In this study, we aimed to clarify how particle concepts are acquired and changed through a teaching method based on the building process of theory. We analyzed the concepts and processes learned by elementary school students by examining and analyzing lesson content (totaling 6 units from the third grade level “material and weight” to the fourth grade level “the destination of water”) over a period of 53 hours. As a result, the students acquired the following concepts (a to e) and the process of change in these concepts was clarified: a) Materials are composed of invisible small particles. b) Particles do not disappear. c) The size of the particles does not change. d) Particles move in all directions when heated. e) The difference in state occurs due to the difference in the size of the gap between the particles and the movement of the particles.

Understanding the seasonal diurnal motion of the sun is difficult. Previous research has suggested that students have learned incorrect concepts and that these were not corrected even after studying. This study aims to help students comprehend the diurnal motion of the sun using a 360° panoramic video, based on the body motion, which traces the motion of the sun. In Practice 1, the effect of the embodied cognition was confirmed using the 360° panoramic video. It was observed that those students who had problems in drawing a celestial sphere model showed an improvement in their ability to do so. However, there were problems in assimilating the azimuths of sunrise and sunset. Practice 2 involved actions with a 360° panoramic video having grid lines and actions of filming and overlooking one’s body motion. The gridline class demonstrated an improvement in understanding sunrise and sunset. The filming class, however, exhibited limited efficacy. It is presumed that one of the causes of the results is the necessity of advanced cognition in order to comprehend the diurnal motion viewed from the ground based on overlooking one’s own posture.

The purpose of this study was to develop a Need-for-Cognition-in-Science (NFCS) Scale and to clarify students’ NFCS. We confirmed reliability and validity by quantitative analysis. The results of the analysis revealed that primary school students’ NFCS is higher than that of lower secondary school students.

The purpose of this study was to develop an evaluation method for five abilities that are part of the hypothesis formulating ability, and to verify its validity. After indicating a theoretical foundation, we created an evaluation problem for the five abilities. As a result of an investigation targeting children in elementary school upper grades using the created problem, validity was confirmed for all the problems except variable identification capability. We also confirmed the correspondence between the measured ability and the performance in the actual situation by an additional interview survey.

The current study is one of the hypothesis verification studies of previous work (Kimura, 2017), in which a hypothetical model, explaining why amateur scientists could continue their scientific practices, was generated through a qualitative research method, the Modified Grounded Theory Approach (M-GTA). The present study examined common elements enabling Japanese amateur entomological scientists to continue their scientific practices in the hypothetical model, by using a quantitative research method. A total of 70 amateur entomological scientists voluntarily participated in a questionnaire survey, consisting of 3 attribute questions and 19 main questions, which identified a total of 21 essential elements (‘categories,’ ‘concepts,’ and ‘processes’) of the model. The data obtained was analyzed quantitatively. The findings revealed that the 21 elements could be divided into three groups: Thirteen elements were shared among the Japanese amateur entomological scientists, whereas 5 elements were not, while the remaining 3 elements were in-between.

The acquisition of decision-making skills using information and data is necessary in order to live in the current society which is full of uncertainty. However, statistical testing, one of the greatest inventions in statistics and the origin of decision-making theory, is mainly taught in tertiary education. This is because formal statistical testing requires very complicated calculations. This study, therefore, aims to develop an educational material about informal statistical testing which allows students to form the idea of statistical testing at all levels of education.

In order to do so, we paid attention to the teaching unit, which is a model material which can be used at all levels from elementary to high school. Then, we considered the relationship between statistical testing and reduction to the absurd, and developed the teaching unit “Pinball Board.” The aim of this teaching unit is to judge the validity of some statistical hypotheses based on observed information. Finally, we conducted a teaching experiment for students in junior high school using the teaching unit developed, and identified the efficacy and issues of teaching of the unit “Pinball Board.”

