For self-driven career development, it is important to enhance "Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy: CDMSE". In this study, we conducted peer assessment learning with Moodle in a first-year career education course for college students. From the results of the survey with CDMSE scale, it has been proved that CDMSE of students taking the course showed a significant increase after the peer assessment learning. In addition, follow-up survey at two months after the course revealed that taking the course had some effect on CDMSE of the students. It is suggested that further improvements in the design of peer assessment learning and follow-up learning are necessary to keep the effects by the learning.

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Research has shown that Peer Instruction (PI) is an effective method of active learning that facilitates deep learning. The aim of this study was to examine the implications of active learning by investigating the effect of PI on students' approach to learning (i.e., deep approach to learning and surface approach to learning), focusing on students' out- of- class learning time. The PI method was implemented in a psychology course at a large university. Two questionnaires (PRE, POST) were completed by 103 students (82 male, 21 female) when the course started and ended, respectively (i.e., in April and July). The students were divided into a "high group" and "low group" according to how much time they spent on out-of-class learning, and a two-way factorial analysis of variance was used to examine the changes in their approach to learning. We found no effective increase of the deep approach for the high group but a decrease for the low group. This finding suggests that it is not enough to engage students in class; they should be encouraged to participate in out-of-class learning as well.

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Based on the background of the social trends to support adults' learning at higher education institutions, this study clarified the motivations of adults who enrolled in an online university, continuous factors and hindrances to their studies, and transformations gained through learning. The results of interview surveys and an analysis with the modified grounded theory approach showed that the adult online learners had both internal and external motivations. In addition, learning at the university led to various transformations in their studies, acquaintances, and lives. The findings suggested that for adult learners in e-learning courses, relationships with communities of faculties, mentors, and other students are very important.

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This study investigated the effects of three class sizes (33 or smaller, smaller than 37, 37 and larger) on 8th grade students' engagement in homework and its change in half a year. The repeated survey on students' homework engagement was conducted among homeroom teachers in 48 junior high schools in a particular prefecture, and it included 6793 students. The class size effect on inter-school difference of both initial level of engagement and subsequent change was examined, using a multilevel growth model. The result indicated that the three class sizes caused no difference of the initial level of engagement. It was also found that no subsequent change of students' homework engagement in middle and large class schools, however, the students' engagement in small class schools was in an upward trend.

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This study investigated how goal orientation in first-year junior high students in an English language course changed before and after regular school examinations as well as how their learning strategies changed along with goal orientation. In addition, it examined students' academic performance and how it corresponded to these changes. The study analyzed students' responses to a questionnaire and found that students whose goal orientation was self-regulated adopted deep-processing learning strategies that facilitated understanding and thus performed well on exams. Students whose goal orientations were consistently inappropriate for their goals did not perform not well on exams. Students who had the low goal orientation adopted an ineffective and self-handicapping strategy and thus performed poorly on exams. Furthermore, the relationship between changes in goal orientation and changes in learning strategies showed a pattern not predicted by previous studies: The exact combination of the three types of goal orientation determined students' performance, and even students with similar results could have different goal orientations or learning strategies.

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This study focused on development of evaluation methods and investigation of effectiveness of an ICT teachers' training seminar to promote other teachers' use of ICT in their own schools. We designed a teacher-training seminar to help ICT teachers encourage other teachers' use of ICT and developed evaluation methods of the training seminar. The evaluation methods were based on Kirkpatrick's model of levels 1 through 3. The evaluation results of the training seminar are as follows. Self-evaluation as the reaction level by the participants of the training seminar shows that they could get a sense of satisfaction, be motivated, and acquire concrete methods to promote ICT. By comparing the promotion activities before and after the training with self-evaluation two month after the training, it was found that the teacher training seminar worked well for the participants to maintain motivation at the high level and they still felt the usefulness of their strategies for promoting ICT use. In conclusion, our evaluation methods were able to show effectiveness of teachers' in-service training seminar.

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Recently, the importance of statistical literacy has been receiving more attention in today's society. At schools, school evaluation has officially been introduced, and in many cases objective analysis of data has come to be necessary. However, partly because of insufficient curriculum of education of statistics, it is said that teachers do not have enough knowledge and skills of statistics. The purpose of this study is to clarify what kind of statistical literacy is needed for teachers by reviewing the preceding studies, and to develop a learning program which nurtures statistical literacy for teachers. The program was conducted with in-service teacher and non-professional graduate students on a teacher-professional-development program at a national educational university. The results revealed that the in-service teachers particularly were more interested in statistical analysis and learned significantly more than non-professional graduate students, because the analysis could be utilized for various school-based cases with which the in-service teachers are familiar.

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The purpose of this study is to develop the model of factors affecting teachers' enthusiasm in ICT utilization at schools in Japan from a practical viewpoint. The authors asked three primary school teachers belonging to the same school to draw curved lines showing the process of their enthusiasm in ICT utilization and interviewed them about factors affecting their enthusiasm. As a result of the comparative analysis, three common factors affecting teachers' enthusiasm were clarified. The authors compared them with those of the UK primary school teachers at the same school in order to identify if the factors were characterized in the case of Japanese school teachers. The comparative studies indicated that one of the factors is specialized in the Japanese school because it was not identified in the case of UK school teachers. Based on the above results, the authors developed the model of factors of teachers' enthusiasm in ICT utilization at schools in Japan.

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This study examined the relationship between cognitive strategies, motivational regulation strategies and study time used when preparing for a test. Study 1 examined the relationship between cognitive strategies, study time, and test score. The self-report questionnaire survey was conducted on 38 vocational school students. Study 2 examined the relationship between motivational regulation strategies and study time. The longitudinal self-report questionnaire survey was conducted on 89 undergraduates. The results were as follows: (1) the relationship between cognitive strategies and test score changed when study time was controlled; and (2) test score mainly related to study time, not cognitive strategies; (3) study time positively related to the use of interest enhancement strategy and performance strategy, and negatively related to value strategy and cooperative strategy.

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