This paper gives a detailed description of the needs analysis (NA) stage in the development of a set of English language intensive courses at a large Japanese industrial firm. The case study highlights the NA practices of using multiple sources and multiple methods in the data gathering stage and uses triangulation in order to validate results.…

Graphic design's messages can reach across streets and across the globe; they can bring together countries, communities and strangers for a common cause; they can also serve to divide otherwise amenable neighbors. Design students must fully understand this potential reach and thus the responsibility they have to create tolerant, informed messages.…

This paper reports upon particular aspects of a study carried out by Delice in 2003, the main aim of which was to compare the performance of students in the 16-19 age group from Turkey and England on trigonometry of "A-level standard" and then to compare the curriculum and assessment provision in each country to seek possible…

Winning the 1985 "Media and Women" Course Outline Contest awarded by the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press, this course syllabus covers a semester-long interdisciplinary course on Japanese women and feminism as they are portrayed in the media and through the study of bibliographic references relevant to the topic. Objectives…

Describes the concept and methodology of "mechatronics" (application of microelectronics to mechanism control) and research and development (R&D) projects through the activities initiated at the Precision Machining Laboratory of the Department of Production Systems Engineering of the new Toyohashi University of Technology. (JN)

Discusses a Japanese secondary school curriculum that emphasizes two themes: light and substances, and the earth and living things. Examines the way several specific topics are taught, and presents an overall course outline including approximate hours spent on each topic. (MLH)

Problems encountered by Japanese women who participated in an American women's studies seminar have been valuable to the development of a cross-cultural women's course at Mary Baldwin College in Virginia. In the summer of 1981, the school offered a special women's study course to 30 Japanese university women. The program had limited success…

Describes and evaluates a demographic exercise intended for use by undergraduate students in courses on population problems. The exercise, involving demographic events in Japan in 1966, requests students to write a paper on Japan after answering 15 questions. Findings indicate that the exercise facilitates interdisciplinary thinking among students…

This publication outlines content, objectives, and evaluation procedures for a two week unit of study on modernization in Japan which can be used in high school social studies courses. The teacher must select and adapt the content of the course from six volumes published by the Association for Asian Studies. The volumes, which are not included in…

The status of probability and statistics in the current Japanese curriculum is discussed. Data from the Second International Mathematics Study are cited, and the course of study is included. (MNS)

A required reading course for first-year English majors at Hokusei Junior College (Japan) is described. The course is intended to teach students to survey a text, read through it, form an opinion about its content, and skim portions that are less important. At the same time, students are encouraged to guess at the meaning of unknown vocabulary,…

This paper describes a reading course for the first year of college for Japanese high school graduates. The course has been taught in large classes and utilizes extensive individualization of homework assignments at a level of difficulty that all students can cope with. The course provides students with strategies that will free them from…

The Management-Oriented Systems Design Method (MASD) is used by the Institute of Information Technology (Japan) as one of its main training courses. An outline of the curriculum for this course is provided and major MASD features are discussed. (JN)

The following is a review of creativity courses and programs offered at universities in Europe, North America, Japan, and China. Creativity courses and programs occur in a variety of disciplines, but are found most frequently in fields such as business; education and psychology; and engineering, science, and technology. This paper provides…

A 13- to 15-week practical reading and writing course in English for a large 2-year, postsecondary vocational college in Tokyo, Japan was designed to train and educate the students to locate, acquire, comprehend, master and use the material employed in their chosen professions. The vocational college specializes in training translators,…