This comparative study analyzed the similarities and differences in the mathematical communication used by teachers and primary school students in Japanese, Lao, and Thai mathematics classrooms. It adopted a qualitative research design, and the targets were teachers and students in Grades 1-6 at a selected school in each of the three countries.…

This longitudinal study examined the effectiveness of a progress monitoring method, namely the Multilayer Instruction Model-Progress Monitoring (MIM-PM), which is a word reading fluency measure. It was used from 1st grade onward to predict the overall reading achievement of students in elementary school by tracking their reading achievement over…

This study explored cross-sectional gender and grade level trends in emotional literacy and empathy among 634 elementary school children in Japan. Children were presented with hypothetical scenarios involving positive, negative, neutral, and mixed emotions, and identified the emotions that the characters were feeling and the intensity of their…

Children's attitudes are shaped by the information to which they are exposed. To foster improved peer relationships in inclusive settings, there is a need for typically developing children to exhibit positive attitudes toward peers with disabilities. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between children's attitudes toward their…

Psychological well-being (PWB) encompasses the positive aspects of mental health, such as hedonic wellbeing (experience of enjoyment and pleasure), eudaimonic wellbeing (experience of self-actualization), and life satisfaction (global evaluation of quality of life). Japanese teachers suffer from poor PWB with a high incidence of mental health…

The purpose of the study was to explore how contents related to sustainable development were presented in Japanese, Korean, and Singaporean elementary mathematics textbooks. For this purpose, the contents in the textbooks were analyzed at both macro and micro levels through a mixed method research. The results showed that the…

Aim/Purpose: Although many computer science measures have been proposed, visualizing individual students' capabilities is difficult, as those measures often rely on specific tools and methods or are not graded. To solve these problems, we propose a rubric for measuring and visualizing the effects of learning computer programming for elementary…

In 1947 the Fundamental Law of Education (FLE) defined the pacifist principles for post-war Japanese education and was revised in 2006 for the first time in nearly 60 years. The revised FLE stipulates the importance of teaching love for country and region and Japanese culture and traditions with special emphasis on moral education. Today, this…

Although the term "radiation" has a fixed place in everyday life as well as in the media, there is very little empirical research on students' conceptions about this topic. In our study we wanted to find out what students associate with this term. In 2009, we asked 509 students (between grade 4 and grade 6) from seven different schools…

The present study used a new assessment technique, the story-generation task, to examine students' understanding of subtraction scenes. The students from four grade levels (110 first-, 107 third-, 110 fourth- and 119 sixth-graders) generated stories under the constraints provided by a picture (representing Change, Combine or Compare scene) and a…

This research examines "lesson study" as a traditional model of creating professional knowledge in schools. "Lesson study," typically defined as teachers' classroom based collaborative research, has a long history in Japan as a shared professional culture with potential for enhancing learning, enriching classroom activities and…

This article discusses the great interest in pirates in society today. Movies, toys, and stories are including stories of pirates and adventure more and more. In this article, the author suggests keeping the adventure going by sharing the exciting books described in this article with fourth- to sixth-grade students.

The Mathematical Sciences Education Board (MSEB) and the U.S. National Commission on Mathematics Instruction (USNCMI) took advantage of a unique opportunity to bring educators together. In August 2000, following the Ninth International Congress on Mathematics Education (ICME-9) in Makuhari, Japan, MSEB and USNCMI capitalized on the presence of…