This study aims to investigate the relationship between university instructors’ use of ICT in teaching and their perceptions of ICT, focusing on the unique circumstances before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, this study investigates whether the mandatory use of ICT during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 led to more positive perceptions of ICT among university instructors and whether these perception subsequently influenced their continued use of ICT. In Phase 1 of the research, a comparison of ICT usage between the 2006 academic year and the 2019–2022 academic years confirmed a sharp increase in ICT use among university instructors due to the pandemic. In Phase 2, data from 441 instructors who taught the same courses in both the 2019 and 2020 academic years indicated a relationship between ICT use and ICT self-efficacy. In Phase 3, a cross-lagged panel analysis of 243 respondents who participated in longitudinal surveys in 2020 and 2022 revealed that the more positive the beliefs about ICT formed during the first year of the pandemic, the greater the ICT use during the post-pandemic period.

This study developed a scale to identify the competencies required of teachers for effective ICT utilization, referred to as ICT Utilization Competencies, to facilitate “innovative, student-centered learning.” The validity and reliability of the scale were also examined. In Study 1, a survey of in-service teachers resulted in the development of the ICT Utilization Competencies Scale for Teachers to Facilitate Innovative Learning comprising five factors and 28 items: Self-Efficacy in ICT Utilization, Student-Centered ICT Utilization Perspective, Curiosity About New Tools, Proactive and Challenging Learning Attitude, and Inquiry into ICT Utilization. Study 2 explored the relationship between ICT Utilization Competencies and work engagement, suggesting that improving these competencies may enhance teachers’ sense of fulfillment in subject teaching. Finally, the study addresses future challenges related to the scale’s validity and causal relationships, as well as its practical application in school contexts.

The objective of this research is to examine the impact of perceived costs on learning activities, focusing on the multidimensional nature of costs. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 333 junior high school students, assessing their cost perceptions, achievement goals, and use of learning strategies. In addition to considering costs unidimensionally, costs were also categorized into opportunity costs, effort costs, and psychological costs. The study confirmed the impact of each type of cost on learning strategies, mediated by achievement goals. When costs were considered unidimensionally, a negative correlation with learning strategies was observed, consistent with previous research. When costs were considered multidimensionally, opportunity costs showed a negative correlation with learning strategies, while effort costs showed a positive correlation. Additionally, psychological costs showed a relationship with achievement goals, and the relationships between each type of cost, achievement goals, and learning strategies were found to differ. The results of this study suggest the importance of examining the impact of each type of cost on learning activities, in addition to considering costs unidimensionally.

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between an e-learning called the “Microstep Study (MSS)” and the English proficiency of high school students through a longitudinal survey, where the MSS has been considered to facilitate the efficient acquisition of English vocabulary knowledge based on the findings of implicit memory research. Specifically, we examined the within- and between-person relationships between “The EIKEN Test in Practical English Proficiency (EIKEN)” scores and the amount of MSS learning by applying a multilevel model to longitudinal data for high school students who took the EIKEN test one to five times between May 2021 and October 2022. The results exhibited a positive within-person relationship between the amount of MSS learning and EIKEN scores. In other words, the results indicated that the MSS could efficiently improve the vocabulary, and ultimately the English proficiency of high school students at the within-person level.

An online survey among parents with elementary and middle school children was conducted to analyze the relationship between children's participation attitude in online classes at home, their impact on their families and their personal characteristics. Five factors related to the children's characteristics were identified: “independence/autonomy”, “group orientation”, “maladjustment”, “mood stability”, and “tension or sensitivity”, affecting more than their grade level. Children were classified into six groups through cluster analysis based on factor scores and analyzed. The results showed that self-autonomous and cooperative children can engage in online classes on their own. However, introverted or more sensitive children may require adjustments to facilitate their participation. Children with rather high autonomy but less amendable to discipline may prefer and be better suited to online than face-to-face classes. Children who struggle with self-autonomy, cooperativeness, and adjustment to discipline put a strain on the family as they need assistance to learn online.

This study aimed to clarify the relationship between guilt for spreading misinformation and evaluating the need for coping behaviors, focusing on the compensatory effect of a disposition for critical thinking. Participants (N = 700) were asked to read scenarios about sharing misinformation on SNS and to evaluate their level of guilt and need for coping behaviors. The results showed that the levels of guilt and critical thinking disposition were positively associated with the evaluation of the need for coping behaviors. They also showed an interaction effect between guilt and critical thinking disposition. Thus, a disposition for critical thinking may have a compensatory effect by encouraging coping behaviors, especially for people who have a low level of guilt for spreading misinformation.

