The purpose of this study was to develop a teaching strategy for prompting hypothesis formation in elementary school science and to clarify the effectiveness of the strategy. Charles S. Peirce named the hypothesis formation “Abduction” and interpreted it in the course of scientific reasoning. Abduction is classified as a stage of making abductive suggestions and a stage of selecting the best suggestion. In order to prompt students to form hypotheses, we focused on the “hypothesis frame” as the unification of hypotheses with the same viewpoint. Literature indicated that once students cling to a hypothesis frame, they struggle to form hypotheses in a new hypothesis frame. Therefore we developed a teaching strategy incorporating the presentation of experimental material and letting students design experiments. The result of empirical verification showed that the amount of abductive suggestions formed by each experimental group rose due to the presentation of experimental materials and activity from designing experiments. Hypotheses for empirical proof were selected from those abductive suggestions through small group discussions about experimental design. It is conceivable that this result indicates the teaching strategy prompted the children to notice new hypothesis frames in their process of hypothesis formation.

In this study, we developed a teaching strategy to foster students’ ability to describe their considerations in an experiment with clear variables, and we intended to research the effects practically. We aimed for students to be able to clearly articulate their considerations with respect to the following four factors: “an independent variable”, “change in an independent variable”, “a dependent variable” and “change in a dependent variable”. In this strategy, we presented a question, a table of results, and 5 examples of descriptions of considerations in one experiment to students. We then asked them to evaluate whether each description covers four factors. This strategy was introduced into Fifth-grade lessons on “the regularity of the movement of pendulums” in elementary school. After the lessons, the number of students who could articulate their considerations with respect to the four factors increased. Therefore, the effectiveness of this engaging strategy was proven.

The purposes of this study were to evaluate a store-bought synthetic laundry detergent as a teaching material, and to discuss the effectiveness of a water heating experiment through the practice in classroom. As a result of this study, the following 4 points were clarified. 1. Many children understood the water heating concept correctly through the experiment. 2. Many children who took the class understood well; one of the factors in the promotion of their enhanced understanding was the experimental teaching material. 3. Many children understood well by doing the experiment independently. 4. Teachers were satisfied with the class; again, one of the factors was the use of the experimental material.

The main purpose of this study is to examine whether pre-service elementary school teachers have a sound scientific knowledge of the structure of the heart. The research method was to evaluate recognition of the interior structure of the heart, as well as the blood vessels connected to the heart, by using a questionnaire. The main findings of this study were as follows: 1) none of the pre-service elementary school teachers had a scientifically correct understanding of the structure of the heart; moreover, the structure of the heart was changed into 44 kinds of diagrams; 2) more than 10% of the pre-service elementary school teachers drew hearts which had closed spaces and showed the routes of blood vessels through the right and left ventricles; 3) 43.3% of the pre-service elementary school teachers drew the valve in the inside structure of the heart, and only one of them showed the four valves (the mitral valve, the aortic valve, the tricuspid valve and the pulmonary valve) in scientifically correct positions and directions; and 4) only one of the pre-service elementary school teachers had a correct understanding of the six blood vessels connected to each part of the heart. From these results, we extracted knowledge of the pre-service elementary school teachers’ lack of sound scientific understanding of the structure of the heart and revealed that further consideration is required for more effective teaching and learning of the structure of the heart.

Currently, some fresh flowers are dissected in elementary schools, lower secondary schools, and at science events to enrich students’ understanding of flower structure. We attempted to dissect dried tea flowers, a novel process untried until now. The research was furthered with reference to dissection educational materials developed by the authors, including salted cherry blossoms and edible flowers that can be eaten fresh. As a result, it became clear that these dried flowers can return to almost their original shape and structure after absorbing water, and that the flowers as foodstuff could be used as “edible teaching aids.” The value of these teaching materials is that dissecting flowers is possible while sympathizing with people’s feelings toward living things. We arrived at the following conclusions: ①The dried lily flowers enabled the observation of their outer and inner perianths, stamens, anthers, pollens, filaments, pistil, stigma, style, and ovary. However, their outer and inner perianths tended to break easily. ②Soaking the dried lily flowers in hot water enabled the observation of their outer and inner perianths, stamens, anthers, filaments, pistil, stigma, style, and ovary. Soaking was particularly suitable for observing the outer and inner perianths. ③We attempted to observe the anatomy of dried lily flowers in our experiment group. Fresh lilies were used in our control group. There was no significant difference in the degree of comprehension of the observable flower parts, the number of these parts, and the pistil and stamen structures between the two groups. In the experimental group, the results of the questionnaire survey shown below were significantly fewer people than the control group. The results also showed that the participants could understand the stigma as the sticky part, and that it receives pollen to enable reproduction.

