor. In conclusion, the effective teaching process for understanding the brief overview of a paragraph is shown as an effective model.

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Kaori Ekuni’s “A Story of Kusanojyo” is a story included in a high school textbook. The guide book for this work promotes that learners should read deeply by paying attention directly to the narrator. However, the suggestion is not written in concrete guidance instances. Therefore, this paper suggests a learning methodology and analysis of details for learners reading “A Story of Kusanojyo” by comparing it to Makoto Shina’s “Haircut in the Bath” and Hyakken Uchida’s “The Underworld”. Through comparing these stories the aim is to help students read more deeply and focus on the work’s structure and narrative. Furthermore, by guiding the students towards an authentic reading we can connect discussion with nurturing their critical abilities. Kaori Ekuni’s “A Story of Kusanojyo” therefore has worth as teaching material from which learners can use it to hone their critical skills.

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The present study investigates the effects of Japanese and English lexical knowledge on comprehension of Japanized English words. Three tests of Japanese words, English words and Japanized English words were administered to 99 Chinese students learning Japanese in the eastern China region who have studied English since Grade 3 (10 years prior to university education), much longer than Japanese. Multiple regression analyses, predicting scores of Japanized English words by scores of Japanese (noun, verb, and adjective) and English (noun, verb, adjective, and adverb) lexical knowledge tests, indicated that English knowledge hindered the participants’ familiarity of Japanized English words, while English verb knowledge enhanced, and English adjective knowledge impeded understanding of Japanized English words. Furthermore, based on the familiarity and comprehension scores of Japanized English words test, a cluster analysis grouped 28 Japanized English words into three clusters. The detailed characteristics of these clusters were reported.

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The aim of this study is to clarify the developmental processes and the outcomes of the National Standards for Teachers of Family and Consumer Sciences developed by NATEFACS (National Association of Teacher Educators for Family and Consumer Sciences) in the USA. The following are the findings of this study concerning these standards: ① A high degree of consensus was achieved through related conferences and associations built on diverse opinions on the standards in which NATEFACS plays a central role. ② They were designed to make explicit the rationale for the implementation and dissemination of the standards and to contribute to the promotion of the studies of teacher education. ③ They offer guiding principles for the development and evaluation of teacher preparation programs, teacher education curricula, and in-service teacher training. ④ They take into account the link between professional education standards and each state’s teacher education standards in order to assure the highest quality of teacher education. ⑤ They promote enhanced qualifications and abilities of beginning teachers and also broaden the future perspective of professional growth and progress toward highly qualified teachers. The National Standards for Teachers of Family and Consumer Sciences in the USA are a set of approved core standards that define the essential knowledge, skills and dispositions of Family and Consumer Sciences teachers. A significant claim is that the methods and reasoning for identifying the necessary capabilities of Family and Consumer Sciences teachers is one model for explicating the needs of today’s teachers and for confirming the achievement of such standards.

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The goal of this research is to examine how to design coursework for “Inquisitive Science Learning” in order to promote science literacy among children. In the study, we conducted a practice lesson using an episode from the science program “Full Option science System (FOSS)” about “air” and “wind”. We studied how children build scientific concepts and examined a curriculum design that links the studies of “air” and “wind” through “inquisitive science learning”. From these results, the following two points have been clarified: ・ In the FOSS’s science program, “air” contains a four-step learning cycle: “free exploration/inquiry”, “direct experience”, “collecting data to organizing results to deriving a conclusion”, and “supplemental experience to reinforce the obtained conclusion.” ・ The scientific concepts “the existence of air”, “air resistance”, and “air pressure” encourages awareness that furthers the formation of the scientific concept “wind is the movement of air.”

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The purpose of this study is to devise a teaching method to develop an ability to make judgments whether the claims or conclusions are appropriate or not. We call the teaching method “evaluation of the claim”. The aim of the teaching method is to have learners reconsider whether the “experimental method” and “expected results” are appropriate before performing an experiment. We devised a teachers’ utterance protocol and a worksheet on how to judge whether conclusions are appropriate or not. This teaching method was administered to 88 fifth-grade students in a lesson about electrical magnets to investigate the effectiveness of this method. The results show significance on students’ ability to judge whether a conclusion was appropriate or not. Therefore, the teaching strategy in this study is considered effective towards the development of this ability.

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The purpose of this study is to elucidate middle Japanese language teachers’ practical knowledge constructed by learning based on training for teachers. This study analyzed the teachers’ narratives through interviews by using the modified grounded theory approach. The middle teachers reconstructed Japanese language teaching processes based on training for teachers to lead students that misread teaching materials in textbook. They polish up Japanese language practical knowledge for students’ independent reading. Training for teachers function as parts of teachers’ learning processes. Meanwhile it has significance of accelerating reconstruction about teaching processes.

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This short paper is to summarize the presentations given by the three speakers and the subsequent discussions in the Symposium at the 2013 National Conference of Japan Curriculum Research and Development Association (JCRDA) held in Okayama University on November 23. The purpose of the symposium was to identify some commonalities and differences in curriculum and instruction studies and teacher education curriculum in the three nations in the East Asia: Japan, People’s Republic of China and Republic of Korea. It is hoped that these discussions provided the participants with opportunities to learn from other nations’ experiences and also they would contribute to giving directions for further development of the global educational communities.

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Through survey, interview and observation of educational practice, this study shows the professional knowledge, ability and teaching situation of current normal students who are trained at public expense. It is very urgent to design a training scheme which suits Math normal students.

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This paper aims to make clear on characteristics of researches and developments in subject pedagogy and to inquiry originality and uniqueness of subject pedagogy to educational study in general and psychology. After considerations, we could find the points: 　1: Subject pedagogy belongs to educational study and works at the original object of teaching and learning the school subject. 　2: Subject pedagogues go back and forth between theory and practice and between research and development, fulfil its mission of improving the school subject teaching and learning. 　3: Japanese academics of subject pedagogy carry out both rolls and jobs as researcher and practitioner, and inquiry deep considerations on reasons for the meaning of the school subject in the education and society, and make up better curriculum, units and lessons and outcomes in learners. 　4: Subject pedagogy keeps teacher education in one of study fields, and inquiries its mission making a distinction of teacher training.

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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