The ability to evaluate hypotheses in the light of evidence is an essential skill for scientific discovery learning.  To improve this ability, the present study proposed an instructional program called “collaborative discovery learning with hypothesis evaluation schema”.  “Hypothesis evaluation schema” refers to knowledge about hypothesis evaluation activities, such as the design of experiments, the prediction and observation of outcomes, and the drawing of conclusions.  The setting was 3 lessons on the laws of motion.  The participants were 8^th-grade students : 140 in Experiment 1, and 17 in Experiment 2.  In Experiment 1, the students who experienced the proposed program acquired scientific literacy more effectively than students trained with 3 traditional programs.  In Experiment 2, protocol analysis of videotape recordings and the students’ notes revealed how the program assisted students to acquire scientific literacy.  First, introducing the students to the hypothesis evaluation schema engaged them in hypothesis evaluation activities.  Second, in a collaborative discovery situation, drawing incorrect conclusions was reduced as a result of the students monitoring each others’ activities.  The results suggest that the proposed program is effective in scientific discovery learning.

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  The present study investigated the validity of the Kinetic School Drawing technique (KSD) for assessment of school adaptation, and examined the way in which the characteristics of that technique project the painter’s feelings.  Elementary and junior high school students (N=769) completed questionnaires intended to assess their relations with friends and teachers, the mood in the class (safety and relaxation), and their adjustment in school.  The Kinetic School Drawing technique was carried out actively throughout the school (N=733).  The results suggested the following : (a) When drawing a self-figure, teacher, or friends, students scoring high on the spontaneous relatedness scale (to teachers and friends) tended to draw smiling faces looking forward or else a profile of the face, (b) students scoring high on the relaxation and safety scale tended to draw a larger number of friends, and drew their teacher in profile, more than low scoring students did, (c) the positive aspects of the Kinetic School Drawing technique’s contents and its good construction suggest that it is well adapted for use in schools.

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  In the present article, “forgiveness” is defined as an intrapersonal process of change in one’s negative emotion, cognition, motivation, or behavior toward a perceived transgressor, from negative into neutral or positive.  The Forgiveness of Others Scale (FOS) was developed in order to be able to assess individuals’ forgiveness in a variety of relationships across multiple interpersonal offenses.  In Study 1, factor analysis of data from 691 undergraduates identified forgiveness and “unforgiveness” components of the Forgiveness of Others Scale.  When the test was completed by 192 undergraduates, the test-retest reliability coefficients ranged from .76 to .82, confirming the test’s reliability.  In Study 2, concurrent validity of the Forgiveness of Others Scale was assessed with data from 331 respondents, comparing it to measures of aggression, trait anger, empathy, and Big Five.  The results suggested that the Forgiveness of Others Scale had high validity.  Study 3, which examined the relationship between the Forgiveness of Others Scale and a single-item measure of forgiveness, provided evidence for the validity of the Forgiveness of Others Scale.

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  The objectives of the present study were (a) to develop a nurturance scale, and (b) to investigate factors determining nurturance and influences of past experiences on nurturance.  The nurturance scale, which included items regarding empathy and skills that cultivate sound growth, was composed of the following 4 subscales : empathy (9 items), skills (7 items), preparedness (4 items), and non-acceptability (5 items).  After the reliability and validity of the scale were confirmed, the present study investigated determinants (gender and sibling status) and other influences of past experiences on nurturance.  Undergraduates (N=239) participated in the study.  The results demonstrated that (a) the females showed higher nurturance levels than the males, (b) the female first-children tended to show higher levels on the “skills” subscale compared to the participants with other sibling statuses (p<.10), (3) the females showed higher levels of influence of past experiences than the males did, and (4) the type of experiences varied according to sibling position (first, middle, last, or only child).  The results of the present study suggest that determinants of nurturance vary by gender and sibling position.  In addition to individuals’ relations with their parents, their relations with their siblings and teachers appear to influence nurturance, as does their experience owning pets.

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  Fifth and sixth graders were presented with 2 problems : (1) “Find the area of this triangle [base 8 cm, height 5 cm],” and (2) “How big is triangle B [an isosceles triangle] compared to triangle A [a right triangle]?”  In figure accompanying the second question, the bases of the 2 triangles were equal, and triangle B was twice the height of triangle A.  However, numerical values for the width of the base and the height were not provided.  If the children were able to use the formula, “area of a triangle=base×height÷2”, properly, they should have been able to realize that triangle B had twice the area of triangle A.  This is called the “relational operation of a formula”.  Of the 135 children, 123 (91%) gave the correct answer to Question 1, but only 62 (46%) answered Question 2 correctly.  In other words, the children who could calculate area by using the formula could not necessarily operate the variable in the formula.  Further analysis suggested that prerequisites for giving the correct answer to Question 2 were : (a) grasping the relative, rather than absolute, difference in the areas of the 2 triangles, and (b) understanding the difference between “the difference in the area of 2 figures” and “their ratio”.

