English Edition
No. 12February 2015

Public Symposium “The Great East Japan Earthquake and School Education― Educational practice addressing radiation problems”
It has been almost four years since the accident at the
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant operated by
Tokyo Electric Power Company. Memories of the shock
and confusion that the accident gave within and outside
Japan are fading with time. However, radiation scienceand energy policy remain as themes that schools in Japancannot put outside their scope of responsibility.
On November 30 last year, Curriculum Center for
Teachers held a symposium under the theme ofeducational practice addressing problems of radiation
released by the nuclear accident. We invited Mr. Tsugio
Shiraki, a teacher at an elementary school in Minamisoma
City, Fukushima, Ms. Hideyo Ohya, a lecturer at private
junior high and high schools in Tokyo, and Professor
Shigeo Kodama at The University of Tokyo as symposium
speakers and Professor Hatsuo Mitsuishi of Teikyo
University as a commentator to raise questions from both
perspectives of practice and theory.
First, Mr. Shiraki gave a talk about the production of aplay based on compositions and poems written by pupils
after the earthquake disaster. A video of the play
performed on stage at a school presentation was shown
along with the report. In the play, separation from familiar
people that children experienced after the nuclear
disaster and problems related to employment andmedical systems in Minamisoma City, which faced
declining population caused by evacuation were told
from the childrenʼs perspective. According to Mr. Shiraki,
the eﬀort was intended for childrenʼs families. He
introduced that it was a classroom practice with teachersʼ
wish that parents and children would talk together about
their own way of life in the future and ﬁnd hope even in
the harsh reality.
Ms. Ohya reported two practices conducted in home
economics classes at private boyʼs junior high and highschools in Tokyo. The ﬁrst case taken up was that of a roleplaying discussion performed by second-year junior highschool students in 2012. It was held on the theme of
nuclear disaster and food safety in the form of mock
citizens meetings that people in diﬀerent positions
gathered together under one roof. She said that throughplaying roles of producers in Fukushima, parents ofyoung children, members of the government, andworkers of Tokyo Electric Power Company, etc., students
came to know each claim, the point at issue, and tounderstand the nuclear disaster as a problem related totheir own life in Tokyo. Similar results were said to beobtained in 2013 from exchange learning in writing

between second-year high school students and students
in Fukushima. She pointed out that what brought about agreat change in the sense that “the nuclear disaster issomebody elseʼs problem” that students in Tokyo had
were straightforward questions asked by high-school
students in Fukushima such as “Can you become friends
with or marry a woman from Fukushima?”
Finally, Professor Kodama appealed for the need forstudents to study at school about issues of problems thateven specialists have divided opinions about, including
scientiﬁcally unresolved issues, such as the inﬂuence oflow dose exposure on the body. Taking up controversial
themes at school is, according to Professor Kodama,extremely important for citizenship education that fosters
citizensʼ ability to form political judgments and promotesocial participation. With regard to judgment related toradiation risk, he emphasized that students and residents
were required not to depend on specialists, but to doform their opinions themselves through conversations
with specialists.
After receiving reports from the three symposiasts, thecommentator Professor Mitsuishi pointed out two points
as prerequisites for the class in which pupils and students
thought about social and scientiﬁc problems
independently: 1) teachers can appropriately teach basic
scientiﬁc knowledge, and 2) support systems, such as
in-school training, have been established for teachers towork actively on educational issues not written in text
books.
Through the symposium, including a question-andanswer session followed by the reporting, we shared ourunderstanding that the problems of nuclear disaster
epitomized by radiation risk were educational subjects
that todayʼs schools should address directly. In addition,
the consensus was reached that the themes wereeﬀective for issues of school education that made pupils
and students become able to judge or choose opinions ina rational and autonomous manner. (Yoshimi Uesugi)

A Visiting Professor Arrived from Beijing

Curriculum Center for Teachers welcomed Dr. Pengxiang Xia, Associate Professor at Capital Normal University, in
November last year as the International Visiting Professor of 2014-2015. She is planning to undertake research on
elementary education and teacher education in Japan until May of this year and is delivering lectures on the themesof elementary teacher education in China and other subjects (For more details, see p.4).

