This study investigated how students regulate their learning depending on the difficulty of the learning-goal (easy vs. difficult) and the judgments of their learning states. As a result, in both conditions, students spent their learning not on the worse items, but on the items judged easy to learn. These results suggested that students could not control their learning activities according to the hierarchical model. However, in difficult goal condition, they could control their learning activities according to the region of proximal learning model. In addition, based on the analysis of a change of the learning activity with time progress and their subjective reports, at first they learn the items judged easy and learn the items judged difficult next.

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The aim of this research is to extract the paralinguistic information from the natural conversational speech using Maekawa's experimental method. The results of the experiment are as follows: (1) Maekawa's experimental method is also effective in extracting categories of paralinguistic information from spontaneous speech. (2) The categories of characteristic paralinguistic information extracted have not been defined in traditional categorical analysis. These categories are characterized by the tendency not to directly instruct, warn or hurry children, but rather to use softer, less direct expressions that take the child's independence into consideration. It may in the future be possible to develop category systems for speech analyses of class conversations.

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Investment in the construction of schools has been recognized as an important way of promoting the access to and enhancing the equity of education, as well as the fist step toward improving the quality of education in the developing countries. However, there are many schoolswhich have failed to succeed in improvements in quality and are simply wasting their resources. This suggests that the increase in the quantity of schools should be accompanied with an improvement in quality. The Junior Secondary School Construction Project is the first and the largest investment by the Government of Japan in the area of basic education in Indonesia. Through this project, 596 junior secondary schools were constructed in as many as 12 provinces in three years. This article is intended to evaluate the accomplishment and the challenge of this large-scale project by examining in its degree of actual contribution to the promotion of education in these areas, and the factors which influence the improvement of educational outcomes. First, the degree of contribution to increases in regional enrollment rate by new schools built by this project will be investigated. Second, the educational outcomes will be examined in a chronological fashion in order to comprehend the circumstances. Third, the causal correlation between the educational environment and outcomes in Indonesia will be observed in order to identify the important factors which improve sustainability and educational outcomes at the project schools, and to explore issues to be solved.

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In this research, I develop a Tablet PC software to support children's narrative skills, which young children start to do actively around the age of five-and-half years old. I intended to stimulate storytelling to increase event categories of protocol and to support causal relation. After reviewing earlier studies about developing process of children's narrative production and about supporting system for storytelling, I considered supporting methods and developed necessary functions. Then, to investigate the effect of this software, I conducted an experiment for comparing story protocol told by five-year-old children. One group used paper crafts, and the other used the system I propose. The result showed that the proposed system stimulate storytelling and increase event categories of protocol of each story. The protocols about the character's mental stage were increased especially by using function to change facial expression. Children could also use causal relation and make easy to understand stories.

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In e-learning area, the content development method is one of the most important research topics. This paper assumes a presentation method of visual contents (a text, a still image) in synchronization with sound content (narration) and a pointer to make the efficiency of the resource allocation of cognitive memory capacity increase, and make the transmitted amount of information increase, based on a human's cognitive-information-processing model "Dual Channel Model." Under various contents presentation environment {(l)Narration, (2)Text (with narration / without narration), (3)Still images, (4)Still images + text (with narration / without narration), (5)Video, and (6)Video + text} in e-learning, we performed some control experiments (measure the point of fixation for e-learning students by an eye mark recorder, memorization and a contents understanding test and the questionnaire) with or without pointer. The results showed that the pointer does not affect learners' surface knowledge acquisition but affects learners' deep knowledge acquisition.

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In this study "teacher's approach" utterance was defined as teacher's utterance that makes relationship between teacher and pupils and the purpose of this study was to reveal what intentions as instruction "teacher's approach" utterance to elementary pupils has. This study focused "teacher's approach" utterance to pupils and made a quantity analysis of category and interpretive analysis of case example in classes of the Japanese at the second-grade. On the analysis, "teacher's approach" utterance to pupils was put into three categories of "descriptive function", "technical function" and "object of utterance". Their analysis was to reveal the following. More than half of the teacher's utterance was "teacher's approach" utterance to pupils. And about 30 percent of the descriptive functions were "control" and "relaxation". These results showed "teacher's approach" utterance to pupils was used as instructional strategy. Specifically, it was showed that by the use of approach to schoolchild teacher avoided clear evaluations of pupils, provided an emotional evaluation of pupils effectively and got pupils in to classes.

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This study aims to: (a) propose a teaching method for learners to understand and produce Japanese audio-visual reactive tokens (RTs, often called back-channeling or aizuti), (b) develop courseware for proposed blended learning, and (c) evaluate RT blended learning using such courseware. RTs are crucial in forming discourse. Yet, to date, very little instruction has been proposed or evaluated, and what does exist is limited in scope and unsystematic. To meet the demand for RT courseware, we developed a method to unambiguously classify RTs, and described and predicted various RT features based on their classifications. Using our classifications, descriptions and predictions, we designed an RT syllabus for Japanese as a second language, and implemented a portion of our syllabus in a blended learning experience combining self-paced, peer-based and instructor-led learning. The CALL portion of our courseware is called DiscourseWare, or DW. 24 intermediate and advanced Japanese language learners participated in RT blended learning. The learner's skills were measured at 4 stages: before learning (pretest), immediately after self-paced learning (posttestl), immediately after instructor-led learning (posttest2), and after 1 week of inactivity (posttest3). Each test measured the learner's receptive and productive RT skills, and RT awareness. Results suggest that proposed blended learning method with our courseware is effective in teaching audio RTs.

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The Ministry of Education announced officially in February 2007 the standard of teacher's ICT use instruction ability, which is classified into five categories and composed of 18 checklists. Many school teachers were requested to evaluate these checklists themselves, and 2,031 teachers were answered. After conducting factor analysis, four factors of ICT use ability were obtained in this paper. They are (1) ability to teach by ICT in class, (2) ability to instruct regarding information morals, (3) ICT use for preparation and school affairs and (4) Support for students' ICT use. In addition, the values of four factors were investigated respectively about teacher's various attributes and the relation between the attribute and factors.

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This study aims to develop a method (1) for quantifying mutual links between utterances in transcripts, (2) for visualizing a role of each utterance in promoting classroom discussions, and (3) intends to clarify the factors involved in shaping mutual links between utterances through applying the methods. We proposed two methods using word co-occurrence frequencies and its mediating patterns as indices, based upon morphological analysis and network analysis. These methods demonstrated (1) that the number of words children utter determines their links between utterances and (2) that teachers shift their roles depending upon the lengths children talk. Finally, the limitations and future directions were discussed.

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The purpose of this study is to examine the difference of action, consciousness, and knowledge of breach of the Copyright Act and violation of manners by investigations (before, after and three months after the lesson). As a result of the lesson, the high school students came to carry out the correct action. They improved in knowledge and improved thier ability to make a correct answer. However, after three months they were not established. Consciousness continued three months after the lesson. Moreover the relation between action and knowledge had a negative correlation in the Copyright Act. Furthermore, correct action and correct knowledge are closely related to action, consciousness, and knowledge. The correct knowledge and the correct action are not connected with manners. It was suggested that future instruction to high school students about copyright needs classroom development which takes up the subjects of manners, action, consciousness and knowledge.

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