This study seeks to obtain analytical data that are useful for a university when advising on effective participation plans for students who want to apply for internships. These data are based on a survey of university students; this survey was conducted by the Cabinet Office. This study focuses on social science students and examines the relationship between the number of days when and times that they have participated in internships and evaluates the effectiveness of participation. Two main points have been identified in the study. First, participation in a one-day internship is remarkably effective, and as the number of times of participation increases, the effectiveness increases even further. On the other hand, mid-term (2–5 days) and long-term (6 days or more) internships are the most effective in the case of one time of participation. Second, the analysis of the influence of conditions (control variables) such as the gender of the students, their deviation scores, and the types and locations of their universities reveals that the effectiveness of internships manifests in diverse and complex ways. Thus, the study demonstrates it is important for universities to instruct students while being conscious of relationship between the number of days when and times that they have participated in internships.

The purpose of this study is to identify factors influencing self-learning of employees working remotely in Japanese enterprises. Remote working was spread rapidly among Japanese enterprises following the spread of COVID-19 in 2020. It is seemed to remote working has changed employees' self^-learning and their perspective on their careers. We conducted a web-based survey of 1063 full-time employees (991 of whom were valid responses) working remotely in Japanese enterprises. We analyzed the relationship between employees' perceptions of developmental HR practices (PDHRP) and their protean career orientation, and their self-learning of 899 employees who aged 31 or older. Path analysis revealed that PDHRP had a positive impact on self-learning, and employees' protian career orientation partially mediated the impact of PDHRP on self-learning. When implementing remote work in the future, enterprises need to provide developmental HR practices to support for employees not to undermine employees' development opportunities.

In the field of instructional design (ID), the importance of design that creates new things in response to situations has been identified in various international studies, but Japan has no programs to support the improvement of this higher-order skill. Therefore, this study involved the development of a course for advanced instructional designers (advanced IDers) responsible for supporting improvements to the university classes of which their colleagues and others (clients) were in charge. The focus was on situational instructional design skills, or the empathy perspective. First, the positioning of related programs was organized based on their content and how they could support the learning of advanced IDers. Next, the "Eight Questions" were developed, which was a support tool enabling participants to listen to the situations and needs of clients prior to suggesting class improvements. Finally, a trial course was conducted that included the use of this tool. The trial results confirmed that the course participants were able to work on class improvement proposals that were closely linked to the thoughts expressed by client teachers about their classes. The participants were able to create a framework for incorporating viewpoints that were empathetic to clients in their ID-based proposals. An issue to be addressed in the future is the need to confirm whether clients achieve improvements in their classes.

The purpose of this study is to examine the class management of various elementary school teachers from the point of view of the developmental stages of the children by simultaneously analyzing their teaching behaviors, the intentions behind those behaviors, and their individual thought processes. Six teachers—one each from grades 1 to 6—were observed during their Japanese language classes to record and demonstrate their utterances. Follow-up interviews with these teachers were subsequently conducted to clarify their intentions. The analysis revealed that these teachers’ class management behaviors can be categorized into two groups: teaching content instruction and instruction which doesn’t include teaching content. Their intentions were categorized into three groups: group teaching, relationships, and classroom atmosphere, as well as cross-curricular abilities and social skills. Examining this from the standpoint of the children’s developmental stages, the authors found that, regardless of grade level, teachers emphasized successful group teaching using non-academic instructions related to a classroom environment that established a certain rules and order; for instance, children raising their hands to take turns speaking to their classmates during presentations. The teachers of lower grades were found to favor establishing rules and order using their instruction relating to classroom environment while those who taught upper grades tended to favor classroom management that engenders independence and autonomy through content instruction.

This study clarifies the effects of differences in the assumed audience during a presentation on the reading of a book and its expression. The target classes were two first-year junior high school classes (n = 80) in which students exchanged information about the reading and appeal of books. Each class was assigned to one of the following conditions: 1) A “parent condition,” in which parents who did not share reading experiences were assumed to be the audiences. 2) A “classmate condition,” in which the assumed audience was classmates who shared reading experiences in class. The results of the between-condition comparison reveal that students in the parent condition searched and presented more information about the content of the book, while those in the classmate condition searched and presented more bibliographic information, and more students reported that their reading had changed through the class. These results indicate that the differences in the intended audience affect the rereading of books, search for appeal, and way of expression, and that changes in reading can be promoted by changing the intended audience.

