In this study, we reported the development of an analysis method that estimates the interest of children, using position and direction information as new measures for interpreting "child's growth" in the field of early childhood education and care. In our previous studies, we showed that childcare workers empirically refer to children's position and direction when interpreting their interests. In addition, human qualitative evaluation of children’s interest states can be quantified using Bayesian estimation. Following these results, we recorded daily childcare scenes and annotated children’s behavioral features using position and direction as well as the position of the interest target provided by the childcare workers in this study. Moreover, we conducted a comparative analysis of the behavioral likelihoods of the human interest description with the machine learning methods—HMM and LDA. Our results showed that the interest tendency of the 18 participants could be estimated using position and direction information from the recorded childcare scene.

In Japan, which is called disaster prone country, acquiring knowledge and skills related to disaster prevention is one of the most important task. In disaster prevention education, it is necessary that learning effects continue not only immediately after learning but also at the disaster scene. Hence, in this study, through a playfull educational event related to disaster prevention using games, we examined the sustained effect on the learning of disaster prevention knowledge for elementary school children. In the survey, a paper-type confirmation test called a post test and a later test were conducted after the end of the disaster prevention event in 2019 and six months after that. As a result, it was confirmed that even after a certain period of time, the effect of improving knowledge and skills related to disaster prevention was sustained.

About the relationship between the carrier formation and well-being of the woman in science and technology, we model it based on questionnaire data using Latent class trees. We proposed the method for leading latent variables by clastering variables based on answer means of each variable of each class, the method enabled the interpretation of each variable group (latent variable) and each latent class more systematically. As a result of analysis, we classified women in science and technology in eight types and interpreted each type while comparing types hierarchically. Further, we compared the groups that divide each class of the latent tree model from two viewpoints; first comparison between women group graduated from undergraduate course and women group graduated from graduate school, second comparison between women group with and without having parenting experience.

The purpose of this study is to clarify the Work-life balance and required support for university faculty members who engaged in a wide range of tasks such as education, research, and university management under the discretionary labor system. We conducted statistical analysis and text mining of free answers from the results of the surveys in three universities. As a result, it shows that the satisfaction in work-life balance of faculty members is higher than the general industry. As a factor peculiar to researchers, one of the occupational stresses is restriction of research activities． Both men and women are seriously affected by interruptions in research due to life events, lack of research time, work burdens other than research, and lack of support around the support target. Such anxiety about workload balance and volume led to a negative awareness of promotion. Women in particular, tended to underestimate their suitability for managers because of gender bias.

Opportunities for e-learning at universities are increasing rapidly. In this setting, there is a need to conduct online high-stakes testing for purposes such as awarding credits. However, online high-stakes testing is not widespread because the lack of invigilation encourages cheating, such as impersonation. To detect such cheating, a new technology needs to be developed. Therefore, this study aimed to improve a biometric technology using hand images of touch gestures for examinee authentication to prevent impersonation of examinees. We developed an electronic test displayed on a tablet computer, which has become a popular device and can potentially be used for online testing. Our new technology records examinees’ hand images of touch gestures during an examination and uses them for authentication. We conducted an experiment using a tablet computer and extracted data on participants’ touch gestures. Then, we applied machine learning for examinee authentication. The results showed that our new technology is effective for examinee authentication.

In this study, we interviewed teachers to investigate their teaching knowledge of One-to-One computing in the context of elementary education. We visited a lesson that utilized One-to-One computing and asked the teacher to describe the intention of the teaching behavior we observed. The interviews were categorized with reference to the framework of teaching knowledge entitled Teacher's Knowledge Area about Classes, by Yoshizaki (1988a). It was found that the previous framework for One-to-One computing is being applied to knowledge of the contents of teaching materials, teaching methods, and children or that the teaching routines and educational views are drawn from the previous framework. In addition, it was observed that the teaching knowledge used in the lessons has the characteristics that could be influenced by learning activities, learning opportunities, grades, and subjects. It was suggested that knowledge of ICT has only recently become required. We investigated the details of the knowledge of ICT and examined its relationship to Yoshizaki’s framework. It was found that knowledge of ICT is classified into four types, where some may be considered to be expansions of the knowledge domain describe by Yoshizaki (1988a) and others are not.

