In this paper, I review research on and discuss some problems with teaching materials concerning river and fluvial deposits. As for fluvial deposits, textbooks and teaching materials have mainly paid attention to pebbles, in spite of the significance of sand and silt in the formation of fluvial plains and in the prevention of floods, especially after the middle of the 1950s. Recently, study methods have been developed to analyze sediment structure in the formation of strata and in the restoration of the paleo-environment. In science education, these new methods have not received sufficient attention. Then I discuss Johannis de Rijke's flood prevention work in the Meiji Period from the viewpoint of fluvial deposits. It is difficult to conclude that this river improvement work had any major influence on science education in those days. But in the "Science Textbook for Elementary School," written by Tanahashi and Higuchi, there are descriptions of floods and river sediments. As Kitani has pointed out, we cannot see historical descriptions of rivers in the standard science textbook. Only in and after World War II, can such descriptions be found. So far, only a few attempts have been made at teaching about floods and flood prevention in science education. From these remaks, one general point becomes very clear in the results of the IEA' s Third International Mathematics and Science Study.

Why should we teach and students study a subject called "science" in schools? This is an important theme for those who are concerned with and interested in science teaching: science teachers, researchers, students, parents, and politicians. This theme is historically recognized as universal in both western and non-western countries. In this paper, the author tries to clarify the reasons why "science" was introduced in the school curriculum in the nineteenth century in England and Wales. The author examines science education in England and Wales, which differed from that Japan in terms of intervention by the nation. During this period, there were several great debates on modern science teaching styles concerning the aims and goals, methods and contents of science. In conclusion, the author has focused on the following points: (i) Which view of science education was adopted in the school curriculum? (ii) How should the aims and goals of science education be set? (iii) What should be the relationship between science education and technical education? These points seem to be appropriate bases for rethinking the aims and goals of science education for the new age to come.

The present author tried 1) to clarify children's logic of proposition in judging whether or not propositions on natural events and phenomena are true ; 2) to develop a true-false form adapted to children's logic of proposition ; and 3) to point out both the merits and demerits of such a form. His findings include 1) that when children try to judge whether or not propositions on natural events and phenomena are true, they adapt many kinds of logic of proposition, including a "children's logic of proposition" ; 2) that "children's logic of proposition" can be divided into seven categories ; 3) that an evaluation sheet using the KOMETT Form (a "true-false form based on many-valued logic" adapted to "children's logic of proposition") can be developed ; and 4) that there are both merits and problems to be solved in using this evaluation sheet.

Most recent studies on cognitive psychology suggest the difficulty of promoting transfer. In our previous studies, the results showed that students tended to under-generate biological contents and that they were greatly influenced by the similarity in teaching materials. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of teaching strategy on several situations in the elementary school biology class. First, we examined the effect of teaching by using a variety of materials, because teachers use many teaching materials for the promotion of transfer. We asked fifth and sixth graders some questions about attribution, using the same method as Carey did in 1985. As a result, the use of a variety of materials had no effect on transfer for students who are unable to make category-based inferences. Second, we examined the effect of one teaching strategy on the learning of fertilization in the fifth grade. Our teaching strategy was to make students understand that teaching materials and living things belonged to the same category. As a result, the number of students who were able to make category-based inferences increased with this teaching strategy, indicating that this teaching strategy promotes transfer.