English EditionNo. 7July 2012

Inaugural Address as the Director of the Center
Shedding light on new educational research

Director, Curriculum Center for Teachers, Tokyo Gakugei University Kensho Takeshi, Ph.D.
I am Kensho Takeshi, inaugurated as the Director ofthe Center this year. I thank you in advance for yourhelp.
My original specialty is music education research.
However, I recall that my association with curriculum studies began through which I took some ofthe courses in Curriculum & Instruction and Educational Policy Studies as compulsory subjects forsubject pedagogy when studying in the doctoral
degree program at the University of Illinois atUrbana‒Champaign in the U.S. There I learned
various forms of curricula and the problem of qualitative evaluation. I am currently teaching curriculum theory in music education at the university,
making use of what I learned at the time.
In addition, within Tokyo Gakugei University, I wasinvolved in research of “Signiﬁcance and Method ofElementary School Subjects” as the person incharge. It was a Special Project for Research andDevelopment by the Organization for Educational
Research and Practice. Subsequently I have learned
teaching practice and the relation with the University in relation to curricula in a practical manner,concurrently holding the post of the principal of
the attached Oizumi Elementary School. Other thanthat, I have some international experience, which
also leads me to having many expectations related
to curriculum studies.
The Center is a research facility established in April
2000. This year marks its 12th. It purposes topromote research on teacher education andteacher training curricula in a multi-dimensional,
comprehensive manner and to provide information about the results to institutions and people
involved in teacher training throughout Japan. Ibelieve that the Center bears a high social responsibility. Fortunately, ﬁve excellent researchers areroutinely allocated as full-time teachers. Moreover,an internal visiting scholar and an international
visiting scholar are routinely allocated, andresearch has been
conducted in cooperation with fulltime teachers of theCenter and joint
researchers andcooperative
schools assignedfor each research
theme based on
the Centerʼs joint
research guidelines.
I feel very encouraged in that thegermination of new
research is apparent.
I am personally interested in the following threepoints with regard to this yearʼs action policy. Theﬁrst point is to ﬁnd a way to share and advanceresearch activities mutually, based on which allteachers principally came to take part in the society
for the attached schools from this year. To be more
speciﬁc, it is to have research consultations aboutcharacteristics and problems of practical researchin four regions with the attached schools. The
second point is to advance comparative researchof teacher training programs in the East Asia region(China, Korea, Taiwan, and others). I have madepersonal visits to Northeast Normal University
several times for comparative research in musiceducation and have also visited China, Korea, andTaiwan almost every year. Therefore, I expect that
research will make more progress this time in atechnical sense. The third point is, in relation toactivities in the University, to consider activities
related to the Oﬃce of Promoting for Teachers andthe Project on Quality Assurance for Teacher
Education. This is one of the challenges involving
reconstruction of teacher training curricula in theUniversity. Therefore, I would like to watch thedevelopment of discussions carefully.

Problems in Teacher Training after the GreatEast Japan Earthquake
Yoshitaka Sasaki Morioka University