This study envisioned a science class design which utilized evaluation and instruction based on feedback-function with a central figure as the main instruction stratagem and evaluated the effectiveness of learning strategies such as independent deep discussion. Therefore I carried out formative assessment from the viewpoint of four levels of feedback functions: a task level, a process level, a self-regulation level, and a self level, to scheme the making of scaffold to let a gloomy terrier settled first as instruction stratagem accomplish. As well, depending on the learning situation of the child, I carried out feedback and planned instruction according to scholastic ability. As a result, I designed a lesson on the scientific concept of dissolution while the child recognizing cause and effect relationships while making a problem clear and coordinating learning. Independent learning was examined at the same time. In other words, the science class design which utilized instruction and evaluation based on the feedback function) and embodied learning strategies such as independent discussion, was more effective to deepen students’ understanding of new scientific concepts.

In recent years, inquiry-based learning has been getting a lot of attention as an effective method of learning, in which students set problems to solve and perform problem-solving activities by themselves. In this situation, it has been implemented actively also in scientific subjects. In order to implement inquiry-based learning successfully over a limited time, it is desirable to enhance students’ problem-solving skills habitually in daily learning. When enhancing problem-solving skills, it is important to enrich cogitation skills to interpret and analyze information or data as well as scientific knowledge. Therefore, the cogitation skills to find solutions by non-calculation means should be acquired in case calculations are unhelpful. In this report, an evaluation of mechanical responses in Kirigami sheets has been taken up and examined with respect to effectiveness of instruction on pursuing solutions not based on calculation. As a result, via instruction in the way to use a ternary diagram, students have shown higher performances in their interpretation and analysis of Kirigami data. Moreover, a conscious survey at the end of the work has implied that they have positive intention to apply the newly acquired skills in the future. According to these results, it has been confirmed that this instruction is effective to improve the pursuing-solution performances and bring motivation to apply the acquired skills.

The importance of making learners themselves formulate hypotheses as an entrance to problem solving and inquiry in science has been pointed out. On the other hand, in the previous research on hypothesis formulating, the actual state of the thinking process of formulating the explanatory hypothesis has not been clarified. Therefore, in this research, we prepared six questions to ask about hypothesis formulation and conducted an interview survey of university students and graduate students. In this analysis, we estimated the thinking process from the protocol and classified each part into six categories according to their contents. Next, we counted the transition between those categories and revealed that there is a common process when formulating explanatory hypotheses. In addition, after scoring the rationality of the thinking process and analyzing the relationship with the thinking process, the results of our study revealed that in the process of identifying variables, the consideration of multiple variables has a positive effect on rationality. In the same way, it revealed that in the process of recognizing causality, careful consideration of causal relationships has a positive effect on rationality.

In this study, Y. Engeström’s “Expansive Learning” was utilized for the design of the science teaching. Changes in scientific concepts constructed by children who have learned in an “independent-collaborative learning” environment were analyzed. These learning processes were evaluated from the viewpoint of “learning knowledge deeply” by Sawyer. In the conversion process of “tools” to plan for the construction of a science concept, it was supposed that there are five stages, I~V. The science teaching unit designed was on the “convection of water”, the 4th graders. The following results were obtained: (1) “Tools” as concepts were constructed in the expanded learning. (2) “Tools” as concepts progressed from the point of view of “learning knowledge deeply”. (3) “Learning knowledge deeply” and “independent- collaborative learning” were united effectively in the science teaching.

Aiba (2016) indicated that instruction of the system of the moon phases might not be provided adequately due to the very little information in pattern diagrams in junior high school textbooks. In this research, some investigations were made with the cooperation of high school students and university students who had studied the moon phases, and the reasons for their misunderstanding of the moon phases was considered. Surprisingly, most of those students do not understand the system of the moon phases and the cause was found. This result supports Aiba (2016)’s analysis and could be a guide for teaching the system of the moon phases more effectively in the future.

The aims of this study are to examine when lower secondary school students do not like science, when gender differences of dislikes arise, and why some students do not like science from the framework of expectancy-value theory. In this study, the control belief for each unit was measured as the indicator of expectancy, and the interest value of each unit of the learning content was measured as the indicator of task value perception. Analysis of the results suggested the following: (1) In boys, there was no clear trend with regard to their like and dislike of science, whereas in girls, it was significantly reduced in the second grade, (2) Gender differences in the like and dislike of science emerged from the second grade and further expanded in the third grade, (3) In any grade, both the control and the interest value influenced the students’ like and dislike of science , but related aspects differed depending on grade and unit, and (4) The unit in the physics field has lower control beliefs when relative to other units.