Concerning the general studies in Japan, the ideas that each teacher has acquired in a classroom are not well connected with theoretical frameworks proposed by researchers on education. This paper tries to construct a model which can connect teachers' idea and theoretical frameworks making a case study of general study by Mr. Kiyoaki Kishimoto at Tojo-Higashi Primary School in Hyogo prefecture. “From Gakkyu Hokai to General Studies” which is a report of teaching practice by Mr. Kishimoto was used as main data. Further, data such as the correspondence via postal mail and e-mail between Mr. Kishimoto and author and recorded interviews with Mr. Kishimoto and one of the teachers of Tojo-Higashi Primary School, the principal of this school, three girls who were in Mr. Kishimoto's class, the former president of the PTA of that in those days, the Mayor of Tojo town and some of the town office employees. In this paper, I try to re-examine details described on the report by referring to the recorded interviews and the correspondences between author and Mr. Kishimoto and verify the existent theoretical framework. By doing so, I would like to construct a model of the educational practice and the concepts. In this sense this paper suggests new research methodology of general studies.

  Concretely I describe the process how the activity in his class was ‘started', how it was ‘deepened'， and how it was ‘spread’ to other classes， to the whole school， to home and to the school district. And I extract the “general” idea from these phases so that I can construct a ‘collaborative activities’ as a model for general studies. In addition， I demonstrate, in this case in particular, that ‘trust’ between the children and the teacher, and between the children and adults, was a core of this activities.

  The purpose of this paper is to analyze the trend of graduates from the Training Course for Drawing, Tokyo Fine Art School, and to clarify it's function of the teacher training.

  Before the World War Ⅱ, the total number of the peoples who obtained the manual training teacher license for normal schools were 1472, and 605 of them were graduates from the Training Course for Drawing, Tokyo Fine Art School.

  From 1910 to 1922, the number of the graduates from the Training Course for Drawing, Tokyo Fine Art School was 236. Those who taught drawing at normal schools, middle schools and girl's schools were 182 of them. On the other hand, those taught at normal schools manual training were only 18.

  Those who taught only manual training were only 2 of the 18 graduates worked at normal schools. Those who taught both manual training and drawing were 16.

  These mean that the Training Course for Drawing, Tokyo Fine Art School has not played important roles in supplying the manual training teachers at normal schools. In other words, main function of the Training Course has been to supply drawing teachers.

  The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship of feminization and professionalization of teaching in the nineteenth century through a case study of the teacher preparation program at Hartford Female Seminary founded by Catherine Esther Beecher (1800-1878) in 1823. The paper consists of four chapters: 1) a brief description of the life and educational work of Catherine Beecher; 2) Her professional ideal of teaching; 3) An analysis of the teacher preparation program of the Seminary; 4) A consideration of its historical significance.

  I revealed the following four points. Firstly, many studies in Japan as well as in the USA have indicated that until the advent of the state normal schools in 1839, no concrete sense of teacher training existed. However, Beecher defined teaching as a profession, and pioneered the program for professional teacher preparation in 1820s. Secondly, Hartford Female Seminary had already interrelated the liberal arts and professional education systematically for female teachers in 1820s, although the preceding researches have determined that John Dewey's thoughts on teacher preparation in 1910's was one of the first ones. Thirdly, I examined the process of feminization and professionalization of teaching in the era. Though Horace Mann and the male administrators seemed to hire a number of female teachers being agreed with Beecher, their main purpose was the cheap workforce of women. In addition, the female teachers were hired with the male supervisors, which meant the restriction of their professional autonomy. Fourthly, Beecher insisted that liberal arts education at college level was essential as well as maternal love in the professional preparation while the first state normal school was founded at secondary education level.

  The purpose of this study is to explore the effects and problems of Professional Development Schools (PDS) by analyzing the process of establishment, structure and activities at Michigan State University (MSU). PDS was recommended by the Holmes Group along the lines of teaching hospitals. PDS was proposed based on idea that university-based research and instruction in teacher education must have strong relationship with teaching practice in schools. So far, over 650 PDS have been established. Teacher candidates, teachers and university faculty have been working together in PDS.

  This study clarifies effects of PDS on inservice education as follows:

  ①increase in teachers' study group and professional development based on reflection and research about practice, ②presentation and dissemination of research outcomes by teachers in and out of schools, ③emergence of teachers' leadership, or teachers who take a leading role in and out of the school.

  This study also clarifies the effects on the teacher preparation by the PDS as follows:

  ①increase in the number of schools which are well-prepared for supervision or guidance of field experience, ②informing rich field experience related to practice problems like teaching disadvantaged students, ③deeper understanding of the teacher preparation program from both inside and outside of the university, ④enrichment of practical study and integration between theory and practice, ⑤enhancement of universities' reputation.

  These professional activities and collaboration also made school improvement such as improvement in students’ achievement, creation of collaborative decision making, school safety and reputation.

  What this study has made clear is that PDS are considered very rich in human resource from the university， and when compared with other schools, they have an unfair advantage. This is because there is a lack of staff turnover and district administrators do not make appropriate staffing. Problems such as prestigious of PDS in a district, content and duration of PDS projects, cultural difference between school and university and role and position of PDS principal should be solved to improve PDS.

  We have made reforms in our special training programs in the departments of pedagogy, educational psychology and method of education for over ten years. Our seminars were extended and adopted methods of learning from experience and long discussions.

  We research the effects of our reforms in special training programs. This article has two purposes. The first purpose is to investigate actual situation of student's life. The second purpose is to investigate actual situation of student's conversations. We compare two groups. One is a group of students in the departments of pedagogy, educational psychology and method of education. We name this group experience group. The other is a group of students in the other departments, non-experience group. Experience group has 69 students and non-experience group has 200 students.

  The length of seminar of experience group is longer than non-experience group. This result reflects our reforms in special training programs. Students of experience group participate in volunteer group and study group more frequently than students of non-experience group. We found that experience group had high motivation of study and social service work.

  We investigate differences between two groups about seven subjects（own future, moving experience, anxiety, economy and politics, etc.）and seven attitudes of conversation（saying "I don't understand", careful listening to objection, self-assertion, etc.）in six scenes（seminar, homeroom, etc）. In two scenes（seminar and homeroom）we found that experience group's scores of all subjects and all attitudes were higher than non-experience group's. This means that students of experience group had more chances of good communications with classmates each other than students of non-experience group.

  Our reformed training programs were effective on student's motivation and communication.

  The purpose of this paper is to investigate practices of in-service training mainly for elementary school teachers in the field of pedagogy, and to propose some assumptions and concrete strategies for programs to realize more positive teacher educational effects.

  At first we have set up some hypotheses for better teacher training program in the field of pedagogy as follows. 1）Participants should be regarded as important resources for the program by lecturers. 2）Lecturer should not only make participants reflect their daily educational practices and to bring them the meta-cognition in the school, but also should know and arrange a program to encourage them to approach some tentative idea or proposal. After that, it gives them more satisfaction with the program and bring motivation for the practices in their schools. 3）We should give many attentions to the periodical and space conditions in order to realize and keep the positive atmosphere for a program.

  In the second place, we have examined the three programs in 2000 and 2001 as case studies from the view of three perspectives; self-observation of lecturer, researcher-observation and participant-evaluation. As the results of these data we have concluded that the hypotheses and practical strategies in these programs are relevant and valid for relfective and critical thinking of participants, and help them for positive and productive proposal on challengeable practice in their schools.