Inoue & Tajiri (1999) proposed the following three goals for environmental education training courses for early childhood educators: (1) to enable the educators to understand environmental issues and realize the need for early childhood environmental education, (2) to enable them to develop environmentally responsible behaviors, and (3) to enable them to develop practical environmental education skills, especially by focusing on interactive play with nature. However, the analysis of syllabi gathered in 2002 from 149 junior colleges (2-year courses) offering training courses for early childhood educators revealed that the curricula did not correspond to the goals mentioned above. Only 2.8 subjects that included content pertaining to environmental education were offered per college, and 59.2% were liberal arts subjects. In a short-term training course, it may be difficult to add extra subjects that are unrelated to obtaining the necessary qualifications and license for becoming an early childhood educator. However, it is important to include environmental education in the training courses for early childhood educators because, in the future, they will need to impart environmental education to the young children they teach in kindergartens and nursery schools. Therefore, in junior colleges, teachers of liberal arts subjects should improve the content and teaching methods from the viewpoint of environmental education.

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  The formation of vernacular names was studied for the weed species of genus Rorippa, Cruciferae. The linguistic mode and meaning were compared among scientific, English, and Japanese standard and vernacular names. The scientific, English, and Japanese standard names were derived mainly from morphological and ecological traits and place-names, while the vernacular names were uniquely formed by local farmers. The result obtained for that study provided crucial insight for the plant naming programme discussed in this paper.
  The plant naming programme was designed and applied twice to the activities of Dokodemo Museum Eco-Project and Nukui Agriculture School for Boys and Girls in 2004. These activities required them to name a plant on their own after observing them and their habitats in the fields. The names given by the participants had the structure of {adjective word + root + supplementary word} or consisted of unique words without any root. The root was mostly a word indicating a plant habit or organs such as herbs, flowers, seeds, leaves and so on. The adjective word often showed morphological, ecological, and sensuous traits or their composition. The supplementary word was rarely used when the participants hesitated to name a plant. At the same time, they drew sketches of plants and searched for further information in illustrated plant dictionaries. After checking, the Japanese standard and scientific names and reading comments, it is possible that they might have understood that their names for plants were fair and sensible.
  First, children form vernacular names, then learn Japanese standard names and finally learn scientific names. This is a suitable way to learn about plants. This plant naming programmes may be effective in re-creating of children's culture which is have almost lost at the present time.

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  The early childhood period critically influences how children form their fundamental lifestyles. However, little is known about the pedagogical moment of Environmental Education or how children acquire early attitude towards the environment. Children often acquire knowledge about the world through images within picture books. These images affect children's attitudes toward the environment. Upon analyzing the contents of 358 children's picture books, three major thematic categories appeared:
  (A) Environmental-Education picture books, which discuss environmental topics overtly, with a call to action
  (B) Environmental-issues picture books, which present various environmental issues without calling for specific actions and charges.
  (C) Environmental-related picture books, which merely touch upon environmental issues.
  In this paper, types (A) and (B) are examined, and I found that there are three main characteristics. Such books have at least one or two of the following characteristics in common:
  1) The planet earth is shown from space
  2) Images of animals and plants suffering adversely from pollution are shown
  3) environmentally-friendly messages are featured in the form of, both directly and indirectly, slogans cartoons, pictures, etc.
  Since the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, researchers and environmental educators seem eager to construct the “ideal” environmental education. Such an approach could be described as “Politically-based environmental education”. “Politically-based environmental education” ignores the existence of “Unconsciously-continued environmental education”, which is often obscured by modern daily life. Even though this subtle folk knowledge is overlooked by many researchers, examining it is a good method to learn about alternative environmental education.
  I would like to emphasize the importance of “unconsciously-continued environmental education” by examining environmental picture books.

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  In order to promote more pro-environmental behavior, it is important to understand its underlying attitudinal factors. In this study, we analyzed university students' understanding of environmental problems by administering the Japanese version of the Environmental Appraisal Inventory (EAI-J). It considers 28 environmental problems and 9 appraisal scales. All the scales showed high reliability. A factor analysis revealed three independent factors, representing the EAI's original three scales (threats to self, threats to the environment, and personal control in the face of environmental problems). The EAI has excellent factorial validity. Multiple regression analysis revealed a fourth scale, altering lifestyle, that measures willingness to engage in pro-environmental behaviors. This scale was successfully predicted from the threat to environment and personal control scales. We applied factor analysis to the original three scales separately, and examined their sub-structures. Two common factors appeared: global change and natural disasters. In addition, daily-life pollution appeared as a third unique factor of the personal control scale. Enhancing the sense of personal control to cope with environmental problems and deepening the awareness of lifestyle change were discussed as important environmental education issues.

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  Shanghai City, China, has accomplished remarkable economic development since the 1980s, and has aimed at the solution of the environmental problem accompanying that development, and also the advanced role of environmental education.
  This paper aims at clarifying the development and the features of environmental education in elementary and junior high schools in Shanghai. Furthermore, the prospects for future environmental education is considered.
  The development of environmental education in elementary and junior high schools in Shanghai is classified into three stages. First, environmental protection activities outside the regular curriculum; second, the creation of an environmental education course; and third, the cooperation of school and regional community in environmental education and protection. Moreover, there are five practical points, such as systematization of cooperation, establishment of an educational course, examinations of educational technology, training of teachers, and creation of an evaluation system.
  As a result, in environmental education in Shanghai, five important factors are pointed out: the creation of the teaching materials of environmental education, the training of special teachers, the foundation of an experimental school, the installation of an experiment base, and the training of preliminary talented people. The problems to be solved are as follows: the promotion of the independent efforts of students, the establishment of a basic curriculum, the improving of public relations, and the expansion of human and economical resources.

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