Research on Teacher’s Role in “Living Environment Study” Lesson Design and Its Practice: A Case Study of a Teacher’s Gatekeeping on the Unit “Village Explore”

子どもの生活を学習対象とする生活科は，子どもや教材を中心に研究が進められ，授業をデザイン・実施する主体である教師の姿が隠されてしまう傾向にあった。そこで，本研究は，A教師が行った単元「まちたんけん」のデザイン・実施のナラティブを記述・分析し，生活科における教師の役割を考察するケース・スタディーを行う。具体的には，ゲートキーピング論から理論的フレームワークを抽出し，それをもとに学習指導案，授業参観のフィールドノート，ワークシート，事例児童とのインタビュー，教師とのインタビューを収集し分析した。本研究の成果として，①生活科「でも」教師のゲートキーピングが授業デザイン・実施において重要な位置を示すことを明らかにし，生活科における新たな研究領域の可能性を提案したこと，②生活科「ならでは」のゲートキーピングとして，「ゲートキーパー」「案内者」「交渉者」の3つの教師の役割を指摘したことが挙げられる。In “Living Environment Study’s” research, there has been a tendency that a teacher is not recognized as a main agent to design and practice “Living Environment Study’s” lesson because of its characteristic that values students and students’lives, which is the main content of “Living Environment Study.” In this case study, we problematize this research trend, and try to clarify the teacher’s role in “Living Environment Study” lesson design and practice. With this purpose, the research focuses on a teacher, who designed and practiced a unit called “Village Explore,” and describes and analyzes the teacher’s gatekeeping narrative. Firstly, we extract a theoretical framework to analyze a teacher’s gatekeeping narrative by reviewing literature on gatekeeping theory. The data, which comprises a unit plan, field notes, students’worksheets, focus group interview with three sample students, and a semi-structure interview with a teacher, were collected, and analyzed by open and axis coding. There are two main findings and implications of this study. One is to suggest a new research field in “Living Environment Study” by illuminating the fact that the teacher played a role as a gatekeeper “even in” “Living Environment Study.” The other is to clarify a uniqueness of “Living Environment Study’s” gatekeeping, which a teacher played roles of a gatekeeper, a guide, and a negotiator

Unique arrangement of bone matrix orthogonal to osteoblast alignment controlled by Tspan11-mediated focal adhesion assembly

During tissue construction, cells coordinate extracellular matrix (ECM)assembly depending on the cellular arrangement. The traditional understanding of the relationship between the ECM and cells is limited to the orientation-matched interaction between them. Indeed, it is commonly accepted that the bone matrix (collagen/apatite)is formed along osteoblast orientation. Nonetheless, our recent findings are contrary to the above theory; osteoblasts on nanogrooves organize formation of the bone matrix perpendicular to cell orientation. However, the precise molecular mechanisms underlying the orthogonal organization of bone matrix are still unknown. Here, we show that mature fibrillar focal adhesions (FAs)facilitate the perpendicular arrangement between cells and bone matrix. The osteoblasts aligned along nanogrooves expressed highly mature fibrillar FAs mediated by integrin clustering. Microarray analysis revealed that Tspan11, a member of the transmembrane tetraspanin protein family, was upregulated in cells on the nanogrooved surface compared with that in cells on isotropic, flat, or rough surfaces. Tspan11 silencing significantly disrupted osteoblast alignment and further construction of aligned bone matrix orthogonal to cell orientation. Our results demonstrate that the unique bone matrix formation orthogonal to cell alignment is facilitated by FA maturation. To the best of our knowledge, this report is the first to show that FA assembly mediated by Tspan11 determines the direction of bone matrix organization.Nakanishi Y., Matsugaki A., Kawahara K., et al. Unique arrangement of bone matrix orthogonal to osteoblast alignment controlled by Tspan11-mediated focal adhesion assembly. Biomaterials, 209, 103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2019.04.016

US Research Interest in Asian and Oceanian Education Systems: Thomas Misco’s Research History and Methodology

This paper recapitulates a lecture given on June 26, 2018 at the Educational Vision Research Institute, Hiroshima University by Thomas Misco, a professor from Miami University. The title of Prof. Misco’s lecture was “Education in Asia and Oceania: Why are these contexts so intriguing for a US researcher?” The lecture described how Prof. Misco became interested in education systems throughout Asia and Oceania, and also outlined the development of his career. The lecture also showed how Prof. Misco’s studies focusing on specific examples of education systems in various countries were significant in generating hypotheses for other current or future contexts. Prof. Misco’s research career was shown to be suitable for exploring the context of US social studies education in recent years and is also applicable for future studies of Japanese social studies education

How to Visualize the Work of Historical Understanding and Thinking: Introductory History Lesson “Morning Glory Boom in the Edo Period” with Thinking Tools

The aim of this research is to answer the following questions: “How should we teach historical understanding and thinking and visualize the work of historical understanding and thinking?” This research focuses on instruction that encourages students to engage in understanding and thinking. To achieve this, this research developed three principles for teaching. Based on these, we developed an introductory history lesson “Morning Glory Boom in the Edo Period”. This lesson was taught to first year students at a junior high school. The results show that by using appropriate thinking tools in the process of forming historical recognition, we can understand the steps involved in a student’s historical understanding and thinking. In addition, as result of visualizing the student’s historical understanding and thinking, we can improve lessons, taking into account their limitations