Promoting teacher training for the teaching of mathematical modelling is an urgent issue in Japanese mathematics education. This study analysed primary school teachers’ initial changes, and extending perspectives on math-textbook problems from the viewpoints of the real world and the mathematical world as essential elements of mathematical modelling. Teacher training was then carried out with 21 teachers in a public primary school for two days. In the teacher training, the teachers conducted a study of, or research on, teaching materials (i.e. kyozaikenkyu) and considered the features and aims of textbook problems using a diagram related to the modelling process diagram. The findings indicated teachers’ diversity of perspectives on analysing math-textbook problems, teachers’ difficulties in specifying assumptions behind problems, changes in teachers’ perspectives for analysing problems, and elicitation of various perspectives surrounding modelling teaching, including making sense of the modelling process. The extensibilities of primary school teachers’ competencies for analysing and developing modelling problems and the roles of the modelling process diagram in conducting kyozaikenkyu were discussed for teacher training on modelling teaching in Japan.

The purpose of this study was to analyze Japanese secondary science curriculum materials to determine their potential for supporting secondary teacher learning. In the study, curriculum materials for “Electric Currents” provided by five secondary science textbook publishers were analyzed from the viewpoint of design heuristics for educative curriculum materials. The research questions that guided this study are: (1) What kind of professional knowledge contents for teacher learning are supported intensively in the curriculum materials; and (2) what kind of forms of support for teacher learning are contained in the curriculum materials. Based on the results, some characteristics of Japanese secondary science curriculum materials were identified. First, there was strong support for pedagogical content knowledge of science topics, especially, support for teachers in using scientific phenomena. However, there was only weak support for pedagogical content knowledge for scientific inquiry. Second, the materials contained several forms of support that helps teachers know how to use instructional approaches and activities in productive ways, i.e. implementation guidance. But the materials contained only a few forms of support that present explicit justification for using particular instructional approaches by explaining why these approaches are pedagogically and scientifically appropriate, i.e. rationales.

The purpose of this study is to construct a framework for capturing utilization of drawings when pupils solve word problems for elementary school arithmetic. In this paper, we carried out a questionnaire survey for pupils of 1^st to 3^rd grade as a basic survey. The points of view in this paper are the characteristics represented in pupils’ drawings and the relationship between drawings and algebraic expressions. We considered the results of the questionnaire survey based the analysis of mathematical problem solving showed by Mayer. We concluded that there are three difficulties in the utilization of drawings when pupils solve word problems. 1) Pupils who cannot represent a problem scene with suitable drawings have difficulty in the “Translation process”. 2) Pupils who can represent suitable drawings have two types of difficulties. a) Those who made their answers according to drawings have difficulty to go back and forth between the “Integration process” and the “Planning & Monitoring process”. b) Those who established algebraic expressions with the numbers used in the question sentences do not go back and forth between the “Problem representation” and the “Problem solution”. 3) Pupils who cannot solve complicated problems have difficulties with “Problem representation”.

In this study, we developed the Moon Phases Concept Inventory (MPCI) and conducted a research of college and tenth grade students. The result of this analysis shows their understanding about the moon phases and movement of the earth and the moon.

The MPCI includes five parts: No. 1 “the direction of revolution and rotation of the earth”, No. 2 “the speed of revolution and rotation of the earth”, No. 3 “the direction of revolution and rotation of the Moon”, No. 4 “the speed of revolution and rotation of the moon”, and No. 5 “the culmination time and the phases of the moon”.

The results are as follows.

(1) There was no significant difference between college and tenth grade students.

(2) The percentage of correct answers of No. 1 was 63%, No. 2 was 27%, No. 3 was 20%, No. 4 was 1%, and No. 5 was 1%.

(3) Students had pre-conceptions about “the speed of revolution of the moon”, “the speed of rotation of the moon”, and “the direction the sunlight travels”.

(4) 10.4% of all participants understood the relationship between “the positional relationship of the earth, the moon and the sun” and “the culmination time of the moon” and “the moon phases”.