This study aims to compare the usefulness of using one-to-one computing (hereinafter referred to as “PC”) in collaborative learning based in a cloud environment, focusing on improving the need for autonomy, competence, and relationship (hereinafter referred to as “three needs”) based on the theory of self-determination. In Practice 1, we conducted collaborative learning in a junior high–school chemistry class that was using PC for the first time in science classes. In Practice 2, we conducted collaborative learning in an individual experiment based in a junior high–school physics class that regularly used PC in science classes. The results of the free-text survey showed that 42.5% and 67.1% of the students in Practices 1 and 2, respectively, described an increase in three needs. In addition, the results from the analysis regarding the degree of usefulness of PC indicated that experience in using PC in science classes and the degree of difficulty of tasks influence the degree of usefulness.

In this study, we examined the change in quality of argumentative writing and in their awareness toward it, through cross-referencing their writing and argumentative writing strategies (hereinafter referred to as “strategies”) by having each student in the upper grades of elementary school use a tablet computer. The results from the rubric evaluations and questionnaire showed that, cross- referencing each other’s writing and strategies improved the evaluation scores of their writing and the students’ awareness of writing with the structure of the text in mind, of incorporating others’ perspectives, and of writing with attention to how it will be perceived by the reader. Later, it was observed that there was no decline in the students’ writing scores when they wrote argumentative writing without cross-referencing. This suggests that they acquire strategies from other learners through cross-referencing and utilize them, and that they continue to employ the acquired strategies even in the absence of cross- referencing.

This study examined the effectiveness of a reading strategy focusing on a single sentence that expresses the subject of a narrative text in elementary school Japanese studies. A comparative analysis was conducted between an intervention group that received this instruction and a control group that did not. In the intervention group, a reading strategy that examines a sentence that best expresses the narrative text’s subject was incorporated into the “scrutiny and interpretation” phase of the learning process, which is typically employed when deciphering narrative texts. Moreover, based on the type of sentence representing the subject, activities were conducted to determine which sentences best illustrated “the central character” “before and after the transformation” in relation to “its factors.” The results showed that the intervention group's comprehension level based on the narrative and description did not differ from that of the control group. However, the intervention group's ability to approach the subject and think about the narrative text was significantly better than that of the control group. These findings suggest that teaching the reading of narrative texts—which examine a single sentence that expresses a subject—can improve teaching that traces the surface with images and senses, and in teaching that does not apply what has been learned to reading other materials which is a noted challenge in Japanese language classes.

In this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey of university students regarding their classes in the fall semester of the 2020 academic year and ascertained the course formats and the tendencies that the students found to be “beneficial.” Course formats were classified into eight types: face-to-face, real-time, on-demand, a combination of these, and none of the above. The results revealed the following points. First, the most beneficial courses included face-to-face and real-time synchronous classes. Notably, students were more active in synchronous classes in terms of commenting and engaging in cooperative activities. Moreover, it was suggested that face-to-face classes may facilitate cooperative activities outside of class. Furthermore, differences were observed in the tendencies of beneficial course formats depending on the course category, class size, and students’ grade.

We compare the usage of “media literacy” and “information literacy” from descriptions in the textbooks of “public”, a compulsory subject in high school, and of “civics” in social studies of junior high school. As a result, the difference between the literacy is in “public” more ambiguous than in “civics”. In addition, while “criticism” and “judgment” are important in media literacy, description in textbooks of “public” requires that high school students should act more concretely and proactively than in junior high school. Textbooks of “civics” include more references to mass media than of “public”, suggesting that high school students need to pay more attention to the Internet, such as SNS. In addition, it is necessary to keep in mind the unique context of social studies, which seeks the awareness of the ”citizens” who shape “public opinion”.

Based on the motivational model of friendship formation and maintenance (Okada, 2008a), this study examined the effects of each motivation toward friendship on friendship satisfaction through various academic helping behaviors. The participants were 197 junior high school students in Japan. Path analyses showed that autonomous motivations directly promote friendship satisfaction, while external regulation indirectly lowers it via the avoidance of academic help-seeking. In addition, moderated mediation analyses revealed that controlled motivations are more likely to lead to non-adaptive academic helping behaviors when academic competence is high. These findings highlight the importance of focusing on a variety of academic helping behaviours and interaction between friendship motivation and academic competence when investigating the effects of peer learning.