This paper examines how we can assess elementary school children’s media literacy skills (a form of critical thinking and reasoning) through tests and interviews with children who participated in the program. Furthermore, we explore the relationship between media literacy and cognitive skills. Previous research ｈas primarily focused on the items used to assess media literacy, as well as the reliability and validity of those items. Our results indicate that the program positively influences children's acquisition of media literacy to some extent, and that media literacy skills are related with cognitive skills.

In the education industry, the needs of online learning are significantly increasing. However, the web-based courses demonstrate higher dropout rates than traditional education courses. As a result, engaging students with data analysis is getting more crucial especially for distance learning. In this study, we analyze data on the daily learning status of students in order to predict the student’s dropout in online schools. Specifically, we trained a dropout prediction machine leaning model with 1) Basic attributes of students, 2) Progress of learning materials, and 3) Slack conversation data between students and teachers. The experimental results show that the accuracy rate of the machine learning model has reached 96.4%. As a result, the model was able to predict 78% of the students who actually dropped out of school. We also looked into feature importance by SHAP value to gain ML model interpretability.

This study examines the implementation of the Narrative Theme Statement Strategy in an elementary language classroom. The strategy involves summarizing the theme of a story in a single sentence. Instruction was carried out in phases (Practice 1 and Practice 2), followed by an assessment of students’ ability to apply the strategy to a new story outside the textbook (Practice 3). The findings indicate that students’ self-efficacy in using the reading strategy (Analysis 1) improved significantly over time (p < .001). Furthermore, in terms of the transition in the quality of theme-expressing sentences (Analysis 2), students more readily acquired the strategy of articulating the main character’s transformation and its related factors. However, the findings also suggest that additional practice may be necessary to develop strategies for more deeply articulating the character’s transformation and its underlying causes. In addition, analysis of students’ sentence formulation processes (Analysis 3) revealed that strategy acquisition occurred through repeated trial and error, peer learning, and teacher scaffolding, as evidenced by students’ verbal interactions.

This study investigates the affordances and constraints of narrative structures in the processes of remembering and explaining historical content, employing a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design and qualitative analysis with high school students. In Validation I, an experimental group was provided with a “rise and fall” narrative template as a guiding schema and was compared to a control group. The results indicated that the narrative group demonstrated greater effectiveness in both remembering and explaining historical content. In Validation II, another experimental group was introduced to the concept of “empire” and was compared to the group using the narrative template. While both groups showed similar outcomes in historical remembering, the concept-based group was less effective in producing coherent historical explanations. Nonetheless, qualitative analysis revealed notable similarities in the content and structure of explanations across both groups, suggesting that the concept of “empire” may have been implicitly embedded within the “rise and fall” narrative.

This study focuses on clarifying how learners with different personal characteristics develop different social emotional competencies through collaborative activities at the UWC ISAK Japan summer schools as an effective SEL, and what kind of collaborative activities allows the different personal characteristics of learners to work together effectively through the interviews for 4 participants of the program. Qualitative analysis showed that “Collaborative activities that visualize and highlight the diversity of learners’ thoughts and actions based on personal characteristics” and “Collaborative activities that require learners to reconcile the differences in their thoughts and actions based on personal characteristics” are effective as collaborative activities that support social emotional learnings.

This study explored factors associated with active pre-class video viewing in flipped classrooms at a law school. Based on a questionnaire and interviews with students in a program designed for those without a legal background, ten factors were identified: “deep approach to learning,” “small tests,” “visual and auditory,” “slides,” “free viewing,” “basic knowledge,” “background of precedents,” “system,” “oral examinations,” and “final examinations.” All these factors were related to course design, suggesting that encouraging video viewing requires not only reviewing the video materials themselves but also considering the overall course design. In legal education, students found it beneficial when the “background of precedents” was explained in videos, and “oral examinations” encouraged rewatching, increasing opportunities for internalizing and externalizing knowledge.

This study compares the usage of statistical charts and tables in the textbooks of three history subjects in high school: “Modern and Contemporary History”, “Advanced Japanese History”, and “Advanced World History”. The findings reveal that “Modern and Contemporary History”, a compulsory subject that covers modern and contemporary history of both Japan and the world, employs the most statistical charts and tables, reflecting the frequency with which statistics and graphs are mentioned in the course of study. In “Advanced Japanese History”, the majority of statistical charts and tables are concentrated on modern and contemporary topics that overlap with “Modern and Contemporary History”. Compared to “Advanced Japanese History” and “Advanced World History”, “Modern and Contemporary History” contains fewer overlapping statistical charts and includes more lines per line graph. This suggests that textbooks are designed with the subject-specific objectives in mind. Furthermore, charts and tables related to “monetary figures” show that more than half of them overlap across all three subjects, suggesting that “monetary figures” could serve as a key point in considering curriculum management across history subjects.