This study investigated the relationship between learners' vocabulary size and reading comprehension of academic texts. A reading comprehension test from the National Center Test and an online vocabulary size test were administered to 177 preintermediate Japanese EFL university students. The findings showed that (1) 3,000 words from the JACET List of 8,000 Basic Words covered 95% of the words used in the National Center Test reading section, and (2) an estimated vocabulary size of 5,000 words is needed to score reasonably in National Center Test reading comprehension. However ,these findings are possibly explained by a recognition that the threshold level is not an all-or-nothing boundary, but a probabilistic boundary.

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The purpose of this study is to explore pupils' difficulties in understanding reflex angles. Two methods were used in this study. First, a questionnaire which included task items about measuring and drawing reflex angles with a protractor was given to 79 fifth-grade pupils. Clinical interviews were then conducted with eight selected pupils to verify their answers in more detail.
The results determined that about 60% of the pupils who answered incorrectly explained correctly how to do it. They seemed to understand reflex angles from addition or subtraction, according to angle size, as well as pupils who answered correctly. The study also revealed that they had difficulties in measuring or drawing reflex angles using a protractor upsidedown because they do not recognize that the size of angle can be determined by reversing the protractor's position.

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The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a teaching strategy based on deductive inference, in which students design an experiment to prove the conservation of mass.
We used this strategy to teach four classes (123 students) of a fifth grade science unit (15 hours) about &ldquowater solution phenomena”, and analyzed the students' understanding of the scientific concept of conservation of mass regarding substances being dissolved in water.
The results show that students retained for three months the scientific concepts acquired by deductive learning with this strategy.

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The purpose of this study is to examine the makeup of history teaching software that assists the understanding of controversy while focusing on the argument model of Britt et al. as the theoretical basis (1994;1996). In learning history, students usually read only one type of historical discourse: textbooks. Textbooks present historical events in the form of simple narratives, with few references to the uncertainties and controversies that surround many history topics. This study focuses on the makeup of computer teaching materials that reveal the inherent nature of history topics, i.e., controversy. Thus, the study examines: a) learning from history texts as suggested by Britt et al., b) the Argument Model as the guiding principle for designing history teaching software, c) the makeup of teaching software as one example of understanding controversy. In the future, it will be necessary to design history teaching software based on the above theoretical examination.

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In the history of social studies education in Japan, it is beyond question that building up social recognition ability is very important. However, there are different interpretations of social recognition ability. Therefore, this paper seeks to establish the essential meaning of social recognition ability, by examining five foreign frameworks which are related to social recognition. The research makes it clear that contextualization is a common requirement in the formation process of social recognition ability. Based on the results of this research, we make suggestions for developing social studies teaching materials which conform to the new national curriculum of Japan.

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The purpose of this paper is to reconsider the philosophy and methodology of “music education as aesthetic ducation(MEAE) ” to identify problems as hints for teaching musical concepts today.
The investigation presents two points:
1. How Bennett Reimer, a standard-bearer of MEAE, incorporated John Dewey's theory concerning “aesthetic experience” in constructing his theory and method.
2. How Reimer was influenced by J.Bruner's “concept learning” theory in structuring his teaching method, especially in the textbook series “Silver Burdett Music(SBM). ”
As a result, two problems were revealed. First, Reimer separated “aesthetic experience” into “aesthetic perception” and “aesthetic response,” and saw the latter as being impossible to teach with his method, though he noticed they are indivisible processes in his theory. Secondly. Reimer didn' t incorporate the potential relationship between each concept, which Bruner emphasized in his method.

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This paper explores the possible use of the Onken music examination for school education. The Onken examination aims to measure listening and appraisal skills. The same skills are supposed to be developed by school education. Analysis of the Onken materials showed the following benefits that can be used in a school learning context:
•The focused learning approach of exam materials can develop students' listening and appraisal skills in a short time.
•Exam materials can be used in a complementary manner for further learning.
•Exam materials give students perspectives to understand music by highlighting musical elements.

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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of teaching materials in lessons taught by student teachers and novice teachers.
The results are summarized as follows:
1) Teaching abilities were classified into four teaching skill groups, and their learning activities were classified into five groups. In activity lessons (for instance, cooking) , teaching and learning activities accounted for about the same amount of time. It seems that the teaching process in these lessons follows a set pattern.
2) The percentage of time that teachers talked during their lessons was about half of total teaching activity time.
3) Students copied from the blackboard onto their worksheets in classes by student teachers, but they were able to write their own ideas in classes by novice teachers, which showed that the role of teaching materials changed from that of supporting teachers to that of supporting students.

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