I have a deep relationship with Tokyo Gakugei
University. I attended the Masterʼs Course from 1993
to 1995 and stayed on as an International Researcher
during 2004‒2005. Furthermore, this time, I was
invited by the Curriculum Center for Teachers as an
International Visiting Professor to work with teachersat the Center for six months. I am delighted to havethe opportunity to do my third research project at
Tokyo Gakugei University.
I studied Japanese language at university in China
and majored in social education in the Masterʼs
Course. Under the supervision of Professor Fumito
Kobayashi, I conducted research on Kominkan(community learning center) and lifelong learning inJapan, which gave me an extremely fulﬁlling andhappy life abroad.
In 1999, I was suﬃciently lucky to gain
employment with the College of Elementary
Education of Capital Normal University, which had
just been established, and came to devote myself toelementary education and elementary teacher
education. In China, elementary teacher education
had been provided by institutions equivalent toprofessional training schools. In fact, it was in the very
year of 1999 that the education was upgraded to afour-year university level. Looking back now, I feel likehaving come back home just to do research related
to elementary education. After gaining employment,
aside from working at the college, I have visitedelementary schools in Beijing for observations andserved as a lecturer in training for elementaryteachers. This year marks my 15th year.
The most impressive things for me, having been
engaged in elementary teacher education, areschoolchildrenʼs sweet smiles, their enthusiastic
learning, and elementary school teachersʼ attitudesof hard work. However, in China, the amount to belearned at school is enormous, and elementary
schools are no exception. Under the diﬃcult
environment generated from a credential society,the academic record comes ﬁrst, and children have avery diﬃcult time living by that rule. In such asituation, the college is pursuing issues such as howelementary schools should be, how to help children
spend an innocent school life, and what elementary
school teachers should do for that.
In association with the above, I have been
participating in research projects related to teacher
education, including “Research Capability of
University Graduate Elementary School Teachers”
and “Qualities of Elementary School Teachers” for the
past few years. A meaningful experience among
them was that I was involved in formulating
professional standards for elementary school
teachers, a project commissioned by the Ministry of
Education.
The college accepts students who come toundertake overseas training from the Graduate
School of Teacher Education, Soka University every
autumn. It conducts class observations andclass-work study in elementary schools in Beijing.
Through attempts by Chinese and Japanese teachersrespectively to teach the same content, for example,
they can compare the two countriesʼ philosophies of
education and methods of teaching subjects, whichis also useful for my own practice of teacher
education. Papers written based on theseexperiences include “Comparative Study of Moral
Education at Elementary School in China and Japan”
and “Cultivation of Expression Ability among
Elementary School children in Japan.”
Another subject of my research is “life education.”
In recent years, life education has spread to school
education in China. It is broadly practiced atelementary and junior high schools in particular. In
life education, elementary school teachers
themselves are required to appreciate childrenʼs “life”,
to say nothing of teaching children the precious
nature of life and consideration for other people. That
is to say, teachers should not repress a childʼsindividuality, but respect it and apply the mostappropriate teaching method for each child. In thatsense, life education is more necessary for elementary
school teachers than for elementary school children.
Life education is advocated to be conducted not only
in moral classes, but also in each subject. It has
become a major theme in training for elementary
school teachers. In this connection, Center forChildrenʼs Life and Moral Education was establishedin 2011 mainly by staﬀ of the College of Elementary
Education and has been developing research toinvestigate the philosophy and practice of life
education. As a member, I am working on spreading
the practice of life education at elementary schools.
I am truly grateful to have this opportunity to be avisiting professor of the Center. I would like tocontinue my study involving a comparison of teacher
education in China and Japan and elementary
education in Japan for six months to come and ﬁndout something helpful for the two countries,
particularly concepts that are useful for education in
China. I ask all persons concerned for help andsupport. I look forward to your guidance andencouragement.
XIA Pengxiang
Associate Professor, Capital Normal University

