This paper explores the characteristics of IBDP (International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme) science in the Japanese DLDP (Dual Language Diploma Programme) school and its potential for effective implementation in the teaching and learning across the Japanese high school science curriculum through the Case Study of IBDP Science Subjects in Japanese DLDP. The following four points were identified as the characteristics of IB Science in the Japanese DLDP: (a) Group work is frequently employed, (b) IB Science utilizes a curriculum structure that incorporates not only the content of science but also various perspectives surrounding science, (c) Efforts are made to ask students to come up with learning outcomes as independent learners, (d) The final exam requires students to have a deep understanding of the content of each science subject as well as higher-order critical thinking skills. This case study revealed that by highlighting and reflecting these characteristics across the Japanese high school science curriculum, it is expected that most students would successfully develop a deep understanding of the content of each science subject and higher-order critical thinking skills, while pursuing and focusing on collaborative learning, cross-curricular learning, and inquiry-based learning.

Japanese science education is regarded as among the best in the world, as shown by Japan’s strong and consistent performance in international assessments. This paper explores and documents the different facets of science education in a public lower secondary school in Japan to evaluate Japanese science education from a perspective of a foreign observer and reveal the differences in science teaching practices between countries in the context of a similar curriculum. In particular, this paper explains the perceptions of a foreign science teacher based on observations during immersion and the data gathered from the students’ perspective (N=205) using a questionnaire regarding their science classes. It was found that: 1) emphasis on the acquisition of content knowledge, particularly on the main branches of science, procedural knowledge, and skills through inquiry-based activities, are core to the science classes in lower secondary schools in Japan; 2) adaptive learning through the provision of academic support from the teachers, as well as from after-school learning platforms, enhances science education, making students more motivated and interested in their science classes; 3) while students enjoy freedom in some stages of inquiry such as in proposing hypotheses, inferences, and interpretation of results, they perceive that they do not have perfect autonomy in finding their own problems to solve and in designing their own procedures, and are required to simply follow the “recipe type” experiments; and 4) there is evidence of high levels of self-regulation among Japanese students. Hence, this paper advocates for the inclusion of activities that allow students to find their own problems, investigate, and design their own experiments to solve these problems. Further, the promotion of real-life science education and the use of e-learning and Information and Communications Technology in science classes are areas that have greater potential for improvement and advancement, especially in the globalized world.

The San’in Kaigan Geopark area has many natural hot springs, such as Kizu Onsen in Kyoto and Kinosaki Onsen in Hyogo. Despite the variety of chemical properties possessed by the hot springs in the San’in Kaigan Geopark, educational materials that show the different chemical features at a glance are not found in museums and are not provided as information for local residents and tourists. A survey and collation of the chemical properties of the water at different hot springs in the San’in Kaigan Geopark reveals that there are five types. A map showing the chemical characteristics found in the water at hot springs in the area was created for use as educational material, and a class was held at an upper secondary school to have learners consider the promotion of tourism related to geographical features and geology. The learners read multiple texts on various topics, such as the definition of “spring water chemical properties”, the different chemical features of spring water at hot springs in the area, and the efficacy of hot springs. The students were able to gain a solid understanding of the scientific characteristics of hot springs, and they were also able to consider ideas for hot spring utilization and regional revitalization that take advantage of the hot springs’ characteristics.

The purpose of this study was to clarify whether a teaching method based on the building process of “laws” is effective in developing intellectual humility. For this purpose, we conducted a class practice lesson in the sixth grade of elementary school, on the topic of “regularity of leverage”. Results from the quantitative analysis of the questionnaire survey revealed that the mean score of the factor “prudence to generalization” was increased among the factors in intellectual humility in science. The qualitative analysis of the children’s post-practice impressions showed that the results of the quantitative analysis were supportive. Based on the above, it was judged that utilizing a teaching method based on the building process of “laws” is indeed effective in fostering intellectual humility related to “prudence to generalization.”

This study is practical research on the teaching of the “phases of the moon” in the sixth grade of elementary school. In the class, simulations with theoretical models were conducted. The model is built on three theories: 1) that the moon is shining in the sun, 2) the change in the moon’s shape is due to the change in the angle at which sunlight shines on the moon, and 3) this change in angle is due to the moon orbiting around us. The children were able to predictably observe the moon from this theoretical model. Since the observed facts were in good agreement with the initial simulation, the children were able to make a strong commitment to the theories that make the model work. Many practitioners and researchers have found that children have difficulty in shifting perspectives and spatial awareness between actual observations and theoretical models. However, the theoretical model used in this practice did not place the earth at the center of the orbiting moon, but placed the observer directly at the center, thus freeing the children from this difficulty. Furthermore, by viewing the sun as a 24-hour clock that revolves around us and making us aware of the orientation of the sun after sunset, the children could easily grasp the relationship between the moon and the sun that illuminates it when observing the moon at night.

