Creative attitudes are considered as the basis for creativity, since the attitudes generally influence our approach to a certain subject. This research project investigated the characteristics of creative attitudes by means of factor analysis, in order to clarify the relations among three factors: creative attitudes, primary experiences in playing with natural things, and scholastic ability judged by paper tests. We attempted to find a way to nurture creativity by reflecting on the type of education done with paper tests so far. Questionnaires on creative attitudes and on primary experiences were prepared based on the 24 items of creative attitudes proposed by Onda and on primary experiences described in books by Yamada, summarizing some 130 terms. The questionnaires were given to 434 lower secondary school students in March 1997. The findings are as follows: (1) Two chief factors of creative attitudes, "effort and continuity" and "independence and originality," were abstracted by factor analysis. (2) There is a meaningful positive correlation between creative attitudes and primary experiences, suggesting that primary experiences, especially emotional experiences, nurture creative attitudes. (3) Scholastic ability has a positive correlation with the factor of "effort and continuity" but not with that of "independence and originality."

The purpose of this study is to propose a teaching strategy that assists students to construct scientific concepts and to evaluate the strategy, We call the strategy "integrative reconciliation." The idea of integrative reconciliation can be found in Ausubel's assimilation learning theory. From this learning theory, Novak developed an idea of how to achieve meaningful learning and construct concepts in the science class. However, very few attempts have been made to conduct classes based on these ideas, especially in the electric current field. Thus we planned a class by using the strategy of integrative reconciliation. To evaluate this teaching strategy, we conducted three experiments to examine how students study integrated problems, and we also compared the students' pre-test and post-test ideas in their self-evaluations. In conclusion, we would like to state the following two points. First, in regard to upper level students, we found that the strategy of integrative reconciliation effectively promotes learning. Second, in regard to lower level students, there is considerable evidence to show that student performance of integrated problems was improved by the method. Thus, we found the method of integrative reconciliation to be effective for both levels of students.

The evolution of scientific vocabulary often involves extensions of meaning through metaphorical reapplication of existing words in our life. In other words, scientific theories are extensions of basic metaphors in our everyday conceptual frameworks. These conceptions also exist in lower secondary school students, and they interact dynamically with various aspects of the intellectual environment. In this study, we verified the evolution of the students' metaphorical expressions in science learning by focusing on teaching the scientific concept of decomposition in chemistry. We have concluded that using metaphorical expressions in explaining natural phenomena enhanced the students' ability to learn such concepts.

The present author tried 1) to presume children's logic of proposition in judging whether or not propositions on the concepts of biology are true ; and 2) to analyze the children's logic of proposition which he has derived from the children. His main faindings include 1) that when the children try to judge whether or not propositions on the concepts of biology, some of them adapt "children's logic of proposition" except for two-valued logic ; 2) that in the case of the propositions in relation to the unknown living things for the children, some of them intend to avoid judgement about the propositions ; and 3) that children's familiarity about living things exerts a serious influence on their judgement about the propositions.