English Abstracts

The Education of Science and Story:
Practice of Narrative Knowing
in Learning Scientific Cosmology
KAWAURA SachikoThis paper explores possible ways to use “story” in the educationof science, specifically in an undergraduate cosmology course fornon-science majors that covers time spanning from the beginning of
the universe to present time.

With respect to J. S. Bruner’s“narrative knowing,” which emphasizes schematic understanding ofspecifics, this paper identifies the significance in learning the historyof the universe, solar system, and life as a coherent story by: 1)
integrating knowledge that was previously divided among fields andgenerating meanings in scientific discoveries, 2) establishing
perspectives

that

respect“relativity”

anddeepeningtheunderstanding of interrelatedness among existences, and 3)
expanding cognitive contexts and developing a meta context thatgenerates more options in the interpretation of surrounding realities.
This paper suggests that focal points in the education of science fornon-science majors include: 1) understanding of “paradigms” and thesystem of paradigm shifts, 2) rediscovering their own ethics and value
systems through understanding details of scientific findings, and 3)
establishing perspectives that enable individuals to place theirunderstanding of scientific findings in meaningful contexts.

The

feedback from students reflects the fact that the practice of narrative
knowing in the education of science encourages them to reestablish
connections among “worldview,” “knowledge,” and “self,” thereby
clarifying their own ethics and values
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology and Human Relations,
School of Humanities, Nanzan University271Natural Science Education in the General
Education Curriculum at Chukyo University
YAMAMOTO Shigeyoshi*
MUGURUMA Chizuru**
KUWAMURA Tetsuo***This paper discusses natural science education in the General
Education Course (GEC) curriculum at Chukyo University, a 4-year
private institution located in the central part of Japan. The School ofInternational Liberal Studies is responsible for the GEC’s operationand management. Nine faculty members form the Natural Science
Group (NSG) that teach lecture-based subjects such as physics, chemistry, biology, earth and planetary sciences, mathematics, and statistics as well as conduct seminar-style computer processing courses.
Although the university has a School of Information Science andTechnology and a School of Health and Sports Sciences, nine of the 11
schools belong to the field of human and social sciences. Hence, amajority of students have insufficient background knowledge on thenatural science.
The first two chapters describe the NSG’s approaches to copingwith the above situation, and provide an overall view of critical issues
for natural science education at private universities. In the next
chapter, as an example, problems that arise in chemistry classes areclarified and solutions are suggested. In the last chapter, the necessity
for natural science education is discussed from the viewpoints (basedon the results of a questionnaire survey) of students with human andsocial sciences majors.
*Professor, School of International Liberal Studies, Chukyo University**Associate Professor, School of International Liberal Studies, Chukyo
University***Professor, School of International Liberal Studies, Chukyo University272

Attempt to Improve Science Education:
Proposal for In-class Experiments to Help
Students Understand Scientific Concepts
without Prior Knowledge
MIURA Yuichi

It is very important for students to understand natural laws basedon evidence, and to learn scientific procedures to solve problems.
Science education is becoming increasingly more important foreverybody to conserve energy and to safely use the precious natural
resources.
However, serious communication problems between students andprofessors prevent effective science education. For example, somestudents have no understanding of physical concepts, so they cannot
understand relationships between “the equation of motion” and “realmotion.” It is difficult for professors to understand why students
cannot accept well-known scientific words or concepts because they
had no problem understanding the concepts when they werestudents.
To improve science education, several simple and clear in-classexperiments to help students understand scientific concepts aredescribed in this paper. It is also useful for students that the physicalinvestigation on the recent accidents, to understand natural laws
easily.
A procedure to assess the efficiency of science education is also
discussed in this paper
Associate professor, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University273

Science Education for All College Students
SUZUKI Hisao

In the United States, more than 100,000 students have currently
attended integrated science courses that were held in more than 200
universities. The popularity of these courses is closely related to thecourses’ aims, which is to educate all students in the sciences.
Furthermore, these courses are effective for science and engineering
students as well as students majoring in social and cultural subjects.
The integrated approach is not merely a shorter version of eachfield of natural science, but is essential because the education of all
students in science is the goal. Moreover, this approach does not
require any high school science background.

Therefore, thesecourses can easily handle students with vastly different backgrounds.
This paper discusses the aims of integrated science courses andreports on integrated science courses that were started at Hokkaido
University in April 2009.
Professor, Graduate School of Science, Hokkaido University274

Viewpoints of Basic Science Study Reformin Some Recent University Practices
KAWAKATSU Hiroshi

The number of young people who want to work with technology isdecreasing.
We cannot effectively show young people future
perspectives on science and technology society.
We now face a turning point in modern civilization.