The study’s purpose is to practice and evaluate collaborative training for newly assigned faculty and office staff members to foster awareness of University Social Responsibility (USR). The training was conducted in February 2019 as discussions on improving the university’s social value. The rubric, questionnaire, and impression descriptions were analyzed, leading to two findings. First, the USR-based training content allowed participants to find social value in their university work. This finding supports part of this study’s hypothesis that "fostering awareness of USR among faculty and staff leads to feeling the value of work." Secondly, the training provided an opportunity to broaden the horizons of participants through personal interaction. At the same time, the training also appeared to function as a place for sharing emotions and information among participants.

This study examined the effects of English lessons’ reading-aloud practices for elementary 6th graders. To become able to read target sentences fluently, children were allowed to choose their learning strategies freely. Collected data revealed that most children chose learning strategies appropriate for their learning preferences. As a result, they significantly improved their reading-aloud skills.

This study shows how a 15-week genre-based task helped six Japanese learners of English who were aiming to become soccer players or coaches overseas to improve their task performance in English. The purposes are to describe how the systematically designed genre-based tasks were experienced by the learners, how their genre awareness changed as they experienced these tasks, and how their meaning-making choices for conducting soccer training changed over time.

The purpose of this study was to the effectiveness of micro-teaching (MT) training for in-service kindergarten teachers. In Analysis 1, mock childcare practices in the two surveys were compared using utterance analysis, and behavioral changes in participants’ that role-played a teacher (TR) and a child (CR) were examined. The results indicated instructions and attitudes of TR changed into positively. In addition, CR accepted TR’s instructions and came to participate. In Analysis 2, the effects of the training just after completing it and two months after the training were examined. The results indicated that the effects of MT on understanding young children and learning motivation could be observed just after the training, and teachers’ abilities related to attitudes and skills developed two months after the training.

The purpose of this study is to offer some points of consideration when designing lessons on information literacy where each individual student has access to a tablet. In order to achieve this, the relevant information literacy skills were organized into seven categories, and taught during social studies classes to 6th grade public elementary school students where each student has his own tablet. In the first semester, I focused on “thinking lessons” where the children collected, organized, and analyzed information themselves, while in the second semester, I worked on “inquiry learning” that had the goal of making the children “express and communicate” the results of their analysis. The effect of this instruction on the students’ information literacy was measured and analyzed, using data from 4 separate skill evaluation tests, and also from the students’ written responses collected over 5 worksheets. From the results, the students showed statistically significant improvement in 6 of the 7 categories, such as their level of awareness towards ICT skills and their ability to acquire them. It also became clear that the learning support provided during these lessons were productive, and that 3 of the lesson forms were effective. From this, I put forward some points of consideration for designing lessons which seek to develop information literacy in students.

In this paper, we propose a measure to evaluate the global textual coherence taking into account the document hierarchical structures. In general, a technical article is hierarchically structured in a consistent manner, including paragraphs, sections, and chapters. A textual coherence is a feature in that sentences are well-connected and are placed with modularity in terms of a topic. We produce the graph whose nodes and edges represent sentences and similarities between the sentences, respectively. The coherence at a layer of the document hierarchy is calculated by aggregating the current value computed from the partial graph among the document structures at a layer with the coherence value of the lower layers. The coherence of an entire document is obtained by iterating the above computations in a bottom-up manner. To compare our measure with the conventional ones and examine our performance, we have carried out two experiments, the one employing Discrimination and Insertion, and the other using the real technical papers written and revised by students and commented by supervisors. As a result, it has been shown that our measure can surely catch and quantifying the textual coherence considering document hierarchy that is hard for the conventional measures to treat.

