The study was carried out in an elementary Home Economics class using the concept mapping for introduction and review of learning about food and nutrition. The subjects included 30 sixth graders in elementary school and we analyzed their concept maps made at the beginning and at the end of a learning program (total 10 hours) dealing with nutrition, food and cooking. As a result, we found that the concept mapping was effective for sixth graders to understand about food and nutrition. Introducing the concept mapping at the beginning of learning was useful for children to find and set their own tasks for learning problem-solving and it helped to develop their intentions to learn by themselves. Also, it is possible to objectively grasp children's learning outcomes through the program by comparing concept maps which they made at the beginning and at the end of the program. This advantage is useful not only for teachers but also for children themselves to notice and assess what they learned through the program and it will develop their motivation to learn further.

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An understanding of qualities of living supplies associating with the constituent materials and their structure leads not only to appropriate purchase decision and/or usage, but also to suitable choice of discard methods for them. This study aims to develop a home economics teaching material to make students'understanding of qualities of disposable diapers more scientific by considering the differences in the qualities of diaper of their own making as opposed to those of commercial origin. In this paper, experimental values were obtained using testing devices for measuring water absorption rate and handling of diapers which would be observed by students during the teaching practice.

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Several industrial arts and home economics textbooks in junior high school have been analyzed as to text, illustrations, photos and charts. Their expressions have been discussed with gender perspectives. Only home economics area has been analyzed and it was divided into 5 sections home life, nutrition, clothing, housing and nursing. Each section was divided into subgroups ; cover, back cover, frontispiece and so on. Summary of the results is shown as follows, 1. There are little expressions in the text that are recognized to be gender biased. 2. Illustration and photos have gender biased ones regarding roles for each gender, particularly in home life area. Gender biased expressions were also observed in covers and frontispieces, in terms of colors. 3. It seemed characteristic that some photos have gender biased expressions that are typically seen in society.

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In Japan, school textbooks have exerted a great influence upon the students. From this viewpoint, we have analyzed the content of the home management area of home economics textbooks for senior high school student to examine their roles and tasks in the formation of the idea of gender. The results were as follows. 1. 90% of words concerning characters signify both sexes. Descriptions are marked with the emphasis on gender bias leading to the evaluation of gender-free. 2. The gender-free tendency is generally recognized also in illustrations, photos and charts. 3. Hence teachers'requirements for managing to reduce the student'gender bias fostered through text-books, and for gender sensitivity.

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There would be some effect on students in building making their sense of gender from the textbooks. six kinds of Home Economics textbooks for senior high school student were analyzed in the area of Clothing, Nutrition and Housing, following the first report. The same method for this survey that we adopted in the first report was taken for this survey. The results were as follows : 1. Most of the words didn't indicate a particular sex. There was a tendency to consider gender biases. 2. The descriptions that consider gender were seen in most of the writing. However, some of the descriptions relating to historical evidence seemed to contain the biases. 3. Regarding illustrations, pictures and figures, there were many gender biases in the Clothing area and few gender biases in the Nutrition area.

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