Shizuka Goto（1884-1969）was one of the most important leaders who worked on "shuyo"（cultivation）of women teachers in the early twentieth century. He had tried to solve their problems by "shuyo" and to transmit his thought to women teachers through the "Kibo-sha"（Association of Hope）movement. He adopted two strategies：delivering lectures through the country and publishing a magazine called "Kibo"（hope）. The way the magazine was sold was characteristic；they were not sold at bookstores but ordered directly from the association by those who were impressed by his thought. This method was very successful, bringing the magazine eighty thousand subscribers.

  His view of "shuyo" was formed by both Japanese traditional "shuyo" taught by his grandmother and the "Shuyo-Dan"（Cultivation Society）movement. After the "Teikoku Kyoikukai"（Imperial Association of Teachers）published its report titled "The Women Teachers' Problems", Goto began to express his views on it. The report raised the question of the proportion of women teachers, because they were increasing at a faster rate than male teachers. Goto, by contrast, focused more on overcoming their faults, proposing "shuyo" and building up their health. His "shuyo" had two main aspects："Katei Taiso"（home excercise）centered on the method of breathing；and keeping a diary named "Ichinichi Ichizen Nisshi"（diary of the good deed for the day）. However, this masculinized women bodies, depriving them of femininity and casting them in a maternal role. As a result, the image of their bodies inculcated in women teachers was related with nationalism. This situation was produced by three background factors: World War I；the health care method boom；and fitness boom.

  The purpose of this study is to explain the principles which should be followed in designing a systematic teaching practice curriculum for the four-year course in national colleges of teacher education in Japan.

  First, we explain the trend of teaching practice reforms in national colleges of teacher education in Japan. We investigated the actual state of progress of teaching practice reforms by means of questionnaires sent to all national colleges of teacher education during September and October, 2001 (the response rate was 57％).

  We found that teaching practice was done at more than one grade as a result of the recent reforms. Roughly speaking, in freshman and sophomore teaching practice students observe and participate in lessons, juniors have the main teaching practice and seniors have post teaching practice activities. However, the connection between the educational objectives and content in these teaching practices has not been explained.

  Therefore, we go on to systematize the educational objectives and content of these teaching practices, and then explain principles for designing a systematic and consistent teaching practice curriculum spanning the four years. In this study, we argue that the principles should be based on three strands: developing practical educational ability; gaining an insight into what it is like to be a teacher; and raising awareness of the possibilities that teaching can offer.

  Lastly, we argue the necessity of designing a curriculum of experiential and practical programs systematically, in addition to teaching practices in a narrow sense, because there are now many experiential and practical programs, and it is necessary to design the curriculum for teacher education integrating the experiential program with teaching practices.

  We are convinced that the systematic curriculum of experiential and practical programs will become the axis of the core curriculum of teacher education.

  This paper discusses gender issues hidden within Japanese teacher education programs by analyzing the data gathered in a questionnaire survey, administrated in February 2003, of all of the 1,924 professors in the eight largest national teachers colleges in Japan. Prior research has investigated the reproduction of gender inequities in Japanese schools; however, gender dynamics in teacher education has received only slight attention.

  While feminist theories as well as many kinds of student-centered educational theories are formally introduced to pre-service teachers, what they actually learn through the hidden curriculum looks quite different. First, we provide an outline of gender issues in the teacher education system in the eight teachers colleges. The data show an obvious male domination among teacher education faculties in Japan. The average percentage of female faculty is only 16.5％；moreover, most of them are limited to specific areas and positions. The low percentage of female faculty appears in striking contrast to the high percentage of female students.

  Second, we analyze the gender differences in the teaching activities of faculty members in teacher preparation programs. The survey data show a relationship between the gender bias score of faculty and their teaching activities. For example, women teacher educators tend to (1) have low scores on the gender bias gauge, (2) spend more time in preparing classes and advising students, (3) pursue interactive teaching methods in large classes, (4) avoid wearing casual clothes or talking about their personal life in classes, and (5) evaluate female students higher than male faculty members do. The data also show that gender biased teacher educators tend to prefer strict an authoritarian K-12 teaching practices and obedient children more than do non-gender biased teacher educators. In addition, these scores correlate closely with professors' own behavior toward pre-service teachers. The survey data suggest that the hidden curriculum in teacher education perpetuates the gender inequities in Japanese schools and society.

  The problem of teachers with insufficient teaching ability has been much discussed recently. Teachers have to improve their professional ability and skills. Now the question is what kind of teaching and teacher's involvement would help children learn better in the classroom. This study examines what classroom environment encourages the children to learn, focusing on the teacher's behavior in the class.

  It finds that teachers who encourage children's learning take and use the children's voices appropriately, so that it is like a dialogue between the two. Also, these teachers keep a good watch on the whole class even while responding to an individual pupil. Further, they try to make pupils aware of others' opinions, relating and comparing one pupil's opinion with others', which helps all the pupils to share in the learning.

  As a conclusion, the study suggests that teachers require the following practical skills to encourage children's learning: presenting properly the learning materials according to the classroom situation; conversation skills to transmit knowledge; creating an interactive relationship between the learners; delivering lessons and responding to the pupils appropriately.

  The purpose of this paper is to examine whether college students were able to test their aptitude and to find their own problems in preparing for teaching profession through participation in the "Manabi (learning) Club", which is a practical, experiential program working with children through the academic year.

  Friendship projects have been developed in teacher training courses across the country. And the results of many have been reported. However, there seems to be two points left unanalyzed.

  First, there has been no examination of whether or not the students have developed a flexible ability to respond to various children through the project. Second, the extent to which practical experience with children helps students to find out whether the profession is right for them and to identify their own problems to be tackled has not been explained.

  Therefore, we tried to shed light on these questions by using data generated from students' assignments such as reflection cards, self-evaluation cards, review meetings, the "Manabi Club" symposium and so on.

  We found that these programs give the students the opportunity to work with children, helping them to understand children, fostering both ability to build a better relation with others and self-understanding of whether to go on into the profession, and promoting understanding of what the teaching profession is and of their aspiration toward it.