This study defined Task Knowledge and Learning-Process Knowledge based on current concepts regarding instructors' knowledge. It examined whether instructors' acquisition of each knowledge type changes their desirability judgments on educational methods involving students' activities or teachers' guidance. In a pretest-posttest design experiment, university students were presented with a complex mathematical problem and ten questionnaire items; half of these pertained to classroom situations involving students' activities and half teachers' guidance. Participants in the Task Knowledge condition (N=147) were provided with the solution steps and correct answer for the problem. Those in the Learning-Process Knowledge condition (N=136) were provided with examples of fifth-grade students' incorrect answers and the appearance rates of each answer pattern. Both groups assessed the problem difficulty level for fifth-grade public elementary school students with average academic ability and rated the educational desirability for the ten questionnaire items. Results indicated that participants in both conditions evaluated the problem difficulty level to be higher in the posttest than in the pretest. However, in the two conditions, their desirability judgments changed differently. The Task Knowledge condition participants scored the teachers' guidance items higher in the posttest than the pretest, whereas the Learning-Process Knowledge condition participants scored the students' activities items higher.

  A questionnaire survey was conducted with elementary school teachers to (1) comprehensively examine the characteristic cognitive deficits in the writing of children with dyslexia in Japanese, (2) develop the Writing Disorders Scale for Dyslexic Children (WDS-DC) to measure these cognitive deficits and examine its reliability and validity, (3) determine what subtypes of writing disorders exist in Japanese dyslexia, and (4) examine how each subtype relates to reading and writing abilities. The factor analysis results of writing characteristics indicate that Japanese dyslexic children have four major cognitive impairments in writing: mental lexical impairment, visual impairment, phonological impairment, and dysgraphic motor impairment. The WDS-DC was found to have high reliability and validity in measuring these impairments. Furthermore, a cluster analysis of the subtypes of developmental dysgraphia suggested a severe multiple disability group, a moderate multiple disability group, and a visual processing disorder group. The groups with severe multiple disabilities and moderate multiple disabilities had lower literacy for all letter types than the visual processing disorder group, the border group, and the no-disability group.

  This study investigates the practical consequence of true score equating (TSE) in the case of violation of the uni-dimensionality assumption, which is assumed to be the item-response model. We selected multidimensional ability, the ratio of the misfit item in the test form, the difference in scale between two forms to be equated, the number of items, and item discrimination as the independent variables. We selected the accuracy of the score conversion table derived from the TSE method and the accuracy of pass judgment as the evaluation indices. Results of the simulation study indicated that the score conversion table likely will exhibit errors that are non-negligible from a practical perspective if the test displays strong multidimensionality, a high ratio of misfit items, a large difference in scales between two forms, a large number of items, and high discrimination. Furthermore, regardless of the number of items, where item discrimination is high, the accuracy of judgment from the fit condition is greatest for the condition where ρ=.4, 50%. Under the same conditions, the results suggest that judgment accuracy is lowest when the equating coefficient is highly deviant.

  The purpose of this meta-analytic study was to examine to what extent the perceptions of classroom goal structures are shared by a meta-analysis with intraclass correlation coefficients. Through a systematic review, thirty-eight studies in thirty-four articles were collected (N=44,807). A total of one-hundred twenty intraclass correlations were gathered (89 for mastery goal structures and 31 for performance goal structures). Estimated population intraclass correlation coefficients were .14 for mastery goal structure and .09 for performance goal structure. Intraclass correlations of subcomponents ranged from .13 to .20 for mastery goal structures and from .05 to .14 for performance goal structures. Two moderators of targets (class or teacher) and average class size had no effects on the sizes of intraclass correlation coefficients. The estimated population intraclass correlations were examined in terms of application of multilevel analysis, comparison with other classroom climate research, and comparison with individuals' goal orientations. The findings are discussed in terms of suggestions for educational practices.

  This study examined the effects of a psycho-educational program (sessions on sending and catching SOS signals) for elementary school children on improving their help-seeking attitudes and skills as a protective factor in preventing suicide. Composed of two sessions, the program was administered to fifth-and sixth-grade elementary school children (N=111) on a class-by-class basis. We examined its effect using a self-administered questionnaire assessing help-seeking preferences toward friends and teachers, help-seeking skills, and skills in supporting friends. The responses to scales assessing help-seeking skills and support skills to friends indicated the program's positive effects. The results of specific subscale scores assessing help-seeking preferences toward friends also showed differential effects between boys and girls. Moreover, the program resulted in partially significant correlations between changes in help-seeking skills and support skills for friends and changes in help-seeking preferences toward friends and teachers, which were especially characteristic of girls. Based on these results, the potential for future developments in suicide prevention education research and practices for elementary school children are discussed.

  Because of the expanding COVID-19, it has become more important that students acquire learning skills by themselves and become self-regulated learners. Considering such circumstances with COVID-19, motivation for using ICT in education at schools is relatively higher than in earlier years. The current study has developed an "online-based learning skills improvement program" conducted in a public high school to support students' learning skills for studying by themselves. The participants were 33 10th-grade students who voluntarily participated in the program. The program included six sessions and gave concrete instructions on how to study more in-depth. As a result, students showed an orientation toward self-regulated learning, such as a proactive attitude toward analyzing their failure and utilizing it in subsequent learning. The current paper also discusses the factors and conditions of change in learners' behaviours.

  It is becoming increasingly important to foster a discipline-based epistemological approach and interdisciplinary competencies. This article focuses on beliefs about learning and reviews the findings on learner beliefs from the perspective of the subject and the domains. In particular, it focuses on the hierarchical structure of beliefs assumed in epistemic beliefs studies and academic self-concept studies. First, based on the model of the Theory of Integrated Domains in Epistemology (Muis et al., 2006), this paper classified previous studies into cross-domain and domain-specific studies. Through organizing and reviewing previous works, it was found that a new hierarchy of beliefs has recently emerged, including beliefs about daily life and specific topics in subjects, suggesting that there may be differences in the functions and variability of beliefs depending on the belief hierarchy. Second, academic self-concept research has a number of findings regarding the continuity of subjects and the causal relationships between beliefs of different hierarchies. Finally, by integrating these findings into a model of beliefs about learning, we proposed a new integrated model in which beliefs about learning formed in a specific domain spread to other domains.