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a method for measuring students’ ability to find variables in natural phenomena. We defined this ability as “to identify elements that can be changed from the natural phenomena” and created several survey questions. Using the developed questions, we conducted a survey of 1044 elementary school students, and analyzed the data we gathered based on the two-parameter logistic model of item response theory. The results showed that the developed questions were sufficiently discriminative and had high discriminability in a population where the relevant ability was slightly lower than average. As a result of comparing the measured ability values by grade, it was found that pupils’ ability to find variables in natural phenomena tended to be higher in the upper grades.

We begin by examining the specifics of assessment literacy of science teachers and examples of practices successfully utilizing assessment literacy skills. The subjects for our study were elementary school teachers. With respect to method, we used the framework and model proposed by Abell & Siegel, consisting of four types of knowledge related to the purpose, object, strategy, and interpretation/action of assessment. Through semi-structured interviews, the specifics of the assessment literacy of the subjects were analyzed. We then planned and presented a lesson on “Properties of Aqueous Solutions” in the sixth grade using the assessment literacy specifics and subsequently analyzed examples of practices in which the specifics of assessment literacy were observed. The teachers used their own assessment literacy as the basis for their teaching. From our analysis of the results, the framework and model proposed by Abell & Siegel was thus verified to be a useful framework for analyzing the assessment literacy of science teachers in Japan.

In this study, as a concrete approach to curriculum management (cross-curricular educational content related to contemporary issues) required for safety education including disaster prevention, we developed teaching materials in line with the aims of the SDGs, including SDG 11 “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” as the core element. We then examined the educational effects of classes using these materials while considering the goals of safety education. Our results revealed that Grade 5 students could utilize the knowledge they had learned in science and social studies to think about ways to mitigate flood damage by using their thinking, judgment, and expression skills. In addition, it can be assumed that the learning scenarios will be linked to evacuation drills, and can be expected to play a role as learning contents that link academic education with school events and special activities. Furthermore, through classroom practice using the teaching materials, we were able to demonstrate the possibility of contributing to the realization of not only SDG 11, but also other SDG targets such as SDG 6.6 “protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes” and SDG 12.8 “ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature”．

The importance of the ability to explain scientific phenomena to others intelligibly has been argued. In this study, we identified what kind of characteristics of an analogy and how to handle it they must understand when students use analogies in the explanation for scientific phenomena. We have extracted the importance to refer to “limitation of analogy” which means some properties cannnot be reproduced by analogy, and to quantitative “similarity of the causal relationship” between the contents. According to this knowledge, we have built a lesson plan to teach them to students, practiced the lesson for students in the second grade of a lower secondary school, and investigated changes in students’ use of analogies between before and after the classs practice. Although, the number of students who focused on and mentioned “limitation of analogy” was increased, notable effect was not observed. Regarding “similarity of the causal relationship”, although the number of students who had the consciousness to pay attention was increased, the situation was different between the classes. It has also been revealed that the “one-to-one correspondence constraint” that an element in the content newly introduced to explain is connected to an element in the content to be explained must be understood by students.

In this study, a convenient experimental method for determining specific heat, an important physical property of rocks and water, was developed and tested. The results revealed that students tend to overestimate the value of the specific heat for water compared to its theoretical value, but the estimations of the value for rock was almost reasonable. It is very important to understand that the specific heats of rock and water are very different in order to understand the causes of sea and land breezes and monsoon. Utilizing the method described in this paper, the specific heats of water and rock are obtained concretely. The results are sufficient to foster students’ correct understanding that the specific heat of water is about four times greater than that of rock.

This paper presents an example of the use of a digital temperature logger in an experiment on the relationship among heat and work and thermal equilibrium in the field of thermodynamics in high school physics. The use of a digital temperature logger in the experiment is one of the most effective ways for students to understand thermodynamic phenomena in visual terms, as its use concretely demonstrates to students the process of temperature change in detail and in real time. In particular, the relationship between heat and work was found to be difficult for many students to visualize via the change in water temperature, however, after conducting the experiment explained in this paper, the students were indeed able to express the correct experimental results. The efficacy of utilizing a digital temperature logger in fostering the students’ understanding of thermodynamic phenomena was thus confirmed.