Member of the Advisory Board for the Curriculum Center for Teachers

A year after the Great East Japan Earthquake andresulting massive tsunami (3/11), the aﬀected areas
i n I w a t e prefecture remain mired in an unprecedented crisis, with 4,671 dead, 1,249 missing,and 42,515 living in temporary housing as of March
9, 2012. If the removal of debris does not make progress from now, then there will be no redevelopmentof the areas and no safe and secure life for theresidents. Nonetheless, in Iwate prefecture only8.7% of rubble has been disposed of.
Under the circumstances, Morioka University has
continued to work through various problems in theteacher-training course, even involving the classes
themselves, from the day of the earthquake disaster.
In the wake of the earthquake disaster, the university
fell into the worst situation in the confusion of infrastructure. Because of ineﬃciency of the emergency
contact system, grasping the conﬁrmation ofstudent safety and the extent of damage had to bedealt with by a small number of people. Subsequently, problems of mental health care and educational support for as many as over 200 disasteraﬀected students emerged. Along with continuing
mental health care, the university continues toprovide educational counseling, including study
continuation and future course change associatedwith the economic burden of disaster-aﬀectedstudents.
Classes, which are a “lifeline” for students, started
two weeks behind schedule. The Student Aﬀairs
Oﬃce played a central role in securing time andadjusting classrooms to secure the number of classhours and to guarantee the syllabus for each subject.
Formal classes were restored in the most part, bywhich teachers gave classes and supplementarylectures after partially revising the teachingcontents.
Each prefectural board of education was unable tograsp the extent of damage to teaching practiceschools fully and spent a substantial amount of timeto grasp the situation, including conﬁrmation of
student teachersʼ safety and the damage of theirpatentsʼ home where they were going to stay during
teaching practice. The diﬃculty in grasping thesituation and the importance of systems to grasp thesituation were recognized anew.
Schools located in coastal areas from Iwate to
Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures suﬀeredcatastrophic damage. Many schools located inland
also became unable to undertake teaching practicebecause of the breakdown of facilities and equipment. Nevertheless, with the understanding of theIwate prefectural board of education and the neighboring Morioka city and Takizawa village boards ofeducation, all student teachers who planned to doteaching practice were able to make it, by which
schools initially planned to undertake teaching practice and cooperating schools accepted students
who were unable to conduct teaching practice intheir old schools and others.
As a teacher-training university, the Teacher Education Center presented the policy of “three major
reforms and two improvements” this year as a way
out of various problems. In addition to enriching

Photographs of Takata Senior High School, Iwateclasses in subjects related to education studies,
uplifting consciousness of students wanting tobecome teachers, devising guidance before and after
teaching practice, and promoting learning support
activities to acquire practical teaching abilities is oneexample.
Speciﬁcally, with a view to the Department of theChildhood Education and other departments withmany students who want to become teachers and tostudents in the Faculty of Nutritional Science who
aspire to becoming diet and nutrition teachers, theuniversity reviewed previous projects and presented
a reform plan with three points: 1) systematic
projects from freshmen to senior years; 2) seminars
for students wanting to become teachers; and 3)
mock examinations and data and information provision according to the future course. Furthermore, torespond to the needs of a greater number ofstudents, the university has made fundamental
improvements in two points: disclosure of theconcrete content of the special course for preparation for teacher employment exams; and a reservation system of educational counseling and guidance.
Last year, 109 students (new and former graduates)
passed teacher employment exams. To exceed thelast yearʼs record, with the motto of “accomplishingall studentsʼ future courses,” the university iscurrently developing projects, including a device ofclass forms in subjects related to education studies
and to the improvement of practical teachingabilities in learning support activities, as important
points in teacher training in elementary and juniorhigh schools and kindergartens.
More than a year has passed since the great disaster, and the aﬀected areas are moving forward gradually to restoration and rehabilitation, from support tocoexistence and co-prosperity. The university, as auniversity located in the aﬀected area, has been
having numerous problems that must be examined
after the earthquake disaster this time. They include
reconstruction of various projects in teacher training,roles for the region and how restoration of education
should be undertaken, and regional volunteer activities and recognition of credit, in addition to further
enrichment of classes in subjects related to education studies.
Finally, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude
for the great support extended from universities andstudents throughout Japan.

For Networking among Teacher Education
Centers Yasuyuki Iwata Curriculum Center for Teachers, Tokyo Gakugei University

The Second Division of the Center has been seeking aplace for cooperation and collaboration with centersrelated to teacher education in Japan and overseas invarious forms.
In a report of the Central Council for Education
released in July 2006, the establishment of the “Pre-service Teacher Education Curriculum Committee”
was recommended for all universities with approved
courses to create a system by which a university as awhole takes responsibility for the management ofteacher-training courses. In response to this, eachuniversity (mainly those other than teacher-traininguniversities) is becoming active to expand the existing,or to establish, so-called ʻteacher-training course
centersʼ (TTCs) and ʻteacher education centersʼ (TECs).
These kinds of centers have two major pillars of service
in a broad sense: curriculum management of subjects
related to teacher-training courses (including on-sitecooperation through teaching practice and others)
within the university; and career support for students
wanting to become teachers (e.g. provision of employment information). In addition, a substantial number ofuniversities add services to respond to teacher
in-services, including the Teaching License RenewalPrograms, which was introduced into the ﬁscal year of2009. As a matter of course, being involved in theteacher education practice and doing the study ofteacher education which underpin the practice are also
important services for the centers.