The main aim of this study was to clarify the competencies of instructors in on-the-job training (OJT) of clinical nurses that not specified at the practical usage. A literature review revealed 4 domains, 13 competencies, and 39 behavioral descriptions. Draft competencies after literature review and conduct questionnaire surveys for clinical leaders and education experts who have educational roles at multiple facilities. Further revealed the surface validity and content validity of the competencies. We have also explored the content validity index (CVI) by experts in the field of education, and revised for all items with a CVI score of under 80％. Accordingly, The competencies relevant attained. Further studies are needed in order to provide these competencies can be acquired.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the mentor teachers’ learning and professional development through coaching student teachers in practice teaching, focusing on the differences between elementary school teachers and junior high school teachers. In total, 133 mentor teachers participated in a questionnaire. Major findings were as follows: (a) Scores for the “learning” and “professional development” were high. The elementary school teachers recognize higher on “learning” and “professional development” than junior high school teachers; (b) Several factors related to “teaching practice instruction” and “learning”, and “teaching practice instruction” and “professional development” were correlated. Especially, collaboration with student teachers were correlated to many factors on “learning” and “professional development”, (c) The elementary school teachers had a strong relationship between “teaching practice instruction” and “learning”. The junior high school teachers had a strong relationship between “teaching practice instruction” and “professional development”.

In the revised Courses of Study, the ability to utilize information is positioned as a fundamental quality and learning and is required to be cultivated across subjects. However, the ability to utilize information that can be taught through the learning activities of each subject are not sufficiently organized and related to each subject. In this study, we analyzed the curriculum guidelines for elementary, junior high and high school based on the IE-School systematic table of information literacy by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). As a result of the analysis, among the items of information application ability organized in the IE-School Systematic Table, "understanding of information application methods in problem solving and inquiry" is required in many subjects, while the number of knowledge, skills, and attitudes such as operating skills, characteristics of information media, and information morality, which correspond to the study of each subject, is high. It was found to be very low. In addition, the relationship between the information use ability and the ability to teach through the learning activities of each subject was clarified.

This paper aims to explicate the characteristics of flipped classrooms as compared with blended learning and traditional classroom preparation by reviewing previous studies. First, it is explained that flipped classrooms place emphasis on enriching the quality of in-class time by changing the way out-of-class time is spent, while blended learning emphasizes utilizing technology and blending face-to-face learning and independent online learning. Second, preparation for flipped classrooms must involve instructors' explanations and elaboration of the content in contrast to traditional classroom preparation. Third, flipped classrooms exhibit three relationships between pre-class time and in-class time; the sequence, the main-main relationship, and the inseparability. Future research should consider the instructional design to better integrate the preparation time and in-class time of flipped classrooms. The conclusion also suggests that flipped classrooms present an opportunity for us to rethink the value of “face-to-face” class time.

English summary Children receiving illness education are severely limited or restricted in their learning activities due to hospital treatment. Educational activities that utilize ICT are expected in recent years as a means to reduce them. In this study, we analyzed 16 practical studies reported in Japan in the past 5 years, and examined the issues from the viewpoint of dif f iculty in utilizing ICT equipment. As a result, it was categorized into 12 categories. It was shown that there are many problems that schools cannot deal with, such as the improvement of communication environment and the cost of introducing ICT. Since the accumulation of practical research in illness education in recent years is insuf f icient, further accumulation of practical research is an issue in the future. In addition, since the cost issues that have been pointed out about 20 years ago are being raised, it is necessary for the system to urgently implement concrete measures.

The purpose of this study was to investigate what image teachers have for SST. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 160 current teachers. As the result, 4 factors of "Meaning", "denial of individuality", "change expectation", "fulfillment of individuality" were indicated as SST image. As an SST implementation image, 4 factors of "willingness", "worksite feasibility", "self-efficacy for implementation " and "skill acquision" were indicated. The image of SST was generally good regardless of whether or not the teachers had experience of SST at their school. On the other hand, it was confirmed that a good image of SST is likely to lead to high motivation to implement SST, but is unlikely to lead to high self-efficacy for implementation and skill acquision. These findings suggest the importance of developing SST that is easy for teachers to implement in busy schools and that have low preparation and implementation costs.