The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the impact of service-learning in higher education in Japan, on "attitudes toward social participation" and the acquisition of "generic skills" as learning outcomes, carried out at the Hiroshima University of Economics Koudoukan Project. In this study, a measurement of the "attitude toward social participation" was composed and a longitudinal questionnaire survey was conducted. The subjects were 94 students taking part in the Koudoukan Project and 66 students in Hiroshima University of Economics not taking part in the project, who constituted the control group. At the same time, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 5 students attending the project, for the purposes of supplement the results of the quantitative survey. As a result of factor analysis, attitudes toward social participation were shown to consist of 3 factors - a consciousness of social contribution, a sense of social effectiveness, and a consciousness of privatization - and generic skills were shown to consist of 3 factors-motivation skills, communication skills, and logical skills. The result of this study indicates that students who experienced Koudoukan Project acquired a "sense of social effectiveness" which would permit them to influence and revolutionize society.

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This study examined the learning effects of active manipulation in teaching practice using three types of multi-view astronomical teaching equipment. The results revealed that the comprehension test's average score improved equally after both active learning and passive learning, whereas the scores of an application test's average on the phases of the Moon considering direction and time improved more after active learning. The results of subjective assessment performed after learning demonstrated that students who learned passively were more eager to learn about the phases of the Moon than were students who learned actively. Further, the results suggested that the difference in the groups' understanding was related to their interest in the teaching equipment.

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The paper presents a study on the potentials of ubiquitous language learning environments. Recent research has emphasized the importance of informal learning - learning that happens outside the classroom, in students' every day life. The learning environment here connects classroom learning with learners' real life experience, supported by smartphones, which detect the learners' location and supply them with multimedia content that matches the situation they might be in. The paper provides insight into concept, implementation and evaluation of the project.

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We developed two types of "sawing" teaching materials for observation. One was video type and the other was 3D internet (3Di) type. Developing the 3Di teaching material, we used a motion capture system and the virtual world: Second Life. As a result of the practices, 3Di type made students' "knowledge" and "interest" stronger than a teacher's performance in person and made students' "attitude" and "deepen students' knowledge" stronger than the video type materials.

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During a "Period for Integrated Study" at a school in Japan, a teacher engaged in research encouraged children to engage in collaborative learning using a digital pen and "mind-maps." The children wrote "idea sentences" and compared them with the ideas of the other children. The authors felt that this process of collaborative learning and logical thinking by the children could be improved by having an "expert teacher" provide input from a remote location. Teachers at universities were asked to play the roles of the experts, because of their capacity to think logically. The authors found that this form of collaborative learning improved children's post- logicality of the expression. When the children replied to a survey of attitudes, they reported that the expert is most influence about their "idea sentences" when they will improve them. When the authors analyzed the "idea sentences," the influence of the "expert teachers" could clearly be seen. When we analyzed children's "idea sentences" in order to evaluate about the example of post-"idea sentences", authors found improvement of "concreteness of insistence", "validity of insistence" and "clearness of insistence". That is, it indicates that logicality of expression improved and it suggests effectiveness of learning supports by the expert teachers. Furthermore, we revealed effectiveness of learning supports by "mind-map" because students improved logicality of expression according to a survey of attitudes, "idea sentences" and evaluation by the teachers.

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A Waka-Kansei database for learning Kansei-expressions used in Japanese traditional Waka has been developed. The Waka-Kansei database defines a semantic space consisting of waka poems and music. In the database, each waka poem has its explanation, along with other related materials. As an initial-design iteration for developing the Waka-Kansei database, we conducted a pilot study using the technique of paper prototyping. The study was conducted in an actual middle school Japanese classroom. In the study, the students' learning objective was to learn skills to describe their impressions of waka poems with Kansei-rich expressions. Students learned Kansei-expressions to describe their expressions using the paper prototype of the Waka-Kansei database. The results show that students who used the Waka-Kansei database learned to describe their impressions with more Kansei words. The Kansei words that the students used were not only the ones used in the Kansei-database, but students used their own Kansei words that they did not see in the database. Furthermore, it was observed that students used many different Kansei words instead of using a few words repeatedly. The results imply the effect of the proposed Waka-Kansei database.

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With the rise in number of cases involving children becoming victims of cybercrimes, there is a corresponding need for information morals education to teach students "information ethics" and develop an "understanding of and adherence to the law." However, it is difficult for children to understand highly abstract concepts that have little to do with their daily lives, such as copyrights. This study analyzed efficient and effective methods for teaching such abstract concepts. Further, this study classified and defined teaching methods intended for information morals education into three types: 1) classes that focus on teaching aids, 2) experience-based classes, and 3) classes based on both teaching aids and experience. These three teaching methods were used with fifth and sixth graders at K Elementary School in Saitama Prefecture to compare the effect of each method. In the class that used "both," the children were able to understand and verbalize concepts using experience and teaching aids, thus providing an effective method for helping children understand abstract concepts. As compared to other teaching methods, there were indications that the method using both teaching aids and experience was effective in fostering a desire to participate in this information-oriented society.

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This article examines the practice and function of "Program FD" that aims to give substance to bachelor's degree programs and improve educational issues at Niigata University. On the basis of the university's framework of four educational target areas, each program's teaching staff implemented the practice of Program FD through reexamining the attainment targets of the degree program and recoordinating its curriculum map from the viewpoint of relocation of individual courses. As a result, the common understanding of the attainment targets among the teaching staff was promoted in the course of relocating and weighting the courses with the targets. Moreover, the recoordination of the curriculum map functioned as a framework for making the systemic curriculum alignment visible. The results suggest that the practice of Program FD may become a concrete approach to continuous curriculum improvement. Finally, the article discusses issues left for further development of Program FD that is expected to be implemented in daily educational activities.

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In this study, the concrete elements of information morality are defined as follows: (1) an individual must take responsibility for his/her behavior in an information-intensive society, both considering his/her influence on others and respecting human rights and intellectual property; (2) an individual must be able to use information on risk aversion correctly and safely; and (3) an individual must sufficiently understand the relationship between the use of information appliances, such as computers, and human health. The relationship between the consciousness of learners regarding these elements (i.e., information morality) and the Egogram (composed of five ego states) is examined. In light of the analysis, it is suggested that of the five ego states, critical parent (CP) and nurturing parent (NP) act to build consciousness regarding information morality more quickly, while free child (FC) acts to suppress this consciousness. Regarding consciousness toward the first concrete element, a significant difference is observed between students with Egogram with CP-type or NP-type peaks and those with Egogram with FC-type peaks. Regarding consciousness toward the third concrete element, a significant difference is observed between students with Egogram with CP-type peaks and those with Egogram with FC-type peaks. Therefore, the relationship between the Egogram, composed of five ego states, and consciousness regarding information morality is revealed.

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