The Japan Society for Science Education (JSSE) celebrated its 30^<th> anniversary in 2006. On this memorable occasion, JSSE has established a slogan which symbolizes a vision for its prospective research activities: Science Education Research Making Proposals to and Collaborating with Societal Sectors. Since the slogan is symbolic in nature, it is open for every member to make proposals on what types of research activities are relevant to the slogan. This paper as one of such trials will explore the possibility of a new type of science education research through 'authentic' collaboration among societal sectors, practitioners and researchers. The research presented here has a perspective going beyond a rather popular view of science education research as an interaction and interrelationship between mutually independent activities, research and educational practice. In this perspective, the possibility of a new type of activity, where research and educational practice are integrated, merged and inseparable is explored. The activity is named 'collaborative educational praxis driven by research minds.' Through the process of exploration, the author argues that the activity aims to create a new type of role assignment and functional differentiation among the stakeholders concerned and invent new methods of evaluation and outcome publicization as well as management of the activity.

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This research is a case study that discusses researchers' collaboration with instructors in teaching science. As a practical case, a learning community that uses "Concept Mapping Software for Reconstructing Learning Processes (it goes by the name of "Undo-kun")" was selected. To study difficulties in the increasing use of this software, we reviewed its development and past use from December 1998 to December 2005. The learning community using this software has consisted of seven layers of groups. It proved to be important that the fourth-layer group, at a greater distance from the researchers, should play a major role in increasing the present use of this software while collaborating with the first, second, and third layer groups in research and development. We corresponded by e-mail with members of the fourth layer group, and interviewed them. Descriptions of their features and roles have revealed that members of the fourth-layer group ("active group") are increasing the use of this software in educational practice from a different standpoint from the research and development group, while sharing the significance and value of this software with them.

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There has been a noticeable trend in recent years, in which not only schools, but also society as a whole, attempt to help children learn science. However, few studies have been conducted on improving the science learning environment at home. Our research team has therefore developed an educational program called "OYAKO de Science," meaning "parent-child science program," which supports children and their parents in learning science through hands-on experiments at home. This program has been designed to teach participants about light for three weeks. The program consists of two workshops, which all participants attend, and learning activities in which each parent-child pair can participate at home on their own. To improve the science learning environment at home, three essential factors were incorporated into this program: hands-on experiments that would involve both child and parent; learning cycle of "prediction-experiment-result-explanation"; continuous learning through the use of cell phones. 60 pairs of parent and 4th or 5th grade child participated in this demonstration project. The result of project assessment showed the following three points: (a) The children participating in "OYAKO de Science" enjoyed performing experiments with their parents. They thought much about light in predicting the outcomes of the experiments, and while referring to the other children's predictions, they reviewed their own; at the same time, they became more motivated in the experiments they were going to perform. Furthermore, they were able to carry out the experiments mostly during the three-week program, and highly evaluated the use of cell phones as learning support tools, (b) The participants in "OYAKO de Science" were able to improve two important aspects in their learning environments at home: personal relevance-the ability to relate what one has learned to events in one's own life; uncertainty-recognition of the fact that science involves inventing theories and that it is influenced by people's ideas, (c) The three essential factors of "OYAKO de Science" were associated with improving the two aspects of the learning environment at home, "personal relevance" and "uncertainty."

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This paper aims to trace a part of the historical developement of the Field Studies Council (FSC) in the UK, especially focusing on 1969-1987, and to examine what kind of social role the FSC played to cover environmental education. To approach this task, first, introduction of environmental education in Britain as well as several other countries will be outlined as a social trend during the period. Then, the operation of the FSC between 1969-1989 will be clarified in terms of undertakings and organisation management. Finally, the social role of the FSC will be discussed with regard to the characteristics of undertakings and organisation management. As a result, the following factors were established as the social role of the FSC in this period. (1) The FSC developed academic service for the general public as well as school students. (2) The FSC emphasised that field courses run by the council contributed to formal education. (3) The FSC planned to organise field study courses abroad, while each field centre and units attempted to show the uniqueness of the local habitat for people. (4) The FSC expanded functions such as academic research and land management, of field centres in collaboration with other organizations. Through these issues, the FSC met the potential demands among people to poromote field studies. Consequently, these distinctive aspects in operation during the period may show the way of how the FSC developed to promote formal and informal education through scientific fieldwork for a wide range of people.

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This study constructs a model of the public understanding of science and technology in Japan and estimates the effect of public attentiveness to science and technology on understanding basic scientific facts. The study established a structural equation model that hypothesizes the effectiveness of the affective and cognitive domains of school science curriculum, public attentiveness to three factorial issues (health, sociol-political, science and technology) and positive action for information searching. In addition, the study identified an implicit factor of public attentiveness for the Japanese public, namely "general attentiveness". The results of the study indicate not only that success in both domains of school science education is important, but also that addressing the general attentiveness is a key factor for lifelong understanding of science and technology.

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Since scientific research begins with the setting of hypotheses, students at teachers colleges must to design hypotheses learn during teacher training. However, no effective generalized instruction methods for hypothesis setting have been developed. In fact, no such instruction has ever been carried out. In this study, we investigated the actual involvement of elementary school teacher candidates in inquiry into natural science and related fields in their elementary, junior and senior high school days. At the same time, we developed a method to design a hypothesis based on the technique of the "four question strategy" in order to practice this method using these teacher candidates, and demonstrated the following findings: (1) With the advancement from elementary and junior high school to senior high school, the percentage of elementary school teacher candidates who liked the subject of natural science tended to decline. In particular, during their senior high school days, half of such students disliked this subject. (2) The frequencies of observations and experiments tended to decrease, as seen in their low rate of liking for natural science when they advanced to higher schools. At high school, the frequencies of observations and experiments were only 20.3% even when both "high" and "somewhat high" were combined. This figure was extremely low compared with those of elementary and junior high schools, which is problematic. (3) The percentage of students who had gone through a series of the experiences of science learning was under 10%. (4) Two 60-minute sessions were conducted using the instruction method and worksheet developed through the "four question strategy." As a consequence, more than 90% of the students responded by saying "well understood," and "somewhat understood." From this outcome, we concluded that the newly proposed instruction method and worksheet were highly effective for the students to acquire a means to design hypotheses.

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Presenting a JABEE education program to society and co-operating with it is an important policy of science education. Engineer ethics in science education is important in order to sustain global environment. The learning and educational goals of the Fukui National College of Technology are "To raise engineers who can develop the ability to manufacture products and create environments, and to design systems of industrial technology, cultivating ethics in professions with a global viewpoint". We have incorporated two subjects (global environment and engineer ethics) into our curriculum. All students could achieve the learning and educational goal aim #A by using self-made textbooks. This education program will be increasingly important in the future.

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