This study investigated elmentary school pupils' episodic memory of science laboratory work. Generally, pupils retain many episodes about past science experiments in their long-term memory. After taking a survey of 348 children, the results were as follows : 1) Pupils retain episodes which are affirmative rather thatn negative. 2) A considerable number of pupils retain a negative episode about insects and the human body. 3) Elementary pupils retain more episodes than secondary school students. It is important to provide children with affirmative episodes to improve their scientific ability. The teacher should be aware of their past experiences and organize experiments to create good memories in a positive atomosphere.

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Since 1980, much attention has been paid to the roles of metacognition in mathematical problem solving. In spite of much research about metacognition, its conception and roles are still fuzzy and ambiguous. There are two main questions about the study of metacognition in the area of mathematics education. (1) Metacognition is regarded as the "driving force" in the pre-stage of problem solving. On the other hand, in research done so far, there is no mention of metacognitive functions in the intellectual development activities in the post-stage of problem solving. What are those functions? (2) Metacognition is a cause in the mathematical teaching-learning process at one time and an outcome on other occasions. Why does this happen? Is metacognition a cause or outcome in the teaching-learning process? In this paper, we first reconsides the origin of metacognition and seek its theoretical foundations in Flavell's and Brown's work. In sections three and four, we discuss the features and role of metacognition in both mathematical problem solving and understanding. In section five, we will clarify issues regarding the development of metacognitive ability as an educational aim, and then try to extend the conception of metacognition by combining Skemp's director system will previous conceptions of metacognition. In addition, we will present a new framework of metacognition in order to solve the above two questions.

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Development of scientific and technological literacy among the general public is receiving priority attention in many parts of the world, especially in industrialized countries. While Japan as a matter of policy subscribes to this development, the issue of who can appropriately provide the resources for the implementation of the scientific & technological literacy policy remains unresolved. One possible source could be scientists and engineers, notably, the population of senior scientists and engineers who have retired from active R & D sevice. The present study investigated the awareness of senior scientists and engineers regarding voluntary activities they could participate in on retirement. It specifically sought their views on participating in the development of scientific and and technological literacy among the general public in Japan. The results indicate that about half of the subjects who formed the sample of the study expressed profound interest in such activities especially, as they see cartain personal and societal benefits which makes their retirement more worthwhile. Many of them also strongly feel that scientific and technological literacy, and the use of retired scientists and engineers in its implementation, is an important social enterprise which should form a significant part of an institutionalized national social program.

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In this paper, we first discussed the theoretical viewpoint of "ethnomethodology" and "situated approach to scientific discovery". According to this viewpoint, science learning cannot be understood as a process happening in an individual mind. Rather, science learning seems to be socially accomplished through science classroom interaction. We need to analyze in detail such interaction in order to understand the micro-processes of science learning. Secondly we conducted and interaction analysis of "discovering" in the 5th grade lesson. Based on audio recordings, video recordings, and their transcripts, we demonstrated how teacher and students socially accomplished the discovery of scientific principles about the motion of pendulums. Through their interactions, teacher and students highlighted the results of their inquiry activities using "marking" or "juxtaposition", that is, socially designed "findings". Implications are drawn for science education.

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It is quite natural that a household electric appliance such as a television works in a electric circuit. But the author encountered several undergraduates who had the notion that an electric current was sent out one-sidedly from a power plant to a television and was consumed in it. This study investigated to what extent such a misconception was held by undergraduates and junior high school students. Subjects were presented several different figures illustrating schematically how an electric current flowed between a power plant and a television in a house, and then they were asked to select a correct one. About 55% of the undergraduates and 30% of the junior high school students selected a figure in which an electric current was illustrated as being sent out one-sidedly from a power plant to a television. Ss were then asked whether or not a man would be struck by electricity when he jumped and touched a transmission line that was torn off and dangling. Many subjects answered he would be struck. These results indicated that they pay no respect whether a load was incorporated into a circuit or not.

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Pattern finding problem require students to observe and use a pattern to solve problems. In this study, four solution methods to solve a simple problem (n=6), one of which was a general solution, were given. The students had to choose one solution method which they thought the best and explain their reasons for this choice. Then they were asked to solve a generalizing problem (n=100). This study reports the results of students in grades 4 to 6 in response to these problems. Most of the students selected the best method which was a general solution method, but a few students explained their reasons well by applying the problem to a general case. Students from grades 4 to 6 who explanined their reasons well by the problem applying to general case, performed better than other students on generalizing problems. These results suggest that in solving generalizing problems it is important to be able to evaluate a problem solving method by applying it to generalizing problems, even when solving a simple problem (n=6).

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The purpose of this study was to investigate changes of the students' learning consciousness in research activities. An investigation concerning learning consciousness before and after instruction, a pretest, posttest, and a performance test were given to 217 students of junior high school in three curricular modes. The three curricular modes used were a pupil-oriented expriment which enhanced research activities (group A), a pupil leadership ability experiment made by the teacher (group B), and a demonstration (control group C). Analysis of variance by two-way classification and Duncan's new multiple range tests were carried out to test for significant differences. As a results, "Reasoning and expectation" were affected by the differences of study groups A, B, C (F=8.846, df=1/11) at 5% level, "consideration and jugdement" were affected (F=17.894, df=2/11) at 1% lelvel, and respectively. Highly significant differences among the study groups A, B, C were markedly obtained by the posttest and the performance test. Those results suggest that research activities were effective for heightening learning consciousness in the ability to solve problems required for science learning.

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