Hattori and Nakagawa (1996) and Hattori (2000) proposed an experimental method to identify the logical reasoning processes of human beings. This study showed that their method is not only useful for identifying the processes, but also valid for a learning support system for logical reasoning, especially for conditional inference. The experiment examined the validity of the method. The results showed a significant increase in the proportion of correct answers in the experimental group only, and the effectiveness of the method was demonstrated. Furthermore, with reference to the subjects' verbal data, a variety of features in the learning processes were identified and examined. The discussion includes an examination of the indirect learning processes, the drastic change in performances, the time-lag before the emergence of the effects on learning, the effects of confusion and mislearning, and the maintenance of apparent consistency using individual local rules.

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It is necessary to judge rationally the information one receives and to produce creatively new information from it for self-regulated information processing. It is useful for that purpose to improve metacognitive ability concerning thinking. From the above standpoint, this study aimed to develop a course on thinking skills, and to evaluate it. The course was carried out for fifth graders with regard to: (1) How we see?, (2) The distinction between facts and thoughts, and (3) Creative inference, using workbooks that we had developed. Pre- and post-tests were conducted for both a group that had undertaken the course and a group that had not. The results showed that going through the course improved the attitude towards thinking and metacognitive knowledge of thinking, distinction of fact/ opinion/inference, and activity of creative inference. In addition, the awareness of the attitude towards thinking, metacognitive knowledge, and metacognitive activity of thinking were recognized in free descriptions after the course.

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The Department of Systems and Control Engineering in Osaka Prefectural College of Technology has had a curriculum called "Case Study on Design of Mechatronics Systems" in forth grade since 1994. In this curriculum, for ty students were divided into 8 groups to make autonomous robot. The students studied in cooperation with the members of each group and we studied how to instruct the "GroupLearning". As the results of five years trials, some information could be obtained about how to compose the groups, the merits and demerits of grouplearning, evaluation method, etc. The largest merit of grouplearning is t ha t the students ca n acquire the skill of system construction, cooperated design, and organization management which are difficult to obtain in non-group learning.

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The attitudes towards computer technologies among students at a college of education were assessed with a questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of two parts. In the first part, respondents rated the importance of five major scenes that were pedagogically related to computer technologies, such as "e-mail" and "importance to my students." In the second part, they assessed their levels of computer skills. The results indicated that the importance of computer technologies is affected by the subject area of respondents, rather than by computer technology itself. Differential effects of subject areas among non-science related students were also found. Because their attitudes were related with their levels of operation skills, teachers who wish to integrated computer technologies into class would be required higher. levels of computer skill.

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Students who are studying to become dietitians need to learn to plan menus which satisfy several different parameters at the same time, such as providing appropriate caloric and vitamin intake, and a balanced nutritional intake from the various food groups. They must also learn to detect possible problems that might arise due to improper planning. Providing a computer simulation program allows the students to practice making more menus and adjusting these menus in more ways than would otherwise be practical. However it is necessary to understand what the students' feelings are in regards to this system. In this paper the authors evaluated student achievement and feelings through: a pretest, a post test, .questionnaires, recorded data about the number of menus prepared, the quality of the menus, and the learners progress toward minimizing errors and maximizing correct menu preparation. The students' also were asked to evaluate themselves and their how they felt they were progressing toward the stated goals of the course and toward their own feelings of achievement toward their own educational goals. The analysis of the above collected data resulted in the following: (1) Students studied harder; both teacher evaluation and student evaluation toward the menus planned was higher; and the ability to use the program's functions to plan menus lead to improved knowledge and skill in adjusting menus with regards to nutritional values when they used the simulation program than in previous years when they did not use the simulation program. (2) The teacher's explanation based on individual menus provided specific comments, which allowed the students to evaluate their menus and to more easily adjust or correct them. (3) Student talk during seemed to focus on the production of menus rather than on non-educational maters.

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