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  Based on the idea that goals are represented mentally as behavior that activates positive affect (Bargh, 1990 ; Custers & Aarts, 2005a, b), the present study sought to test the validity of the affect misattribution procedure (AMP ; Payne, Cheng, Govorun, & Stewart, 2005) as a measure of implicit goals.  Participants, 62 Japanese undergraduates, were shown images related to either academic goals or leisure goals as prime stimuli.  The affect misattribution procedure exhibited high validity and reliability ; the effect size was moderate.  Implicit (the affect misattribution procedure) and explicit (self-reports) measures showed a moderate positive correlation with academic goals, but not with leisure goals.  Moreover, the amount of time reported spent on leisure activities was correlated with the implicit measure, but not with the explicit one.  These results are consistent with the notions that (a) implicit and explicit measures may converge or diverge, depending on the level of social desirability associated with the topic, and (b) implicit measures are often better predictors of uncontrolled behavior. The present study provides initial empirical evidence for the validity of the affect misattribution procedure as a measure of implicit goals.  The results suggest that individual differences in implicit goals may predict daily behavior, independent of explicit goals.

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  The present research used item response theory to develop the Adaptive Tests for Language Abilities (ATLAN) for elementary school children.  These tests, which are available on-line and also for stand-alone computers, are comprised of 2 subtests : vocabulary and kanji reading, both of which are componential language skills needed for Japanese reading comprehension.  Children from preschool to junior high school (N=3,067) participated in determining the parameters of each item in the vocabulary subtest, whereas 4,463 children from elementary to junior high school participated in the development of the kanji reading subtest.  Because the results of a simulation using the Adaptive Tests for Language Abilities adequately replicated the original data, the parameter estimation was judged to be reliable.  The tests also have validity, because the results from each subtest moderately correlated with existing vocabulary and kanji tests.  Advantages of the Adaptive Tests for Language Abilities are that they need fewer items than existing tests for measuring these abilities, and that different patterns of items are shown for different children.

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  The purpose of the present study was to examine first-grade students’ understanding of subtraction scenes by using a problem-construction task in addition to the word problems used in previous studies.  In Study 1 (N=110), students were simultaneously provided the equation “6-2=?” and an illustration (Change, Group, or Compare), and required to generate a math story corresponding to the information provided.  The results indicated that the pupils’ scores were lower for the Group and Compare scenes than for the Change scene, and that the types of errors differed across scenes.  With the Group scene, the students tended to generate stories that corresponded to the equation, but not to the illustration, whereas for the Compare scene, their stories corresponded either to the equation or to the illustration.  These results were confirmed in Study 2 (N=109), which was conducted 4 months later.  The present results suggest that pupils had difficulty in understanding the part-whole relation shown in the illustration of the Group scene, whereas in the Compare scene, they had difficulty considering the relation between the equation and the illustration.

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  A strategy for teaching the properties of solutions to sixth graders was developed for each sub-category of motivation-enhancing structures suggested by Maehr & Midgley (1991).  The participants were the 40 students in 1 sixth-grade class (20 boys, 20 girls ; average age 11 years 10 months).  Effects of the teaching strategy on changes in the pupils’ scientific concepts, learning beliefs, motivation, and learning strategies were investigated in their practical lessons.  The analyses of the data included quantitative analyses based on questionnaire surveys conducted before and after the course, descriptive analyses based on the concept of retaining properties of solutions, and interpretive analyses based on the students’ utterances and acts during each class process.  The results were as follows : (a) the teaching strategy developed for this class promoted the acquisition of scientific concepts regarding the properties of solutions, (b) the analysis of the data on learning beliefs indicated that the teaching strategy of introducing tasks related to knowledge that the students already had, as well as to their everyday experiences with the content of the lesson, and authority (making choices and decisions by oneself) improved the students’ respect for scientific procedures, and (c) the teaching strategy of introducing grouping (solving problems and making decisions as a group) and evaluation (setting a goal and making an evaluation by oneself) improved planning in the pupils’ meta-cognitive strategies.

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  Learning can be promoted if a learner is required to verbalize.  In order to examine effects of verbalization as a learning strategy, the present article reviews 3 relevant research approaches : self-explanation, tutoring, and collaborative learning.  On the basis of the results of this review, 3 issues are addressed : (a) verbalization contains a problem of diversity in methodology, because, according to the results of research on self-explanation, it has an indefinite aim ; (b) research on tutoring has found that some learners remain at the stage of verbalization of knowledge-telling ; and (c) research on collaborative learning has suggested that cognitive conflict may arise due to the existence of another person, rather than due to the effects of verbalization itself.  In order to address these issues, the present article focuses on the verbalization of knowledge-building, as pointed out in research on tutoring, and proposes a goal-attainment model that integrates related research by including a motivational factor.  This model may attain convergence in a fixed direction by taking into account the theories proposed by previous researchers.

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