Compared to novice viewers, learners with more knowledge and experience of art process artwork cognitively differently when viewing it, and differences are also observed depending on the type of artwork. In particular, students have difficulty in viewing abstract paintings, and it is expected that they will have different cognitive reactions to abstract paintings than to figurative paintings. In this study, we analyzed and compared the gazes of students who received specialized art education (expert learners) and students who did not receive specialized art education (non-expert learners) when viewing abstract paintings of the New Formalism movement. The results showed that the total viewing time of the expert learners was longer than that of the non-expert learners. The non-expert learners stopped their gaze more frequently at the colorful and white rectangles, indicating that they were more interested in them than were the expert learners. However, there was no difference in the amount of time that the expert and non-expert learners spent gazing at the distinctive parts of the work. This suggests that the need to obtain information from these areas is low.

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The purpose of this study is to consider the concept of “Hanashiai” (storytelling) in moral classes in Japan using Richard Rorty's concept of conversation as a clue. First, the study provides an overview of Rorty's ideal thought of liberal ironist from three perspectives: the contingency of language and selfhood, imagination of a liberalist, and two vocabularies of an ironist. Next, the concept of conversation, which symbolizes their thoughts, was analyzed by considering the following three aspects: that it is an end in itself, that it is conducted with imagination, and that it is non-methodical. Then, an attempt was made to redescribe “Hanashiai” in moral classes in light of the three aspects of the conversation. Through the redescription, the study clarififies the importance of teachers placing themselves in three gaps, namely that between ingenuity and constraint, that between the public and the private, and that between agreement and disagreement. Finally, after emphasizing how to utilize “Hanashiai” in moral classes and, by extension, how to discuss classroom practice, the article describes how teachers should engage in conversations with children to impart education to them.

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This study aimed to examine the selection of teaching materials and class structure necessary to improve Japanese students’ understanding of the role of “music in use” in daily life and society. Specififically, the following three viewpoints were used to select teaching materials: (1) scenes and events in which music is effectively used, (2) scenes and events in students’ daily lives and society in general, (3) scenes and events when students are aware of the importance of music. In addition, the following four points of view were presented in terms of the class structure: (1) learning situation to understand the characteristics of music, (2) learning situation to consider the role of music, (3) learning situation to consider the role of music from a different perspective, and (4) learning situation to utilize the knowledge gained. The author designed a class based on the organized viewpoints and examined the issues. Selecting the relevant teaching materials and structuring the class based on the viewpoints as indicators revealed that the learning tasks were organically related. Consequently, it became evident that the students explored the role of music from two perspectives (audience and players) based on the characteristics of the music that they perceived and felt.

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The Primary Years Programme (PYP) of the International Baccalaureate （IB） aims to acquire “ the fifive essential elements ” — Knowledge, Concepts, Skills, Attitudes, and Action— to develop internationally minded people, who recognize their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet. To clarify the nature of the PYP music classes that aim at the acquisition of these elements, in this study, we observed a music class using GarageBand at Ａ International School, which is accredited as a PYP school, and also interviewed teachers regarding the teaching intentions and issues of this class. From the interview with the teacher, we found that among the five essential elements, the lesson focused on “ Concepts .” The results of the teacher's language revealed that “ explanation with demonstrations ” and “ evaluation of achievement level of the teacher's intention ” functioned effectively to a certain extent as methods to lead the students to understand the &“ Concepts.”

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This study aimed to verify the effectiveness of lectures given by school counselors in Japan using statistical methods. A school counselor (SC) conducted an online lecture to improve the self-esteem of high school students during the pandemic caused by the coronavirus disease. We administered the SE-1 self-esteem scale (SE-1) and a questionnaire on self-expression before and after the lecture, and developed a high school student assertion scale (high school AS) from the self-expression questionnaire. The SE-1 and high school AS were used to examine the impact of the SC’ s lecture on students’ self-esteem. Effectiveness of both scales was confirmed using a paired t-test, and causal relationships were verified through the delayed effects model and simultaneous effects model. Gender and grade differences were determined using a three-factor mixed design analysis of variance. The results indicated that there was no difference in high school AS between pre- and post-high school AS, and SE-1 was considerably different between pre- and post-high school AS. Although there was no grade difference in SE-1, there was a gender difference, with the mean score of boys being substantially higher than that of girls. Findings suggest that the lecture given by the school counselor impacted the selfesteem of high school students.

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