However, because the origin of each university and theposition of teacher education in the university are varied,
TTCs and TECs have diﬀerent staﬀ personnel, management and decision making systems, and actual services,and therefore have instability. Moreover, they have not yet
created a place with horizontal connection like education
practice centers (in teacher-training universities) andhigher education centers and admission centers (mainly inlarge-scale general Universities).
For that reason, the Second Division launched the “Project of Organizational Management for Teachertraining Courses” in the ﬁscal year of 2011. Along withgrasping actual management and problems of thecenters, the Division started examining, on that basis, howpractice and research exchanges should be, and held aworkshop on November 23. At the moment, the Center
itself is not involving itself directly in the development ofteacher-training curricula in the university. However,
because many things can be learned from activities of theteacher education-related centers that are active all overJapan, the center is considering whether it is able to play arole of coordinator for cooperation.
Turning its attention overseas, establishing centers forthe study of teacher education is noticeable amongnormal universities in China, particularly after entering
into the 21st century. In addition to the Academy for
Research in Teacher Education of Northeast Normal
University (Changchun) introduced into the Newsletter
No. 8, centers of Beijing Normal University, East China
Normal University (Shanghai), and others show vigorous
movements. Because the characteristics diﬀerent fromteacher education-related centers in Japan, many universities have organizations similar to “teacher educationmajors” at graduate schools, which deserve future attention.
Related links:
Center for Teacher Education at Beijing Normal University
http://www.bnu.edu.cn/cter/International Center of Teacher Education, East-China
Normal University (Shanghai)
http://www.icte.ecnu.edu.cn/
Academy for Research in Teacher Education, Northeast
Normal University (Changchun)
http://arte.nenu.edu.cn/

handbooks for students. I wonder if the Center
Expectations for the Curriculum including
could accumulate such data continuously through gathering information released on the web. In this case, what
Center for Teachers
content is written on the homepage is not the only matter

Kazuko Takano
Meiji University

Member of the Advisory Boardfor the Curriculum Center for Teachers

Since its founding, the Curriculum Center for Teachers
has been energetically engaged in research activities
and information dissemination, and has thereby
become a reliable entity both domestically and internationally as an important and information-intensive
base for the study of teacher education in Japan. I haveheard that many of those who intend to study teacher
education and training in Japan begin by inquiring at
the Center. I myself have been supported by the plentiful data and reports which the Center has produced
and made open to the public on its homepage.
Then what I would like to ask the Center is to create a
database of actual “teacher education curricula” and “teacher education programs” in Japan.The Center has
the experience to gather documents of teachertraining in universities with approved programs,of importance. For example, where the syllabus of subjects
related to education studies is available to browse ―whether from the universityʼs top page to “Information
Disclosure＞ Syllabus”, or to “Campus Life＞ Syllabus”, orto “Faculties & Graduate Schools＞ Qualiﬁcation Acquisition＞ Syllabus”? ― is also important information today
when teacher training must be considered in the context
of comprehensive university education.
There must be problems to be addressed in relation to
the copyrights. However, if the data are accumulated asdigital data and become searchable, they can beindispensable data for future historians to discuss and to
study teacher training empirically. This type of activity
cannot be guaranteed continuity by an individual or agroup with research funding. Doing it by individual
universities or institutions cannot attract wide range ofusers. That is what national joint-use facilities can mostcontribute to. The number of accesses to the database will
provide an important evidence for the raison dʼêtre of theCenter. I have great hopes in the Center to be a base forgathering, compiling and disseminating information onteacher education and training.