The Principal of Inquiry-based Social Studies Curriculum for Developing Children’s Competency and Its Example Units: A Case of “The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework” by NCSS

This paper aims at answering the following two questions; one is “How can social studies move from contents-focused to contents-skill-balanced?” and the other is “How can social studies’ unique skills and competency that extend beyond the boundary of individual subject be cultivated simultaneously?” To answer these questions, authors analyzed “The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework” and its four example units, which are designed by NCSS to promote inquiry-based curriculum and cultivating competency within social studies. The four example units were based on the “Inquiry Arc,” which is the core of the framework: (a) developing questions and planning inquiries, (b) applying disciplinary tools and concepts, (c) evaluating sources and using evidence, and (d) communicating conclusions and taking informed action. After the analysis, authors could discover the framework’s three characteristics. (1) C3 Framework integrates social science disciplines into social studies by using them as lenses to understand society. (2) The framework also achieves a good balance between doing social studies and developing competencies that goes beyond a subject through adapting Inquiry Arc. (3) The framework gives discretionary power to curriculum designers including teachers, so they should be in charge of their curriculum as gatekeepers

Developing Lesson Modules for Reconstruction of Perspectives on Peace and Meta-cognition of its Process

The aim of this study is to develop the module for peace education which helps learners to reconstruct their own perspectives on peace. Previous studies introducing lesson plans on peace education have limitation in that these lesson plans focus heavily on wars or issues unfamiliar to students. In addition, they were not intended to give opportunities to metacognize the reconstruction of perspectives on peace. The lesson module we developed consists of three section: introduction section, main section, closing section. The main section consists of six units, and we chose six concepts or theories with which learners reconstruct their perspectives on peace：(1)game theory, (2)Galtung’s theory of peace, (3)conflict resolution, (4)authoritarian personality, (5)labeling theory, and, (6)social identity. This lesson module includes not only various concepts or theories about peace but also the process through which learners reconstruct their own perspectives on peace and reflection on the process in order to cultivate peace-makers

Survey for teachers about picture book that convey the significance of class activities (1)

This study examined the usefulness of picture book that convey the significance of class activities for teachers. From the results, the developed picture book is (1) the teacher feels that the child may lead to the understanding of the consensus building process and the meaning of cooperation, and (2) teachers feel that it is particularly useful for third and fourth graders, but also for other grades., and (3)it was shown that many teachers considered using it for future practice and found it useful as a tool for learning teachers' guidance and advice.These results suggested a certain usefulness of it.この研究は，日本学術振興会科学研究費助成事業 基盤研究（C）課題番号18K02758：多様性に富む共生社会構築に向けた小学校用「多様性把握シート」の作成と活用（代表若松昭彦）によって行われた

X-Ray Study of Temperature and Abundance Profiles of the Cluster of Galaxies Abell 1060 with Suzaku

We carried out observations of the central and 20' east offset regions of the cluster of galaxies Abell 1060 with Suzaku. Spatially resolved X-ray spectral analysis has revealed temperature and abundance profiles of Abell 1060 out to 27' ~ 380; /h_70 kpc, which corresponded to ~ 0.25; r_180. Temperature decrease of the intra cluster medium from 3.4 keV at the center to 2.2 keV in the outskirt region are clearly observed. Abundances of Si, S and Fe also decrease by more than 50% from the center to the outer, while Mg shows fairly constant abundance distribution at ~ 0.7 solar within r < 17'. O shows lower abundance of ~ 0.3 solar in the central region (r~ 6'), and indicates a similar feature with Mg, however it is sensitive to the estimated contribution of the Galactic components of kT_1 ~ 0.15 keV and kT_2 ~ 0.7 keV in the outer annuli (r ~ 13'). Systematic effects due to the point spread function tails, contamination on the XIS filters, instrumental background, cosmic and/or Galactic X-ray background, and the assumed solar abundance tables are carefully examined. Results on temperature and abundances of Si, S, and Fe are consistent with those derived by XMM-Newton at r < 13'. Formation and metal enrichment process of the cluster are discussed based on the present results.Comment: 20 pages, 19 figures, accepted for publication in PAS

A Report on Overseas Teaching Practicum by Graduate Students in Elementary/Secondary Schools in the United States (IX)

This short paper reports on the 9th overseas teaching practicum in the United States by 12 graduate students of Hiroshima University, Japan, partly organized by Hiroshima University Global Partnership School Center (GPSC). The grand total has become 89 since this project started in 2006. The participants this year were those majoring in elementary/secondary school education, including one in-service teacher. They observed and conducted lessons in English in four local public schools in North Carolina. The aim of this project was threefold: 1) to self-develop practical instructional competence by teaching pupils with different cultural backgrounds; 2) to enhance the abilities in developing teaching materials through hands-on teaching experiences in English; and 3) to acquire the abilities to design, implement and evaluate programs for promoting global partnership. Like past years, their teachings were very positively covered by the local newspapers and websites. Later, the project was followed by cross-cultural field study visits to NC State Capitol, Raleigh and the U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C. It is hoped that this intensive experience overseas will broaden the young future Japanese teachers’ global awareness and confidence in teaching