The purpose of this research was to examine the influence of work environment on the relationship between junior high school teachers’ self-trust and trust of others and their leadership skills. 349 junior high school teachers answered a questionnaire and the results showed that teachers’ feeling of trusting others and themselves promoted more active counselling behaviors. On the other hand, distrust in self and in others increased the tendency to watch students quietly and wait for change to occur. Three patterns of teacher’s sense of trust were categorized based on the strength and the balance of trusting feelings: “naturally trusting,” “trust conscious,” and “confident with distrust conscious.” If the workplace is perceived to be collaborative, all teachers tend to intervene in student problems actively regardless of the state of their feeling of trust for self and others.

The effects of the “central function type consultation” offered by special needs education schools were examined by analyzing cases of consultation with homeroom teachers of special needs education classes in elementary schools using the Trajectory Equifinality Modeling (TEM) diagram. Focusing on effective interventions as well as problems in cases for which resolutions had not been reached, the benefits and limitations of consultation by special needs schools were discusses. A benefit of consultations offered by teachers of special needs schools is that consultations are conducted with a focus on classroom situations by teachers with expertise in special needs education. On the other hand, a limitation is the structural problems caused by the system in which those conducting the consultations are teachers teaching their own classes in special needs schools concurrently with the consultation work. This system makes emergency support difficult. On the basis of effective support and issues identified in these cases, and considering the benefits and limitations, consultations offered by special needs schools are given the name “central function type consultations” to distinguish them from consultations conducted by other professionals such as psychologists. Four characteristics of effective support pertaining to the central function type consultations are (a) consultation with considerations on classroom situations; (b) continuous support from a professional standpoint; (c) psychological support for consultees; and (d) intervention for school functions as a whole. The effectiveness of case study using TEM diagram was demonstrated. Furthermore, the systematization of training in order to improve the quality of staff responsible for the special needs schools to function as a local center was discussed.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the factors contributing to motivation toward forming and maintaining the relationship with teachers by investigating the relationship between students' relationships with their teachers and motivation toward the formation and maintenance of the relationship with teachers based on the self-determination theory. Junior high school students (N＝483) completed a questionnaire. The results were as follows: (a) “Experience of being accepted by teachers” and “experience of close relationships with teachers” were positively correlated with autonomous motivation. (b) “Experience of being hurt by teachers” was positively correlated with controlled motivation. And, (c) correlations differed with respect to the students’ gender and grade level.

The purpose of this study was to develop a scale to measure students’ motivations toward going to school which is based on the self-determination theory. The study also examined the reliability and validity of the scale. As a result, the scale consisting of four frameworks in the self-determination theory was developed, and internal consistency, construct validity, concurrent validity, and cross validity were satisfactory. The results also showed that elementary school students scored higher on motivations for school attendance with high self-determination, whereas junior high school students scored higher on motivations for school attendance with low self-determination.

Peer tutors attend training to master necessary skills for learning support. This paper reported, in addition to the psychological change and growth of peer tutors, the influence of intentions of the facilitator who coordinated the training and of the peer tutors and the characteristics of peer tutors on training effects. Participants were peer tutors who worked at a university learning support center. Date collected in a three-year span (2014–2016) were analyzed.