Sites Where Teachers Are
Nurtured
Minoru Numao

Secretariat, Northern Area School Education Oﬃce,
Yokohama City Board of Education

Member of the Advisory Board for the Curriculum Centerfor Teachers

In Yokohama city, the mass retirement and mass
hiring of teachers is continuing. Consequently theteachers with fewer than ﬁve yearsʼ experiencesince appointment have come to account for nearly
30% of all teachers. The early development ofinexperienced teachers is a pressing issue. The
Board of Education is promoting the Yokohamatype beginning teachersʼ development training forwhich the development term is three years after
appointment, while schools are developing humanTerminology of Teacher Education

Article 66-6
Appended Table 1 of the Article 5 of the Teaching
Personnel Certiﬁcation Act stipulates the requirements to obtain a teaching certiﬁcate in Japan, suchas “subjects related to school subjects”, “subjectsrelated to education studies”, and “subjects related
to school subjects or education studies”. For the ﬁrst
class certiﬁcate (undergraduate level), a total of 59
credits of those subjects are necessary to meet therequirement. In addition, “subjects speciﬁed by theOrdinance of the Ministry of Education, Culture,Sports, Science and Technology as subjects forresources by the “Mentor Team”, which has beenorganized since 2006. In the training accordingto thecareer stage, such as training for management andsenior teachers or training for the tenth and the ﬁfth
year training, they have created a system in which
individual roles in managing the “Mentor Team” areclariﬁed and teachers in any career stage can be
involved in human resources development in an organized manner. Additionally, they aim that all teachers
involved in the development of inexperienced teachers can advance their own careers individually. School
Education Oﬃces established in four regions in 2010
conduct a “class visit” for all classrooms when supervisors make a scheduled visit to a school, and areengaged in school support to improve school management and to advance the class power and theteachersʼ competency, centering around classes. Each
School Education Oﬃce has a Jugyo Kaizen Shien
Center (Class Improvement Support Center), which isalso designated as Hama Up, to provide educational
information, give advice on making classes, and to run
courses for making classes. The courses for making
classes are a 90-minute course which mostly starts at
18:30 and which is taken by many inexperienced
teachers. More than 130 supervisors are associatedwith the courses as lectures and held 184 courses lastyear. Making their vectors meet, the Board of Education and schools hope to demonstrate that “teachersare developed on site.” With regard to the “MentorTeam” promoted by Yokohama city, I would be grateful if you could take a look at “Kyoshi-ryoku” kojo nokagi ― “Mentor Team” ga kyoshi o sodateru, gakko okaeru! (in Japanese.)

whichare particularly necessary” are stipulated in a “Remarks” column of the Appended Table 1. They arespeciﬁed in the Article 66-6 of the “MiscellaneousRules” of the Ordinance for Enforcement of theTeachers License Act. When the Act was revised in
1998, two credits each of “foreign language communication” and “operation of information devices”
were designated as the subjects, in addition to theprevious two credits each of “the Japanese Constitution” and “physical education”; now they are eight
credits in total. For teacher-training universities, thismeans that 67 credits of undergraduate courses
have been designated, which engenders reductionin the independence of making curricula to a greater
extent. (Yasuyuki Iwata)

Events Calendar
Saturday, November 3, 2012

Workshop for Practicing Teacher Education(Jointly hosted by the 7th International Symposiumon the Teacher Training in East Asia)
Staﬀ of Curriculum Center for Teachers
DirectorTAKESHI, Kensho(Professor, Music Education)
Center Reseachers[Division of Curriculum Reseach and Development]
MITSUISHI, Hatsuo (Professor, Curriculum Studies)
KANEKO Mariko(Associate Professor, Educational Sociology)[Division of Teacher Preparation Research and Development]
IWATA, Yasuyuki(Professor, Historical Studies of Teacher Education)
UESUGI, Yoshimi(Associate Professor,Media Education)[Division of Research and Development for In-service Teachers]
MAEHARA, Kenji(Associate Professor, Educational Administration)

Saturday, December 1, 2012

The 13th Annual Symposium “The future curriculumof school and teacher education”

The CCT is produced by the Curriculum Center for Teachers,
Tokyo Gakugei University.
Editor: Yoshimi Uesugi
Designer: Tsukasa Aoyama and Emi Oura
(Aoyama Lab., Calligraphy and Arts, Tokyo Gakugei University)
Curriculum Center for Terachers, Tokyo Gakugei University
4-1-1 Nukui-kitamachi Koganei, Tokyo 184-8501 Japan
Tel: 81-42-329-7776 Fax; 81-42-329-7786
Email: currict@u-gakugei.ac.jp
Website: http://www.u-gakugei.ac.j/~currict/english/index.html