At present, globalization is still in process, and from now on, globalization will continue to accelerate. In this article, “globalization and science education” will be dealt with from the following perspectives:

1. From the Meiji Era, in the process of Westernization and standardization, the establishment and the development of Japanese science education.

2. In the present world, the character of globalization and educational policy.

3. The present situation and problems of science education in globalization.

4. The prospects of science education in Japan correspond to globalization.

In this article, the following conclusions were made. First, Japanese science education began amidst the globalization of Westernization since the Meiji Era, and after world war II, Japanese science education developed amidst the globalization of Americanization. Second, globalization has multiple meanings, under the bottom line there is neoliberalism, and in globalization there are aspects of objective reality and ideology, which influence world educational policy. Third, among the points of view of globalization there are some problems concerning the objectives and the curriculum of Japanese science education. Finally, from the point of view of diversity and peculiarity, Japanese science education has the potential to improve world science education.

Competence in chemistry, developed by education, requires standard-describing areas and levels of outcomes, and structures providing coherence for curricula and learning processes. Basic concepts are one approach to provide such structural elements. In the German Chemie im Kontext project, basic concepts are developed and described to form systematic learning guidance connected to situational, context-based learning. This article will describe the underlying developmental process both for Chemie im Kontext and for the German Standards of Chemistry Education. As a result, the establishment of basic concepts for chemistry education in the German secondary education stage can be regarded as a “by-product” of introducing context-based learning to enhance learners’ willingness to learn chemistry. In order to make possible a variety of lesson methods and context-based learning, basic concepts are also implemented as a structuring principle in Chemie im Kontext and in many curricula in German states. The Chemie im Kontext project was developed prior to the Educational Standards, so the latter could build on that experience.

Zoos are the ideal place for promoting science and environmental education, since they have the possibility of fostering biodiversity awareness and environmental values, which are necessary for global citizens. How should we develop an exhibit that meets the demand of visitors’ interest and arouses their biodiversity awareness reflecting the principles of museum exhibition? This study examined how the aspects of cognitive learning and emotional stimulus were reflected in the audience from the case of the new type of a communicative exhibit that the author developed with her students. As a result, from the aspect of cognitive learning, the exhibition contents showed a strong educational effect. In terms of emotional stimulation, the theme was impressed on the audience as a sad story while gaining favorable evaluation. In addition, it was found that the story of the birth of the zoo’s elephant birth was the result of empathy. This study showed an implication that suggested how to raise biodiversity awareness in public citizens through a zoo exhibition.

The development of Social Skills is quite important for STEM students in a global society. In this article, we evaluated programs aimed at STEM students for the purpose of social skills training. The programs that were developed had three unique points; 1) A Hybrid Program with a set of Curricula, Co-Curricula, and Extra-Curricula. 2) Rich individualized instructions. 3) Peer learning community. It became clear that the students realized that the social skills were arising from the results of the questionnaire administered to the students. Therefore, the Hybrid Program and other systems discussed in this research are considered to be an effective way of training social skills for STEM students.

The objective of this study is to examine the issues and future prospects regarding Japanese international cooperation in mathematics and science education in Africa, by analyzing their development and main research trends. First, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)’s technical cooperation projects for mathematics and science in Africa are classified based on each project’s contents, while summarizing their vicissitudes. Then, we highlight the main trends of research focusing on Japanese international cooperation in mathematics and science education in Africa. Finally, possible issues and future prospects are examined by discussing the relationships between the projects’ developments and their respective research trends.

Chiba University has carried out a student exchange program called “Twin college envoys (TWINCLE)” as part of Japan’s re-inventory project with the support of MEXT since 2012. The TWINCLE program has 12 partner universities in 5 ASEAN countries—Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, and Vietnam. During the 5 years of the program, 246 ASEAN students visited Japan. This study analyzes the effect of the program, focused on the influence on the careers of ASEAN students through the program activities, using students’ comments in activity reports from 2013 to 2016 using text-mining methods and subsequently cluster analysis methods. The results suggest that ASEAN students were interested in each activity in the TWINCLE program and had good impressions after participating in the program.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the growth of high school students and their teacher through their experience of a special science learning abroad programme. Two high school students and one high school science teacher visited the UK for nine days to participate in the programme. The contents of the programme included ‘Visit of Advanced Science Research Institutes’, ‘Participation in Science Festival for the Public’, ‘Visit of a high school’, and ‘Visit of a science museum’. During the stay, we distributed a daily report to the participating students and high school teacher and analysed the collected data. As a result, both participating students and their teacher developed positive opinions on the willingness to learn foreign languages, the importance of international exchange, the spread of their vision towards science and researchers, and the motivation for science learning, and raised their self-affirmation as well. In particular, it was suggested that the impact of the international programme had a greater positive influence on teachers than on students. It is important to show the possibility that such overseas educational programmes would have a positive influence on the supervisory teacher and not just on the participating students.

In recent years, the practice of science communication has disseminated scientific knowledge and fostered citizens’ trust and interest in science through dialogue on science-related emotions and values. In this study, we initiated science communication during a Japanese tea ceremony in a traditional café space, throughout which we engaged in dialogue with citizens who did not expect to experience science communication at the event. We analysed the dialogues of eight groups. There was some tendency for both citizens and scientists to initiate conversations in the café space, and this bilateral dialogue was promoted by the understanding of the characteristic of this science café. These results indicate that the design of spaces and the explanation about communication may effectively stimulate dialogue with citizens.

In this research we examined science lessons with the objective to make learners understand different types of leave attachment by building models. The lessons were based on the results of the 2012 National Survey on Academic Performance and Learning Context, category science.

As a result we found that the students were able to notice the regularity of “opposite leaves”, but were unable to notice the regularity of “alternate leaves”. We analyzed why they had failed to notice the regularity of alternate leaves and proposed a “divergence” and a “phyllotaxis schematic view” as strategies to help them notice. “Using plants with simple divergence among alternate leaves” and “having students draw phyllotaxis schematic views” proved to be effective methods to help students notice the regularity of alternate leaves in the process of observing plants and building models.

It became clear that plants with simple divergence were no crucial factor for noticing the regularity of alternate leaves. Using plants with simple divergence and additionally having the students draw a phyllotaxis schematic view in jigsaw learning turned out to be effective methods to help students notice the regularity of alternate leaves.

The purpose of this paper is to re-construct Herbart’s recognition theory of basic figures in comparison with Pestalozzi’s recognition theory. It is shown that Pestalozzi’s ideas were based on Kant’s philosophy as follows; ‘number’ corresponds to the concept of ‘time’, and ‘figure’ to the concept of ‘space’. Herbart’s ideas were based on ‘combination theory’ or trigonometry, which was popular in Europe during the 19th century. Therefore, Pestalozzi decided on a square as the basic figure, whereas Herbart chose a triangle. We could therefore draw an outline of Herbart’s recognition theory of basic figures by using the perspectives for discussing Pestalozzi’s learning theory as follows; (1) Method of positional decision, (2) Use of construction materials, (3) Importance of naming.