The objective of in-service teacher-training workshops for science teachers is to help the teachers develop teaching methods that ensure student learning of basic scientific concepts and acquiring skills necessary for scientific thinking and problem solving. The use of “instructional charts”, which are a form of a teaching plan, is proposed as a general framework for the systematic development of teacher-training workshops. Instructional charts were constructed based on the conceptual flow of instruction at the workshop and consist of 1) the contents of the workshop, 2) the key concepts, 3) focus questions that drive the conceptual flow, 4) science practices used by the trainees for problem-solving, 5) directions by the instructor to encourage problem-solving, 6) problem-solving activities expected from the trainees, 7) standards for assessment of the trainees. The construction of instructional charts may also be adapted to teaching plans for science teachers for everyday classroom lessons and textbook units. Therefore, introducing the methodology for constructing instructional charts to in-service science teachers as part of a teacher-training workshop may be an effective way to promote scientific thinking and problem solving in the classroom.

The purpose of this study is to examine hemodynamic brain activity while cutting wood according to different teaching methods. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), which is a brain activity measurement device, was used in experiments. Participants were divided into an instructed group and a trial+instructed group. Two types of experiment were carried out in each group. The instructed group cut wood after being given instructions in the first experiment and repeated this in the second experiment. The trial+instructed group cut wood without having received instructions in the first experiment and cut it again after instructions had been given in the second experiment. Cutting results and cerebral hemodynamic responses were measured. As a result, the cutting length of the instructed group significantly increased in the second experiment, compared to the first experiment. In contrast, although the cutting length of the trial+instructed group did not change, hemodynamic responses in the frontal area significantly increased in the second experiment, compared to the first experiment. The hemodynamic changes might reflect the strategies verifying new knowledge given after the experience.

Fostering students’ ability to analyze the results of observations or experiments is important in science class. In this study, we propose an activity for analyzing results by using a prepared data set in a lower secondary school biology class. We chose the following subject: “from interaction with bumblebees (Bombus sp.), explain why there is polymorphism in the flowers of Clematis stans.” We prepared a photograph of C. stans, specimens of bumblebees, a data set and worksheets, and conducted the class using these materials. Students formed hypotheses about the relationship between the structures of the C. stans flowers and the snouts of bumblebees, and selected the data necessary for examination of their hypotheses from the data set. Subsequently, they analyzed the data graphically and interpreted the result. Finally, they came to a conclusion regarding the reason why there is polymorphism in the flower of C. stans. As a result of using this teaching material, students felt that they were able to understand the relationship between C. stans and bumblebees based on their own ideas. In addition, they felt that it was an important activity for understanding how to form a hypothesis, draw a graph, and interpret results.

To design a teaching material on pendulum motion for a college course, a simple device was fabricated with an L.E.D. and a photo-sensor. An X-T recorder was used to draw oscillation curves in simple pendulum motion. Each oscillation period was easily estimated from wave forms in regular intervals on the recording paper, and was also evaluated. The present study describes features of the equipment designed as a portable teaching tool for demonstration lectures. The utility drawing the oscillation curve on recording paper is briefly discussed.

This article aims to analyze the Okinawa Prefectural Entrance Examination administered by the Okinawa Prefectural Board of Education and shows results focused on considering academic ability. In comparison, the National School Achievement Test was also analyzed in a similar way. The National School Achievement Test is similar to PISA (Program for International Student Assessment), and consequently tends to ask questions requiring applied ability. On the other hand, in the Entrance Examination, students are expected to use their memorization skills for answering questions. There are significant differences in the frame of questions between the Entrance Examination and the National School Achievement Test. Additionally there are also differences in the question format. There are also great differences between the trends in the Entrance Exam questions. Another feature of the Entrance Examination is that there are no questions on “consideration/improvement”. It had a question asking students to demonstrate their plotting skills from earthquake records. Learners and teachers are much influenced by trends in entrance examinations. The analysis of academic ability should lead to an improvement of learning and teaching. Teachers can utilize the results of the analysis for making the questions for the Okinawa Prefectural Entrance Examinations from now on.