To Verify Some Policies and Trials for Enhancing “Practice” and“High Performance” for Teacher as Issues in Teacher Training/Education
Curriculum Center for Teachers holds a study meeting every month with Professor Hatsuo Mitsuishi, the Internal
Visiting Professor of 2014-2015, on the theme of the reformation of professional schools for teacher education. Here we
asked Professor Mitsuishi to summarize the latest points for discussion.
It has been a long time since teacher education at the“masterʼs level” came to be discussed publically. The
discussion is apparently converging in “the redeﬁnition of
the mission” of national universities two years ago by thereview of existing graduate schools and the presentationof policies to transfer to professional graduate schools. At
a research conference held by the Japan Association ofProfessional Schools for Teacher Education in December
2014, it was introduced that two graduate schools would
open in 2015 and 18 in 2016, in addition to 19 existing
professional schools for teacher education in national
universities. Such a movement evokes a major turning
point for teacher education and in-service education of
postwar Japan.
Universities and faculties for teacher education havediscussed some issues such as the following since 2000: (1)The positioning of subjects related to educational practicein the teacher education curriculum; and (2) The curricula
and their goals of undergraduate programs, masterʼs andprofessional programs. What was being called into
question were the goals and models that contemporary
teacher education and teacher training should be, and“practice” and “high performance for teacher” have been
focused as the concepts which have been called into
question in the discussion.
The Japanese Society for the Study of Teacher Education

which is a specialized society for teacher training, devotes
attention to the following questions: (1) Why is “highperformance for teacher” of teacher training/education
required now? and What are the background of theeducational policies and the nature of a required highperformance. (2) How are we arranging appropriately
concepts in teacher training/education, including“teacher professionalism,” “practicality in teacher
education,” “expert process for teacher,” “culture andhuman nature for teacher,” and “collegiality andcollaboration?” (3) What kinds of diﬀerences are there
between educational profession and the others? (4) Whatis the “high performance of teacher thought from theviewpoint of learners, parents and schools?”
As described above, it appears necessary to verify thecurrent problems in the policies of postwar teacher
education and also the eﬀorts of teacher education at
higher education institutions. That must be carried out
while sharing the recognition of the current
circumstances related to authentic “practical leadershipin education” between people of higher education
institutions and teachers, schools, and boards ofeducation.
Hatsuo Mitsuishi
Professor, Teikyo University

Overview of the Ongoing
Research Project

Terminology ofTeacher Education
Special Exception under
Article 14

Article 14 of the Standards for the Establishment ofGraduate Schools in Japan stipulates that “a graduate
school might provide education using appropriate
methods, such as conducting classes or research guidancein the evening and other speciﬁc time or season, when it isdeemed to be especially necessary from an educational
standpoint.” It is a provision for handling the curriculum
while envisioning adult students ﬂexibly.
Most adult students in graduate schools at universities
of education are in-service teachers. The Graduate Schoolof Tokyo Gakugei University (TGU) has improved thecurriculum since the 1990s, enabling students to earn themost credits required for masterʼs programs within a year.
TGU has begun accepting students dispatched from local
boards of education using the “special exception” in 1997.
The students are studying in the following style: leavingfrom their work sites for only a year to take classes at
graduate schools, and in the second year, receiving
guidance during holidays and evenings to complete theirmasterʼs theses while working.
(Yasuyuki Iwata)