The Earthcannot keep infinite productivity. The mass production and massconsumption society of the 20th century will be changed into asustainable development society for the 21th century.
People who are aware of need for sustainability have begun basic
science study reforms. Their points are summarized as following.
（１） Science and technology experts should be progressed with hisbasic professional ability, as science and technology in the
21th century demands the creativity of experts with basic
new science knowledge.
（２） Science and technology experts should try to improve atcommunicating with ordinary citizens. Many new scienceand technology ideas and demands will be enhanced throughdialogue with ordinary citizens.
（３） It is a human right in democratic societies for ordinary
citizens to study basic science.
These points are discussed with regard to practices at the Meijo
University as well as foreign universities.
Professor,

Comprehensive

Scientific

Education

Center,

Meijo

University275

A Study of the CASTL Program in the UnitedStates: Implications from Comparative
Analyses of Three Professors’ SoTL Projects
KIRA Naoshi

The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) is an attempt toimprove teaching and learning processes through scholarly inquiry
into classroom practice by professors.
SoTL has become an
important movement in higher education in the United States since
the late 1990s.
Focusing on the Carnegie Academy for the
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL), established in 1998 topromote the movement, this paper comparatively examines the SoTL
projects of three professors in chemistry, history, and political science,
who participated in the CASTL’s Scholars Program. It aimed at
discovering similarities and differences in the contents and methodsof the projects based on the diversity of their fields, as well as in theirviews of the features and effects of the program that were based on
their experiences in participating in an interdisciplinary communityof professors.
This study found that despite the differences in their fields
reflected in the diversity of their SoTL projects and disciplinary
styles, the three professors recognized tremendous value in the
Scholars Program, especially in terms of its provision of space andaccess to interdisciplinary colleagues for discussing educational
problems, as well as its supply of valuable lectures and seminars,
especially regarding education research methods, which led to someborrowing of methodologies.
Professor,

Professional

ProgramProfessional School of Education

276

of

School

Education,JapanAccreditation of Academic Degree throughAssessment of Prior Learning
in French Higher Education
NATSUME Tatsuya

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the background and theeffects of accreditation of academic degree through assessment ofprior learning (APL, Validation des acquis d'expérience) in Frenchhigher education.

APL aims at increasing the opportunity to obtain

qualifications, especially for workers who do not have opportunity forhigher education. The findings are as follows;
1. APL, which was set up and introduced by law in 2002, allows
adults to get academic degrees on the basis of a universities
committees examination of their knowledge and skills gained
through their life experiences.

They need not follow formal

education.
2. There are arguments among researchers on meaning and effectsof APL.

Some regard APL as an innovative practice for higher

education, but others believe it causes chaos in the tradition ofhigher education.
3. APL may be regarded as one of the challenges in implementationof lifelong learning policies by the French government. It causes
challenges for higher education institutes to coordinatedinnovative tentatives and traditional values of higher education.
It became necessary for higher education institutes to review themeaning of education, the contents and evaluation of students
competencies and the traditional values of academic degrees.
Professor, Center for the Studies of Higher Education, Nagoya
University277

An Investigation of the Children’s University:
A New University Outreach Idea in Europe
SAITOH Yoshiko

This paper examines the principal strength of the Children’s
University, a new university outreach idea, and discusses why it has
been so widely accepted in Europe.
Outreach activities are now required of universities and academics
to move from a one-way transmission of knowledge to a two-way
exchange of ideas and opinions regarding science. On the other hand,the newly developed Children’s University, where children are given
serial lectures on campus from academics, follows the old typeoutreach idea, which is denied within the recent trend. In despite ofits negative position, the Children’s University only took a few years
to spread widely across Europe, received an EU prize, and has been
publicly granted to establish an organized network.
The following points are derived from site visit investigations: 1)
the main purpose is to allow children to see and experience university
culture, 2) several “gimmicks” are designed, 3) lecture titles have a
specific style with the question “why?” in them, 4) organizers are notactive researchers, 5) organizers cooperate with the mass media, and6) exposure to mass media and awarding of prizes has sped the
propagation of the program. These points are found highly suggestivein terms of future university outreach programmes in Japan.
Assistant Professor, Center for the Studies of Higher Education,
Nagoya University