In this study, we extracted naive conceptions about electrical resistance from the “electrical and magnetic” unit in high school physics, examined the relevant existing teaching materials and instructional programs, developed a new lesson plan to foster pupils’ correction of the prior naive conception, and put it into practice in the classroom. First, from a conceptual survey on the shape and resistance value of electrical resistance, many students said such things as “The larger the volume of electrical resistance, the larger the resistance value”, and “The resistance value increases as the length of electrical resistance becomes longer. And it does not depend on the cross-sectional area”. In this research, in order to correct these naive conceptions and to form a scientific concept, we created a type of clay which is conductive and whose resistivity and shape can be freely changed, and we used this in the experiment. Through experiments, the students clarified the contradiction between naive conceptions and scientific concepts. In addition, through group discussions after the experiment, students clarified the factors behind the acquisition of naive conceptions and considered ways to explain scientific concepts. Through these processes, naive conceptions related to electrical resistance were corrected and scientific concepts were formed. From the results of pre-, post-, and delayed surveys, it was confirmed that through the devised instruction programs using conductive clay, the students’ naive conceptions about electrical resistance were corrected, the scientific concept was formed, and, indeed, the formed scientific concept could be successfully maintained.

The purpose of this study was to devise a teaching method that incorporates immersion-like elements into a teacher-centered “infusion approach” in elementary school science, and to verify its effect through practice. In order to achieve this goal, in the fifth-grade of elementary school science unit on “Pendulum Movement” (13 hours in total), we present and explain the six critical thinking skills in science to children, and then the teacher continuously teaches those skills using the devised “Thinking Sheet” (a teacher-centered “infusion approach”). In addition, we developed lessons that made use of the naïve conceptions of children (an immersion-like element). The results of feedback obtained using a questionnaire and the students’ “Thinking Sheets” verified that the devised teaching method indeed contributed to the successful development of “inquisitive thinking”, “rational thinking”, “self-reflective thinking”, “goal-oriented thinking”, and “skeptical thinking” among the six aspects of critical thinking skills explicitly taught to the children.

Experiment-based discussion is one of the effective methods for learning related to air. The purpose of this study is to consider the weight of air using the hydrostatic equilibrium related to atmospheric pressure and altitude. In experiments at this university, utilizing smartphones equipped with barometer sensors in addition to general barometers successfully raised the students’ awareness of experimentation. Based on the success of this experiment, we make proposals for each learning stage of the students, and, further, emphasize the importance of student experiment-based discussion of the weight of air. Finally, we posit that, after students achieve a sound understanding the concept of atmospheric pressure, disaster prevention education using weather maps should also be conducted from elementary school science classes onward.

This research aims to analyze the eight problem-solving scenes in Mongolian primary school science video learning materials and identify if they adapt to the government goals for education and the core curriculum goals. The unit examined is on “leverage”. Two rubrics were used in the analysis. The results clarified the following six points regarding Mongolian video learning materials: (1) Of the eight problem-solving scenes, the “issue scene” category is absent from the list of learning goals of science in the core curriculum, thus the “issue scene” is not observed in any of the videos. (2) The difference in the total numerical value of the evaluations of the two videos in the leverage unit is more significant than that of the two websites in Japan, and there is a considerable variation in each video with respect to three points: the scene, the question, and the attempt to encourage the child’s thinking ability. (3) In the “background scene”, “hypothesis scene”, and “method scene”, there are relatively few attempts to ask questions and encourage children to think. (4) There are 6 scene settings from “background” to “consideration”, which are essential problem-solving scenes. (5) In comparison to other scenes, students are given more oppotunity to consider the contents in the “problem scene” and “consideration scene”. (6) There is a relationship between the “problem scene” and the “consideration scene”, but the relationship with the other scenes is limited. In conclusion, the actions of setting “questions” and “attempts to encourage children’s thinking” in problem-solving situations other than the two scenes of “problem” and “consideration” are limiting. Further efforts to increase the relevance throughout the problem-solving process should be employed, as well as making future video teaching materials more in line with the Mongolian government’s educational policy and core curriculum science goals.

For this study we developed a pilot program for teaching ethical issues in life science education to female undergraduate students attending a liberal arts university. One of the authors conducted the program based on the BSCS 5E Instructional Model. The two issues focused upon were, 1) whether ‘the end of life’ was an appropriate topic of study for general female students, and 2) what the outcome of the program was. The findings of this study show the following. It became clear that the theme of ‘end of life’ was one of the most obscure bioethical issues among the participating students. For this unfamiliar theme, some measures to create concrete images for students were taken to develop the 5E model; for example, the use of card-type games and non-fiction video materials were used. The methodology of applying the 5E model succeeded in eliciting honest and moral thinking on this subject among the participating students. In addition, it was confirmed that ‘end of life’ would indeed be a useful theme to build individual ethics for life and death while understanding the honest thoughts of oneself and others. This pilot program included a theme and contents that helped general female undergraduate students reflect upon how to live ethically and to support the evolution of their values.

