In this study, a fourth year primary school physical education class including eight lessons of sumo held twice six months apart were observed to check the retention of the initial and long-term effects of these lessons in terms of “awareness of the body,” “suppression of the venting of aggressive emotion,” and “ability to control muscle output”. The study results show that all of the effects built up during the first session, were maintained after six months. It is inferred that “awareness of the body” is further enhanced by improved physical skills as a result of the repeated sessions of sumo. The study results also suggest that a deeper understanding of the emotion of opponents acts to further suppress the “venting of aggressive emotion” as such understanding increases the sense of tolerance towards the opponents.

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It is difficult to teach children how to make thread knots and french knots in elementary school home economics classes. We assume this difficulty is because of the different movements between teachers and children, in addition to limited experiences of the teachers on this matter. Therefore this research elucidated points of teaching the knots by focusing on children’s incorrect movements, and developed a teaching material from which students in an elementary school teacher training course could learn proper words and the points used to teach the children. In order to prove efficiency of this teaching material, we conducted an analysis of the teaching program students categorized into two groups on high or low performer groups on their ability to make thread knots. Low performers significantly improved their skills of making thread knots, than the high performers, whose skills stayed the same. As for words for teaching, more low performers tended to show improvement with the instructional words than high performers－ specifically, on average, the appropriateness of their words used to teach french knots was significantly higher than high performers. This result supports the effectiveness of the teaching material especially for low performers in helping them to develop their skills of making thread knots and learning words to teach how to make french knots. Also, we found “a video combining children’s incorrect movements with ways of making the knots” was effective in the teaching material.

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It has been several years since school education in Finland came to attract a lot of attention from educators around the world due to the country’s 15-year-old pupils’ successful performance in PISA, a test organised and conducted worldwide by the OECD. Since English is not tested by PISA, Findland’s English language education has not attracted much attention but it is noteworthy that Finland has been quite successful in English language education as well. The present study focuses on English textbooks used in Finnish schools which are considered to be one of the significant factors contributing to the success of its English language education, and tries to identify elements embedded in English textbooks for fostering autonomy, which is considered one of the key factors of school education in Finland. Based upon the results of the analysis, the present study offers implications for the reform of English language education in Japan.

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In Japanese elementary schools, the number of children with different mother tongues are increasing. Therefore the teachers are searching effective methods of adapting to the changes in student population in their classes. Previously, Japanese schools attached to the Japan Embassy have faced the situation in their classes. However there aren’t enough teaching methods because the actual conditions among children vary widely. Therefore, I want to suggest a teaching method that is effective for dealing with a class with significant differences in the Japanese levels of the learning materials. In the class, linguistic activities are divided into three steps, I observed the conversations of children outside their classes, then I attempt to discover the ways of their thinking and searched for an effective method. The observations show children’s motivation to communication appeared to have an impact on their future Japanese acquisition.

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It has been noted that there is an important aspect in an emergence of mathematical knowledge and concepts for all children in a mathematics classroom. It is, however, difficult for an observer to visualize the abstract concept, and whether the emergence is for children or for all participants including the teacher in the classroom. The purpose of this study is to clarify the concept of the emergence in mathematics education in order to develop lessons that activate students’ and/or teachers’ emergence. Based on the review of previous works on emergence and findings of our study, we define emergence, and proposed five required elements of the emergence: (E1) fundamental property, (E2) subjects, (E3) methods, (E4) mathematical ideas, (E5) newness/valueness of mathematical ideas. We then demonstrate the appropriateness of these five requirements with a reported case and two additional cases of elementary school mathematics classes, and created a framework with four different types of emergences identified in terms of who and what, i.e. the difference between emergences for children and for all participants including the teacher, and the difference between the mathematical knowledge and concepts and the mathematical view and thinking. Finally, we proposed to define the emergence in mathematics education in terms of characteristic, requirements, and types of emergence. The results will be useful for an observer to define emergence, and describe and analyze the dynamic function of social interactions leading to the emergence in school mathematics classrooms.

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The purpose of this study is to clarify the natures of the general music curriculum created by Bennett Reimer (1967). The curriculum was the outgrowth of a project called Development and Trial in a Junior and Senior High School of a Two-year Curriculum in General Music, and it exemplifies the theory of aesthetic music education insisted by Reimer. By analyzing the curriculum, the following three distinguishing facets were revealed: (1) The goal of this curriculum is to develop the aesthetic sensitivity consisting of the listening skill to perceive structures of music and the attitude to experience a feeling put into compositions. (2) The curriculum has three long-term steps: first step to cultivate aesthetic perspective, second step to understand the expressivity of each parts of music structure, third step to synthesize the understanding of music structure from a viewpoint of Western music history. (3) The listening supported by Call Chart is the most highlighted activity in this curriculum. And, these features have a root in the theory of aesthetic music education, that is, humans have to learn music because music is a tool for inquiry of human nature. After all, the historical value of this curriculum is the consistency in this philosophical background.

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In this study, a contemporary rhythmic dance class was created through modifications in learning contents from a preliminary practice of a previous research. By inspecting a practical result of this study, the learning contents of the Contemporary Rhythmic Dance Class were reconsidered. Research objectives are as follows. (1) Comparison of results of the acquisition of dance steps between the preliminary and the present study practices. (2) Understanding why students stumble during the step learning process. (3) Comparison of the results of the improvised performance between the practices before and after this study. Inspections made in this study show that the results in the acquisition of steps were the same as the ones from the preliminary practices that consisted of only one learning exercise routine. Also the teaching unit of this study showed that in comparison with the preliminary research, students achieved the skill at a higher level than the goal of the curriculum guidelines. Finally this study found that depending on steps, their learning processes and the characteristics of the stumbling points varied, and there were some difficult steps to acquire and synchronize with sounds.

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This article aims to investigate the images that university students have about the role of Japanese elementary teachers in Foreign Language Activities. A questionnaire was given to 107 students who are learning to become elementary school teachers. The results showed that some students mistakenly regard the homeroom teachers’ role as an assistant or an interpreter for the native speaker ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers). Also, it was found that many of the students believe that correct or native-like pronunciation is required of elementary school teachers. However, it is questionable whether native-speaker-like pronunication is needed in this era of“ World Englishes,” and this opinion should be conveyed to students.

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The purpose of this research is to clarify effectiveness of a catching receive and a holding toss in order to establish good combination and to acquire basic skills necessary for soft volleyball in physical education classes of an elementary school. The participants of the study were the fifth grade elementary school students, and the soft volleyball games analyzed were 3-on-3 style games. As a result of this practice, the receiver learned to pass the ball to appropriate positions over the setter’s head. At the same time, by using a holding toss, the setter learned to give a stable toss. As a result of this practice, the rate of successful attacks exceeded 80％. This is because practicing with a catching receive and a holding toss enabled the team to handle the ball stably and keep it on in their own side of the court, with no breakdown in the organization of play. Also, relieving the usual restrictions on ball handling was not only effective for improving attacks through good combination, but also for acquiring basic skills and the preparatory moves appropriate to the soft volleyball.

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