278

What Japanese Higher Education Can Learn
from the Bologna Process?
TACHI Akira

This paper defines the Bologna Process as serial and multilayeredorganized acts of many kinds of actors to create a cross-border
European Higher Education Area (EHEA) by 2010. This was agreed
to at the Bologna Declaration of 1999, and progressed with periodic
meetings between ministers of the signatory countries that were
responsible for higher education.
The paper examines features of the process from three angles−its
aims, its actors, and its situation − adding reviews of preceding
academic articles and policy documents concerning the Bologna
Process in Japan and the U.S., and tries to draw its implication to
Japanese higher education.
The most notable points are the recognition of the significance ofqualification

frameworks

forreformand the spontaneityofmultilayered contributors in the process. The process suggests thatJapanese higher education should be reconstructed, creating afunctional framework of degrees, and the constituents of higher
education institutions should act spontaneously under the smart
steering of the government.
Professor, Graduate School of Higher Education Administration, J. F.
Oberlin University

279

The Tasks of Ed.D. Program in Research University: the Case of “Educational Leadershipand Management” at NagoyaUniversity
MATSUSHITA Haruhiko

In 2006, the first Ed.D. program in Japan was launched at theGraduate School of Education and Human Development at Nagoya
University. The purpose of this paper is to present the current
issues surrounding doctorate programs and to explore the futuretasks and possibilities of Ed.D. programs in research universities.
Since the 1990s, graduate programs in Japan have been
quantitatively expanding as a result of the government policy ofprioritizing graduate schools. In 2003, professional graduate schools
were introduced to train professionals with advanced specializedskills.

Although higher education reforms seem to have met thevarious demands of people and society, they have also invited several
serious issues such as unemployed graduates with doctoral degrees,
and the failure to satisfy student quotas.

Facing these issues, higher

education policies are expected to shift from the quantitative
expansion of graduate programs to their qualitative differentiations.
Based on the current situation, Ed.D. programs are anticipated tosatisfy the needs of further research on educational policies and tocultivate new types of human resources with advanced andsophisticated research minds that can be used as educational leadersin every sector of society.
Professor, Graduate School of Education and Human Development,
Nagoya University

280

Introduction to University-wide Courses in
Graduate Education
KOBAYASHI ShinichiThis paper describes university-wide courses in graduate education.
The paper examines policy debates about graduate education reformin Japan and investigates changes in graduate education in both theUnited Kingdom and the United States to understand why
university-wide courses in graduate education have been developed.
The paper then introduces examples of university-wide enterprises in
the reform of graduate education at the University of Tsukuba andKyushu University, which have both developed innovative systems of
university-wide courses in graduate education.
In the case of University of Tsukuba, university-wide courses havedeveloped as a result of a bottom-up and voluntary reform in graduate
education. Therefore, the attempt could be sustainable; however, it
would take a long time to make these courses more systematic due torestricted resources.
Finally, the paper points out that university-wide courses in
graduate education have inherent significance because students haveincreasingly more diverse backgrounds.
Professor, Graduate School of Business Sciences, University ofTsukuba281

Professional Degree Programs in China
CHEN Xi

Postgraduate education for professional degrees was established in
China during the 1990s. With the expansion of graduate schools, thenumber of students who want to get professional degrees is also
increasing.

Now, they shared about 30% in all graduate students,and most of them are on-job students. This situation has lead to many
crucial changes to postgraduate education in China. However, it is
now very difficult for graduate students who have an academic
degree to find jobs, and at the same time, the professional humanresource of urgent shortage is so necessary for the society. And if wecompare professional degree programs in U.S.A, as there is moreneeds for professional human resource, we will find most of thedegrees in graduate school are professional degrees.
This paper presents the conditions of postgraduate education of
professional degrees in China, and discusses the main issues in its
system, in order to clarify the expansion mechanism of graduate
school in the future.
Lecturer, Institute of Higher Education, East China Normal
University;
Research Fellow, Graduate School of Education and Human
Development, Nagoya University282

In What Classes Critical Thinking is Taught?
KUBOTA Yuka

The purpose of this paper is to show whether undergraduate
students’ critical thinking skills can be fostered by what class andcurriculum by examining the literature of critical thinking.
First, this paper shows that critical thinking education in the
United States started with teaching logic in philosophy classes andhas been developed in a variety of academic disciplines. Thistransition was influenced by McPeck’s view that thinking is always
about some particular object or subject. Logic and guidelines forteaching critical thinking have also been introduced in a variety ofacademic disciplines.
This paper examines the effectiveness of approaches for fostering
critical thinking, including a general approach, an infusion approach,and a mixed approach. By using two case examples, this paper showsthat not only individual efforts but also institutional efforts areindispensable in developing students’ critical thinking skills fully.
Research Fellow, Center for the Studies of Higher Education, Nagoya
University283