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.…

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…

Despite widespread remote psychological interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic, the difference between the effectiveness of remote digital and face-to-face methods in school-based intervention programs remains unclear. This study examined the difference between the effectiveness of video and face-to-face based problem-solving training on…

This study examined the development of the evaluation of praise that differs in congruence between what the praiser is praising (i.e. effort or ability) and what led the recipient to succeed. Children aged 7 and 8 years (second graders) and 10 and 11 years (fifth graders), as well as adults, made emotional and motivational evaluations about…

In this paper we describe how a teacher makes decisions during interaction with students in order to guide their focus towards the lesson's objectives that the teacher has in mind. In particular, in the paper we examine how a mathematics teacher's knowledge connects with the teacher's noticing skill and interactive action. We present the case of a…

This study used class practices to verify the applicability of a web application specially developed for the observation in general elementary school classes of the blooming of cherry blossoms with time-lapse digital images. The learning effects of class practices on children's perceptions of the connection between familiar phenomena and climate…

Background: In opaque orthographies, such as English, children with low reading skills tend to rely more on semantic information due to their inadequate acquisition of sub-lexical knowledge. This tendency has also been reported for kanji, a non-alphabetic and opaque Japanese orthography. However, previous studies on this phenomenon have had…

According to the Programme for International Student Assessment, functions constitute an important part of mathematical literacy. In Japan, students start learning about bivariate relationships in the fourth grade (at the age of 9). However, reports suggest that elementary school students and lower-level secondary school (junior high) students…

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…

Aim: Investigating the relationship between what Japanese elementary school students (aged 8 to 12) actually do and what they want to do in their free time, and clarifying the problems concerning Japanese children's free time. Background: Previous studies reported that 51.2% of Japanese fifth and sixth graders answered that they were either…

In 2017, I developed a computer application entitled "Sanka Play," which enables audience members to participate in improvisational performances by making real-time requests to performers. In most cases of free improvisation, the audience atmosphere influences performers. While audience--performer interaction is generally nonverbal,…

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…

This study seeks to clarify the structure and characteristics of learners' successful experiences in elementary school physical education classes in Japan according to grade and sex. A questionnaire survey was administered to 1450 public elementary school students across Japan. An exploratory factor analysis revealed that successful experiences…

Beginning in April 2020, the Japanese government continued its English education language policy reform by introducing foreign language instruction as an academic subject for Grade 5 and Grade 6 students. The purpose of this study was to investigate how stakeholders across the education system have contended with policy creation, policy…