Pace running is included in the Japanese Ministry of Education's physical education curriculum for elementary schools. The objective is to promote health and as such, its purpose is very different from competitive long distance running. From outward appearances it is impossible to distinguish between the two, therefore it is necessary to look at the students experience of running from a motivational rather than a physical viewpoint.
This paper examines the development of social awareness and positive attitudes towards pace running among elementary school students by describing their experiences in physical education classes, in which the newly developed teaching materials were used.
The class consisted of twelve 6^th grade students (4 boys and 8 girls) and was led by a male teacher with over 15 years teaching experience. The class was observed over 5 sessions. Field notes were kept, informal interviews conducted and video recordings made. This data was interpreted from a social constructivist perspective.
Employing the cooperative learning model, every student observed his/her partner's performance and gave his/her partner some feedback. During the initial stage of the study, students evaluated their own performance and that of their partner based on physical, objective criteria such as the achievement of stated goals. However, in the later stage of the study, they attached more importance to motivational and subjective rather than objective standards. Change in students' attitude towards pace running was perceived in liberation from negative preconceptions, mastering physical skills, and an increased awareness of the running rhythm, both in themselves and in their classmates.
When pace running is taught using this methodology, it becomes more than just running, it becomes a journey of self discovery for the students in which they learn how to interact with other members of the group.
Our study also showed that there is still scope for further research in using social constructivism in physical education classes.

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Personality development or character building has been regarded as one of the important objectives in educational practice. This paper examine the relationship between personality development and physical education based on Erik H. Erikson's theory of ego development.
First of all, the pedagogical significance of “virtue” and “ground plan, ” both of which are main concepts in Erikson's theory of ego development, was examined. Findings are as follows; “Ground plan” exercises “virtue” to overcome psychological and social conflicts, “ground plan” and reincorporating “virtue” into itself to expand and deepen itself at the same time. Therefore manner, the “ground plan” widens a new horizon for the next life stage. This indicates that “ground plan” can be interpreted as “body” itself where “virtue” is exercised in “figure-ground” relationship. From the above, it is possible to reinterpret Erikson's theory of ego development as a theory of physical education, in which development of “zest for living” is pursued.
Next the following, new perspective in physical education was deduced from Erikson's theory of ego development; It is necessary to place greater emphasis on the process of “can-do→can-understand” rather than on the process of “can-understand→can-do in order to develop physical quality.” In other words, the technical knowledge obtained in the “can-understand→can-do” process is reincorporated into the body (i. e., updating one's personality) in the “can-do→can-understand” process. This process strengthens “body” as the ground, and enables physical education practice to develop physical quality that can challenge newer and more difficult conflicts in the pursuit of a better ego. This is the learning process based on the concept of proficiency attainment characterized by the “learning→proficiency→mastery” sequence, and was recognized to be identical with the personalization process observed in physical education.
Therefore, the idea of attaining proficiency through the “learning→proficiency→mastery” process is believed to be highly likely to serve human development of identity through physical sensation accompanied by physical load and hard work.

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The purpose of this study is to reconsider a general idea of “consideration to others” in order to clarify “relation with others” in physical education. The reason for this is as follows: 1) “Relation with others” is necessary for us, but it is a vague expression. The meaning of the term, “relation” is expected to be specified by examination of the term, “consideration”, meaning of which is to “lead the situation to good one”. 2) By focusing on “consideration to others”, it will be possible to examine what should be done from the side of “the subject”. For this purpose, this study examines theories of “crowd”, “care”, and “manners”, and analyzes a concrete examples in sports.
To conclude, the “consideration to others” is defined as follows: it is not just a feelings but ability to interpret situation from a certain viewpoint and to produce the necessary action. Furthermore, “consideration to others” is concerned not only for “the other” but also for “me” because both “the other” and “I” are together in the same situation. And this ability especially in sport scene is “the one to interpret the movement of things and others and to produce necessary action”. In the process of learning of movement skill there seems to be many experiences of “consideration to others” and therefore it should be one of the main tasks of physical education to guarantee opportunity of “consideration to others”.

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