This study aims to reexamine teaching methods of dressmaking techniques in school education. I conducted the survey of college teachers in home economics education pedagogy and clothing construction, and high school teachers of home economics education. Results were as follows : 1. Most of the teachers thought that basic techniques of hand-sewing and machine-sewing should be taught to both girls and boys in elementary and junior high schools. 2. In junior high school education, new instances of techniques and articles were shown when boys learn sewing. 3. Teachers emphasized that even the third and fourth graders should be taught making simple articles by hand-sewing.
The aim of this study was made clear in the first report. In this report, the significance and problems in teaching dressmaking techniques were clarified. Results were as follows : 1. The significance was not only in mastering the basic knowledge or techniques sewing, but also for various other purposes. 2. Many subjects pointed out the necessity of classrooms for coeducation, and improvement of the abilities of teachers. From these results, I presented new plans for desirable contents of teaching dressmaking techniques and proposed to make the study of them in school education more fruitful from the viewpoint of life long education.
Homemaking education text books in junior high schools between 1947 and 1957 showed the following characteristics about home life. 1. Amount of description about home life had decreased. 2. Accounts of meetings and family councils decreased after 1952, but references on happy family circles and recreation increased. 3. There was an early insistence on equality of the sexes, which was later replaced by an emphasis on domestic chores as the duty of women. 4. Views on separate male and female roles increased after 1955.
We studied the classroom instruction in Homemaking Education by using a stimulated-recall procedure reported by Watanabe and yoshizaki. We found that this method is effective on the following points in order to capture the degree of interest and concern in the process of recognition and acceptance by students. 1. In the process of instruction, we can grasp the respective situation on how the students connect the learning in class with their own experiences. 2. Since the reports from student were written by recalling the classroom instruction, we can understand their interests in class and how their interests and concerns change.
This study invesigated the possibility of environmental education in elemenntary school. Questionnaire on "revised ecology check" and "Why it is not good" were replied by 273 elementary school children and 527 university students. The results were as follows : 1. The level of "not being king to the earth" of elementary school children is similar to university students. 2. On most items, school children do not realize the reason "Why it is not good" compared with university students. 3. School children's attitude of "not being kind to the earth" is related to the poor understanding of "ecology". 4. Neither school children nor university students, the understanding of "echology" do not sufficiently relate to the attitude of "being kind to the earth".
The effect of teaching the environmental problems was investigated with 79 elementary school children. Through the classes on Ecology, a questionnaire on "revised ecology check", "Why it is not good", and cards for ecological practices were examined. The following results were obtained. 1. The attitude of "not being kind to the earth" has extremely declined from the original "ecology check" and followed by the second check. 2. In summary, decline of the attitude on "not being kind to the earth" and a more stable attitude of "being kind to the earth" were observed.
On "Safety Housing" we tried using "yellow glasses" as teaching materials based on th study of "The Field of Vision Turns Yellow because of Aged Crystalline Lens" by A. Yoshida et al. The instructions were carried out in junior high schools. We observed the cahnges in the knowledge and consciousness of students by the instructions. 1. They understood the actual conditions of the accidents in their homes. 2. They noticed the importance of safety housing.
This study investigated changes of consciousness through five subject matters to plan household economy in the area of home life in a junior high school. Results are summarized as follows : 1. It was confirmed that girls had more positive consciousness than boys on thirty percent of items examined in teaching. The results seem to be under the influence of difference of experience in their lives. 2. In consideration of unconcerned type found mainly in boys, practical teaching was introduced. Classroom work as fundamental and applied, and practical teaching complemented one another. Above all, practical teaching drew students' interest in learning. 3. Interest, usefulness and understanding were adopted for consciousness in teaching household economy. Interest was low compared with usefulness and understanding.
First year students in a junior high school were taught about household economy in a coeducational situation. This paper surveyed the changes of consciousness toward instruction in relation to teaching effectiveness. The results are as follows : 1. Subject matter adopted mainly on defraud businesses, changes of decision-making were confirmed before and after teaching with significant differene. 2. The rate of true answers before and after teaching showed significant difference on four of five subject matters. Fixed rate on post-test after three months showed positive results ; that is, ninety-eight percent on the average. Partial reason for this high average seemed to have relation with practical teaching. 3. On reference between consciousness and the rate of true answers, understanding after teaching was highly related to the rate of true answers. Therefore in order to grasp teaching contents accurately, it is necessary to devise a method to raise their level of consciousness for instruction as well as contents.
A questionnaire survey showed that the pollution of the Omori river flowing through the suburbs with no sewerage system in Fukushima city was caused by domestic waste water. 83. 5% of households around the river recognized that the water pollution was mainly caused by gray water (especially kitchen wastes). However, most of them flushed organic pollutant liquids (water washed rice and residuary soup etc. ) into the sinks. 41. 1% did not recognize those liquids to be pollutants. It was evident that pollution levels of kitchen waste water and quantities of detergents were reduced in washing dishes by wiping off the soils. It is necessary to present practicable means of reducing pollutants from domestic waste water.
Physical and mental conditions of morning (M) and evening (E) type children were investigated while in class. Out of 111 sixth-grade children in an elementary school, 19 and 9 were classified as M-type and E-type respectively, based on the criterion of Horne and Ostberg. The results were as follows : 1. Children who felt sleepy, tired and not concentrative on learning in class were found more frequently in E-type than in M-type. 2. Children who had short sleep at night or who did not eat breakfast were also sleepy, tired and not concentrative in class. 3. E-type children tend to be short sleepers with no breakfast. These results suggest that E-type children are not in satisfactory condition for learning in school.