The objective of this study was to clarify the current conditions of consumer education in elementary school home economics courses through a comparative survey of elementary schools in Japan and Japanese schools. In our data analysis, we found on overseas the "decision making ability and thinking" and a given teacher's content and method of teaching. The results were as follows: 1) In Japan, teachers who had home economics licenses, specialized in home economics and took lectures in consumer education were more likely to teach the "decision making ability and thinking" than those who did not experience them. 2) In comparison with teachers in Japan, the number of teachers at overseas Japanese schools who used newspapers, magazines, TV/radio, public publications, or lectures and workshops as resources for their students to acquire knowledge of consumer education was relatively small. In contrast, teachers at overseas Japanese schools were more likely to utilize the internet than their counterparts in Japan. 3) Regarding teaching materials and aids for consumer education, overseas teachers were less likely to use educational materials, video, DVDs, and newspapers than teachers in Japan. However, the number of overseas teachers using the internet and resources in the school was greater than that of teachers in Japan. 4) In Japan, teachers with a higher level of awareness of the importance of decision making ability and creative thinking were more likely to teach classes with several kinds of content and use a variety of methods than teachers with a lower level of awareness. At overseas schools, however, the level of awareness was not significantly related to teachers' content and method of education. 5) In overseas Japanese schools, the opportunity to be informed of students' consumption and to acquire information is limited. As a result, it is difficult to teach consumer education in overseas schools.

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Activities of the Food in Schools Programme in England and Healthier Cookery Clubs, the cookery sector of the Programme, were examined to make suggestions for the promotion of nutrition education for children focusing on cooking in Japan. The Food in Schools Programme which is promoted jointly by the Department of Health and the Department for Education & Skills and the Programme developed coursework-related models to promote cross-sectional learning with a focus on participatory learning for children in the low and middle grades. The "5 A DAY" program is used in the guidance for the Healthier Cookery Clubs. Based on this study's findings, I propose to improve the concreteness and integrity of the support system and to promote education based on an intensive main learning program for the promotion of nutrition education in Japan.

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Authors devised the teaching materials for Home Economics Education in Japanese junior high schools based on All My Money: A Financial Management Curriculum for Persons Working with Limited-Resource Audience, which was initially developed by the University of Illinois in the United States. All My Money is a superior teaching resource and can be viewed as an action-oriented learning strategy. It was found necessary, however, to repeat the drills many times thus it was impossible to cover all the presentations of the practice results during an ordinary class session. Objectives of this paper were 1) To devise the teaching techniques using elearning systems (WebCT and CoAT) to resolve the above problem, and 2) To examine the effect of our new teaching techniques in an actual junior high school class. The results were as follows: 1) Both teacher and students were able to view the students' answers to each question by means of WebCT and CoAT immediately, and the students could discuss each answer. This was then summarized by using WebCT or CoAT, and was projected using a wide screen projector. 2) Analyzing the students' selfestimates for the four evaluation mesurement areas, it was found that relatively high scores were achived in the mesurement areas of 'interest/will/attitude,' but scores were low for the mesurement areas of 'skill/presentation.' 3) Comparing WebCT with CoAT, WebCT was superior to CoAT for calculation and summing functions. In contrast, CoAT was superior to WebCT in monitoring visual functions and handling of the elearning system for junior high school students.

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This paper aims, through the application of the "general case instruction," to empirically examine whether or not learners are able to cook dishes with basic skills that are not yet studied in the Homemaking classes in Elementary School. The implementation plan of the cookery training classes for children using the "general case instruction" was developed and conducted. Students' behavior in the learning process were recorded and analyzed to assess the educational effect of the cookery training classes. The main results are as follows: 1. A total of 26 skills have been extracted as the basic cookery skills to be taught in the Home Economics Education in Elementary School. 2. "Miso soup," "wiener fried rice," and "vermicelli salad" were selected and studied in the cookery training classes. Some of the not-yet-studied cookery training materials and cookery skills corresponding to any of the basic cookery skills above were included as well as other appropriate cookery training materials requiring basic multidisciplinary cookery skills. 3. The result implies that if basic cooking operations are acquired steadily, learners are able to cook dishes and demenstrate the basic cookery skills not yet studied by themselves.

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