This study conducted a questionnaire survey from 2013 to 2018 with the aim of clarifying the process of forming naïve concepts, and of reconceptualizing them. 319 science undergraduate students at a national university participated in the study. The analysis of the 434 naïve concepts described by the 319 respondents revealed the following six points: (1) Naïve concepts tended to form in elementary school for both boys and girls. (2) The girls were more likely to form naïve concepts at a younger age than the boys. (3) The boys were more likely to form naïve concepts in the field of physics and less likely to form them in the field of biology, while the girls were less likely to form naïve concepts in the field of physics and more likely to form them in the field of biology. (4) A comparison of the causes of the formation of naïve concepts by field demonstrated that in the fields of physics, chemistry, and biology, concept formation was based on actual experience and childhood logic, understanding based on intuition, abstraction or invisibility, and others’ advice, respectively. In the field of geology, the bases were cartoons and movies. (5) The causes of the formation of naïve concepts were independent of sex and developmental stage. (6) A comparison of the methods of reconstructing naïve concepts by discipline revealed that mathematical proofs were relatively more common in physics, while correlation with actual experiences through experiments at school was more common in chemistry, actual experiences through experiments at school and as well as social networks and TV programs in biology, and, finally, developmental understanding in geology.

The first purpose of this study was to classify questions of observations and experiments in the lower secondary school science textbook certified by Japan’s Ministry of Education in 2020, based on Sekine et al. (2012), and to clarify the characteristics of the questions therein by comparing them with those in the lower secondary school science textbook certified in 2011. The second purpose of this study was to clarify the characteristics of questions by examining their relationship with the characteristic skills organized according to the three perspectives of Yamada e t al. (2021). From the results of our analysis, the following two points were clarified: (1) The number of verifiable questions such as “how+verb”, “what+noun”, and “what” has increased from the 2011 text to the 2020 text, while the number of difficult questions meant to elicit binary “yes/no” answers has decreased. (2) While questions meant to help students find relationships and regularities were plentiful, “what” questions specifically included a lot of “quantitative” and “hypothesis setting” elicitations, utilization of questions as a means to inquiry and questions that encouraged observation, experimentation, or work had less “hypothesis setting” and “variable control” in 2020.

This study discusses the critical thinking development process in science education and offers instructional methods appropriate for each developmental stage. For this purpose, we developed a questionnaire to investigate the critical thinking development process and surveyed students in sixth-grade elementary school and first-grade upper secondary school science classes. Our analysis revealed the following results. First, “reflective thinking” formation is typically achieved by the sixth grade of elementary school. Second, the other two major aspects of critical thinking are gradually formed during the first grade of upper secondary school. Furthermore, we received the following suggestions regarding instructional methods. First, in primary education, objectives and means must be separated to foster students’ critical thinking skills, and opportunities to scrutinize others students’ opinions must be provided. Second, in secondary education, we must seek opportunities to scrutinize their own opinions in order to strengthen their critical thinking skills.

In the study of evolution in junior high school science, students are expected to understand that vertebrates have evolved while sharing ancestors. However, there has been little research on the recognition of ancestry sharing internationally. In this study, we developed a questionnaire consisting of five category questions and administered the questionnaire to lower secondary school students who had completed the study of evolution in order to clarify the relationship between the perception of ancestry sharing and other evolutionary perceptions. Statistical analysis was conducted using the responses of 1175 students, excluding those with missing values. The results revealed the following three points: 1. the recognition of shared ancestry between mammals, such as humans and chimpanzees, was strong, while the recognition of shared ancestry between mammals and reptiles and fishes was weak; 2. there was no clear relationship between the recognition of shared ancestry and the selection of a correct diagram of the evolutionary path; and 3. the incorrect evolutionary view that vertebrates evolved toward humans while sharing ancestors was formed by the students. In the future, it is expected that lessons will be developed based on the students’ perceptions and misconceptions revealed in this study.

The aim of this study is to identify and quantify trends in articles published in the “Journal of Research in Science Education” over a period of approximately a decade. Text mining was performed on 695 article titles published from 1999 to 2020. The quantitative analysis revealed the following two points: There were many articles focusing on elementary and junior high schools and on specific classroom practices in that context. Classifying and comparing the number of articles using the categories of “purpose & curriculum”, “teaching method”, “development of teaching materials”, “cognition & development”, and “teacher education”, the number of articles focusing on “teaching method”(268) and “development of teaching materials”(191) and “cognition & development” (161) was relatively large, while the number of studies examining “teacher education” (69) and “purpose & curriculum” (30) were relatively small.