Educational Research for Policy and Practice in Japan – With Particular Reference to Youth Education

Based upon the Fundamental Law of Education, Japanese school education system has long been a source of pride for the country as a result of the high school participation rate, the homogeneity of compulsory education throughout the country. However, the confidence of the people in its schools is now showing severe signs of strain and fatigue. In recent years, there have been many reports about the growing seriousness of a number of educational problems having to do with young people in their childhood and adolescence. Since the mid-1970s, a number of problems have been highlighted. They include violent behavior, juvenile crimes, bullying, refusal to attend school, dropping out at secondary level of education, and corporal punishment. Against the above background, based on recommendations from such advisory bodies as the Central Council for Education and the National Commission on Education Reform, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) has adopted a range of policies and launched a series of educational reform programmes. For instance, what is called “Rainbow Plan”, based on the final report submitted by the National Commission on Education Reform, provides the country with basic guidelines for the educational reform in the near future. Roles of educational research for making policies have been of significance. Research initiated by the National Institute for Educational Policy Research (NIER) and the National Federation of Educational Policy Research Institutes (NFERI) is an example of contributions to the development of educational qualities in the country. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Revisioning professionalism from the periphery

Abstract

The issue of who should be included and recognised as professionals in the early childhood education and care (ECEC) service system is both contested and pressing in the current policy climate. At stake is a high-quality early childhood care and education service system that is both responsive and appropriate to the constituency it serves. A review of the history of ECEC professionalism reveals complex entanglements and debates regarding professional belonging. Services that deliver education and care to children and families living in high poverty contexts are often excluded from ECEC professionalism debates. Drawing on notions of rationality, emotionality and criticality presented in recent accounts of ECEC professionalism, we use data collected from interviews with service providers delivering services to children and families living in high poverty contexts in Australia to develop an account of criticality that is pertinent to current funding and policy contexts. We argue that these service providers’ perspectives about their own professionalism have much to offer broader debates.     

试论孙犁小说创作中的童年情结

孙犁的小说与“保定作家群”乃至其他当代作家的作品相比,呈现了不同的美学特征,而孙犁的小说创作在前后期也体现出迥异的风格变形,这是作家小说美学机制调整和转型的结果,作为美学机制的一个要素的“童年情结”,对孙犁前后期小说风格的形成和变化起到了一定作用。     

Beginning reading strategies in children experiencing contrasting teaching methods

Two groups of 4.5–5.5 year old children in their first year at school were examined; one taught by a whole word teaching method and one taught by a mixed whole word and phonological teaching method. The children were given a test to investigate their reading of normal words. The results of this test were subjected to a detailed error analysis and the two groups were examined in order to see if there were differences in the reading strategies they used. No evidence was found counter to the assumption that reading begins with a logographic stage. However, it was found that teaching method was having a significant impact on the reading strategies which the children adopted. In addition it was found that a number of children from the whole school appeared to exhibit letter by letter reading. This suggests that letter by letter dyslexia might in part be an extreme form of a strategy used by normal readers.     

Play in the Preschool Classroom: Its Socioemotional Significance and the Teacher’s Role in Play

The goals of this paper were two-fold. The first goal was to examine the emotional and social developmental value of play in the early childhood classroom. This issue is important because of the recent impetus for a more academic focus in early childhood classrooms, and questions about the developmental benefits of play. The second goal was to examine and discuss the role teachers could play in making play a developmental and educational experience. This is because understanding the significance of play could make teachers less apprehensive about using play to promote learning and development, and enable them answer questions regarding the value of play. Using these goals as a backdrop, this paper discussed views of children’s play; the defining characteristics of emotional and social development; play and the socioemotional development of children; and the role of early childhood teachers in children’s play.     

Early Education in Ethiopia: Progress and Prospects

Explored herein are historical roots of preschool through elementary grade education in the East Africa nation of Ethiopia. Also included are current difficult challenges to educational improvement as well as promising developments such as greater involvement of private institutions, organizations, and individuals in supporting Ministry of Education reform initiatives.     

早世代稳定水稻杂交合子传粉授精细胞学研究

对水稻早世代稳定机理研究推测其杂种合子发生了纯合化事件，本实验对杂种合子进行细胞学研究，结果表明在胚胎发育过程中未出现染色体片段渗透，体细胞成数分裂等现象。     

Puzzling history – the personal file in residential care: a source for life history and historical research

Since the turn of the century large groups of former institutionalised children have exercised their right to see their ‘personal files’, and this has drawn widespread attention to these documents and their potential in scholarly research. This article explores the meanings of personal files from the period 1945–1984 as sources for both historical researchers and adult care leavers themselves, in the context of the orphanages in Ghent, Belgium. Based on the experiences of those who have consulted their files, we come to the conclusion that the personal files of the Ghent orphans provide some new information but, at the same time, leave a lot of issues unresolved. Although the files offered significant insights for researchers studying the most recent period in the history of the Ghent orphanages, it is difficult to see them as ‘keys to the past’ for former orphans who are trying to (re)construct their own, individual life histories.     

燕山构造带滦平早白垩世盆地沉积过程和演化

滦平盆地是燕山构造带内一个具有代表性的早白垩世伸展盆地.对盆地内沉积岩相和相组合的详细分析结果显示,盆地内部发育不同的沉积相带并显示明显的空间变化.盆地北部和西部边缘以冲积扇砾岩和扇三角洲砂岩、砾岩沉积为主,盆地中心为湖泊细粒沉积.河流相砂岩和砾岩主要分布于盆地的东南部.古流向和物源恢复结果证明,盆地沉积物主体来自于北部和西部老变质岩基底,仅少部分沉积物来自盆地的东南缘.盆地构造沉降和沉积充填过程主要受北缘和西缘张性断层的控制,断层下盘基底岩石的抬升与盆地边界正断层活动相关,从而成为盆地主要的物源区.滦平盆地的演化可划分为三个阶段：即早期火山喷发阶段、中期强烈断陷阶段和晚期填平阶段.滦平盆地代表了早白垩世燕山构造带其它同类盆地的发展过程,它们皆以小型独立的盆地发育为特征.