The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a technology education lesson including the learning process to explore the interaction between technology and society considered through the development and diffusion of existing technology. “Learning technological governance through reviewing social developing process of existing products” focuses on the relationship between technology and society, technologies that have contributed to problem solving, the history of technology, and learning about technology evaluation. Learning activities were devised to analyze products which were created as a result of technological innovation. Students were asked to clarify social structures and problem-consciousness at the time when popular products or systems were developed. Lesson development took place using the electric assist bicycle as a theme. The lesson was presented to 120 junior high school students in two grades. Results indicated that students grasped the relationship between the demands of society and the development of technology. Perspectives and ways of thinking from other subjects (e.g., mathematics, science, and social studies) were applied to this learning activity. Students comprehended the tasks of defining problems and specifying the necessary requirements for technological problem solving.

The purpose of this research is to determine how stereotypical views of the sciences and humanities are formed among university students. Thirty undergraduate or graduated students were semi-structurally interviewed, and the collected data were analyzed by the modified grounded-theory approach (M-GTA). The analysis revealed that, prior to the formation of stereotypical views, students first recognized their aptitudes for one of two categories: sciences or humanities. Once they established their aptitudes, they started to recognize those who were in the opposite category. When they encountered “ideal figures” in such categories, they unconsciously extracted some features and regarded them as common features shared among those in such categories. These common characteristics were further interpreted based on their own views and beliefs, which essentially led to forming stereotypical views. This study suggests that the stereotypical views of the sciences and humanities are not universal; they are gradually formed in parallel with students’ constant struggle to navigate themselves during countless decisions for academic and career planning.

The authors developed “Science Learning Aids for Students in a Social sciences and Humanities (SLASH) track” for high school students who could hardly recognize the relevance of science. SLASH is a test-typed learning material consisting of video clips and questions that contextualizes how science relates to the following two situations: social sciences and humanities disciplines in university and civic life. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of SLASH on changes in “belief in the relevance of science.” 208 high school juniors from two schools took part in the investigation. In a post-questionnaire, students reported their sex and initial interest in various topics and rated any changes in their “belief in the relevance of science.” The relationship between the change of their belief and their sex, initial interest, and SLASH answers were analyzed. The results showed that 1) the difficulty of SLASH would be balanced for high school juniors at mid-level high school, and easy for those at advanced-level high school, 2) SLASH could change their belief positively, and 3) SLASH’s positive effects were not restricted by participants’ sex, initial interest, and comprehension level. It is suggested that SLASH could have a positive impact on diverse students’ belief in the relevance of science.