The authors describe the directions in educational technology in local areas of Japan based on case studies of (1) the teacher training program at university level in Okinawa, (2) an in-service teacher re-training program at university level, and (3) the educational and technological assistance from the computer industry. The discussion in this paper mainly deals with the problems students have in acquiring relevant information both quantitatively and qualitatively, in acquiring information processing skills, and also in obtaining financial aid and educational opportunities. We show that these problems are largely caused by the geographical location of Okinawa.

The authors focused on a case study of an in-service teacher re-training program at university level in Okinawa. Re-training in computers has already been appreciated by in-service teachers. However, in spite of the higher rate of computer installation in elementary and lower/upper secondary schools, the re-training programs seem to be relatively insufficient, especially in Okinawa. Most health education teachers have little confidence in using computers. They feel that the educational opportunity to acquire advanced knowledge and skills is limited. The results of the survey in Okinawa might reveal the major problems in the in-service teacher re-training programs in the local areas of Japan.

There is a big difference in the number of female and male students who were enrolled in Physics courses at the upper secondary school level in Japan. It is important to investigate the reason of gender difference to make physical science curricula more effective for all students. The purpose of this study is to describe the probable existing effect of gender difference in the development process of science related thinking abilities. Survey data on formal reasoning abilities and science process skills were analyzed in terms of gender difference. The results showed that apparent male superiority exists in the development process of formal reasoning abilities, especially on ‘conservation’, ‘probabilistic reasoning’ and ‘proportional reasoning’. Some implications in teaching science are stated.

The purpose of this study is to develop a new reading method for foreign researchers. Our plan was to achieve the following three objectives: 1) the analysis of the reading activities of the native Japanese speaker under conditions with signaling and without; 2) the analysis of the reading activities of the non-native speaker under conditions of signaling and with a knowledge of technical terms; and 3) the implementation of a computer assisted technical reading system which applies signaling theory.

In Part I of this paper, we describe the results of the first of the three objectives. An experiment of 2 x 6 design was conducted using college students who are native speakers of Japanese. Two conditions were designed into the experiments, the first concerned with the types of signaling present in the passage, and the second dealing with whether the passage was expository in nature or scientific and technical. As a result, it was found that signaling which enhances text structure has a content promoting effect in the recall of scientific and technical passages, in addition to a structuring effect. The findings of this research are that signaling may be categorized into two types: structural signaling (S-signaling) and notional signaling (N-signaling). This has led us to expand the definition of signaling as follows: Signaling consists of not only structurally redundant elements, but also of notional cues for organizing target texts.

The process of solving story problem is more complex than it appears. The purpose of this study is to identify the prominent characteristics of students’ solution of two step story problems. Interview data from sixth garders that had been collected in United States (Sowder, 1986) was analyzed and following three prominent characteristics were identified: I. A student’s mental picture is an important key for success, II. Reasonablenes of answer is helpful to the problem solver, and III, Students unfortunately work only on operatoion and the numbers in the problem with few reference to a conceptual image of the problem. Linking syntax and semantics, matching meanings between that of operations and that of problem are suggested for teaching story problems. It is also suggested that solving two-step problem gives a good opportunity to foster students to solve story problems conceptually rather than procedually.

A questionnaire survey regarding character and instruction of classes in life science education was given to faculty members at Japanese universities. Questions about life science classes covered their character, contents, taxtbooks, teaching and learning methods, audiovisual aids, and examinations. The major survey results are that 1) around one third of classes have been residency requirements; 2) almost all classes have had no prerequisite; 3) about eighty percent of classes have been given by single instructors; 4) half of instructors have used textbooks; 5) around only one quarter of instructors have introduced new teaching and learning methods in their classes other than writing on blackboard; 6) over eighty-five percent of instructors have given an examination. Questions were asked in relevance to social concerns in life science including environmental issues, biotechnology, human reproduction, transplantation, and others. The survey results indicate that 1) about half of the faculty members have discussed pollution in their classes; 2) issues related to global changes have not always been dealt with in classes; 3) biotechnology and genetic engineering of organisms other than human being have been focused on in studies; 4) human diseases such as AIDS have not been mentioned; and 5) few faculty members have discussed human reproduction. Further results are discussed in detail in the text.