For a summary conference of the joint research with
Northeast Normal University, which has continued withthe plan for three years, I visited China as the year was
drawing to a close, from December 28 to December 31. In
China, they said that New Yearʼs Day was indeed aholiday, but “the New Year” was celebrated according to
the lunar calendar. Therefore, they continue normal
business operations during that period. During the visit,
we discussed the compilation of written reports onteacher education curricula, including practice teaching.
In addition, the possibility of exchange between
university-attached schools came up. On the second dayof the conference, partly to sound out their feelings aboutit, I visited a junior high school and an elementary school
attached to Northeast Normal University. Schools in China
are, particularly in urban areas, said to be large in scale.
The attached schools I visited were indeed large-scale
ones: The junior high school had 26 classes in each grade.
The elementary school had 7‒8 classes in each grade. In
the attached elementary school, I was amazed by the
open-type classrooms combined with corridors of
suﬃcient width, the arrangement of widely various
special classrooms, and by the enrichment of ﬁxtures andequipment. School administrators said that they used to
conduct selection of new students, but now it wasincorporated into part of the public school system inwhich pupils and students in a prescribed school district
entered school. I was overwhelmed by the quality andquantity of public expenditure which had been invested.
Educational
policies
in
Japan
that
pursuecost-eﬀectiveness of education with “evidence” as theslogan gave rise to feelings of lost opportunities there,
contrasted against the unconditional expectations ofChinese education.
(Kenji Maehara)Sites Where Teachers
Are Nurtured
Advanced Support Center for Science Teachers ofTokyo Gakugei University
Fumi Nakanishi
Natural Science Division, Tokyo Gakugei University
Advanced Support Center for Science Teachers(ASCeST) became a permanent center in October 2011and established the Basic Workshop Division, Advanced
Workshop Division, and the Planning and Outreach
Division to promote its projects. As in-service teacher
training, we conduct basic training aimed at acquiring
basic knowledge and skills necessary for the guidance ofexperiments and observations, as well as specialized
training aimed at understanding contemporary subjects,
such as advanced science and technology and thenatural environment, and cultivate the educational ability
to tell pupils and students about them in aneasy-to-understand manner. Additionally, we conduct
research on science education in Japan and careerdevelopment of teachers involved in it, hold symposia
with the theme of teacher training, and provide guidance
for training teams from abroad. The training has been
undertaken mainly by full-time ASCeST teachers,
part-time teachers of the Natural Science Division of the
University, and two specially appointed professors (nowformer teachers at an aﬃliated high school have takenover the position). With the start of the next academic
year, teachers who have been engaged in scienceeducation at elementary schools for many years will join
us as lecturers. We are preparing a system to meet on-siteneeds more broadly. Last year, more than 1400 people
from all over Japan participated in our projects. Here are
the types of training of which I am in charge: “Pathways of
Water Transport in Plants” and “Rearing of Killiﬁsh and Its
Eﬀective Handling in Class.”“Pathways of Water Transport in Plants” is the content
added to the sixth grade curriculum by the Courses ofStudy for elementary schools announced in 2008. It
seems unfamiliar even to teachers with many years ofexperience. Therefore, it is diﬃcult to learn from otherteachers. Furthermore, the “experiment to dye vessels bytaking in color water from roots,” which is dealt with in
textbooks, contradicts the plant physiological common
sense: “Dye molecules used in stains for food red and cut
ﬂowers do not permeate cell membranes and are nottaken in from undamaged roots.” That point causes
confusion at elementary schools because “the more
carefully children treat the plants, the more they are likely
to fail the experiment.” In the training, as well as
explaining the plant physiological background on theintake of water and transpiration in plants, we introduce apractice at Aﬃliated Takehaya Elementary School whichbrought learning one step ahead, “roots serve as ﬁlters,”
by children looking at the phenomena with nopreconception. Furthermore, we show how plants take inwater on a real-time basis using a simpliﬁed potometerwith a silicone tube. That is true because we wantteachers themselves to feel how plants work and to makeuse of those actual feelings to teach children.
“Rearing of Killiﬁsh and Its Eﬀective Handling in Class” isabout “the continuity of life,” which is a course unit forﬁfth grade students in elementary schools. Nonetheless, aquestionnaire survey of elementary school teachers inTokyo revealed that it is the content about which manyteachers feel anxiety and diﬃculty because of a lack ofknowledge and skills. The training is structured forlearning by experience about killiﬁsh rearing basics andobservation methods through feeding of killiﬁsh fry. In
addition, learners gain knowledge about themeasurement of free chlorine concentration, nitric acidconcentration, and pH in tap water, storing water, andwater in rearing containers using Pack Test and test
papers. Subsequently, they observe fertilized eggs thatwere prepared at intervals of a day from the day following
spawning until immediately before hatching bystereoscopic microscope. They understand how the bodystructure is gradually formed in fertilized eggs, howpulsation and blood ﬂow become visible, and how
pigments are deposited. This training is also intended to
be an opportunity to think about the moral aspects of
how teachers and schoolchildren deal with tiny lives in
the class and the processes related to its preparation.

Special Lecture by Prof. Pengxiang Xia“Teaching and learning in elementary schools in China”◆Time: March 11, 2015, 14:30-16:00◆Place: Meeting Room in the Curriculum Center for Teachers◆Language: Japanese(See p.2 for a proﬁle of the speaker.)

Staﬀ of Curriculum Center for Teachers
Director OTAKE, Midori(Professor, Home Economics Education)
Center Researchers[Division of Curriculum Research and Development]
KANEKO, Mariko(Associate professor, Educational Sociology)[Division of Teacher Preparation Research and Development]
IWATA, Yasuyuki(Professor, Historical Studies on Teacher Training)
UESUGI, Yoshimi(Associate Professor, Media Education)[Division of Research and Development for In-Service Teachers]
MAEHARA, Kenji(Professor, Educational Administration)

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Editor: Yoshimi Uesugi
東京学芸大学／美術・書道講座／青山司研究室／青山司／大浦恵実

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