The purpose of this study is to ensure the level of actual ability for technological governance in junior high school students, with respect to “Information Technology.” This covers four aspects of technological literacy, namely selection, management, design, and assessment. The survey was carried out on 1,235 junior high school students in Japan. As a result, more than half of the students correctly answered the question of selection and management ability. However, in the design problem, there were many students who could not conceive ideas for finding and solving tasks. Also, in the evaluation problem, there are many students who evaluate by paying attention to sociality (safety), and they have not been able to evaluate from a multifaceted viewpoint. The future curriculum drew upon these results and suggested the absolute necessity of associating teaching with the selection and management operational capability for better technical evaluation capabilities and design capabilities.

The purpose of this study is to obtain suggestions regarding teachers’ self-evaluation of their expertise, knowledge, and ability to plan and practice Technology Education as well as the environment for reflection pertaining to the development of their ability. The questionnaire comprised 50 items that were identified from preliminary research and the self-evaluations of 205 technology instructors, which were collected and analyzed.They were composed of five factors, including “management of lesson and classroom” and “planning and practice of teaching and evaluation.” Three factors, one of which was “cultural exchange with other teachers,” were measures of reflection related to the development of their ability. Novice technology teachers evaluated their own knowledge and skills as insufficient while expert technology teachers considering that the enhancement of their teaching was in accordance with individual students. In addition, construction of the environment to support “cultural exchange with other teachers” contributed to the improvement of practical teaching ability.

This report proposes a Technology Education curriculum for junior high school students to use 3D printers, to make toys for infants through design and production of digital works. Home Economics evaluates the effects of these toys produced by the students in the internship at kindergarten. We conducted two surveys to verify the implementation of this curriculum: 1. Survey on the awareness of safety standards and plastic toys in kindergarten. 2. Survey on production of toys using 3D CAD by junior high school students. Based on the results, it was suggested that the proposed curriculum could be used for the design and production of digital works.

Disaster prevention education in elementary school is important in Japan, a nation subject to many natural disasters. Recently, the Earth has come to be continuously observed by several kinds of Synthetic Aperture Radars (SAR). Changes in the Earth’s surface on the order of a centimeter can be visually measured using deformation SAR images obtained by processing the data from before and after crustal movements. The possibility that the interests of children in the upper grades of elementary school study in studying disaster prevention can be expected to show a wave pattern. The purpose of this paper is to raise children’s interest, intellectual abilities and judgment in disaster prevention. We propose to introduce deformation SAR images as a major teaching material in disaster prevention education in comprehensive classes of elementary school. A learning instruction plan was drawn up to practice the proposed disaster prevention education and the newly developed teaching materials are described. As a result of the teaching practice and a questionnaire survey, it was clarified to be able to perform the proposed prevention education and its learning effectiveness.

Computer simulations are used in silviculture to plan long-term extensions. In this paper, we developed a teaching plan for forestry using a three-dimensional computer graphics system for forest stand structures (Forest Window) and the local yield table construction system (LYCS) in a junior high school technology class.The forestry class involved forest measurements, thinning, three-dimensional forest stand structures, and local yield table simulations using personal computers. The computer simulation was observed to be operational and useful for understanding forest stand structures and the simulation of the local yield table. Therefore, it was found to be appropriate for junior high school forestry classes.

Owing to the reconstruction of mental action in Technology Education, we organized the experiment for three academic years at the junior high school, via the formation experiment method based on the theory of stage-bystage planned formation. The experiment in “technology of nurturing living things (biological resources)” was carried out by NIE (Newspaper in Education). The results confirmed that NIE supported all possibilities of learning and instruction of technology education.

Textbooks for technology and home economics (technology) provide the only opportunity for authors, especially, professors of agricultural university, to present the attraction of agriculture to all students in Japan. The changes in the textual descriptions of crop species are indicators of newer methods whereby authors are generating agricultural attraction. Until 1988, the proportion of flower species described in textbooks, with impactful images of gardening for pleasure, was greater than that of vegetable and field crop species, which were illustrated with images of agriculture itself (food production). The reverse was true after 1994. The decreasing proportion of flower species described in textbooks was not influenced by the revision of “the courses of study for lower secondary school”. These changes in the textual descriptions of crop species would be mainly induced by improvement of agricultural image itself for Japanese.