Comparative Study of Elementary Science Curriculum and Textbook Production of Laos and Japan

We compared the contents of science curriculum and textbook production processes between Lao People\u27s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) and Japan to find out what is necessary for Laos to improve its Science Education. We used curriculum guideline and Course of Study to compare educational goals and teaching contents in science education, and visited a Japanese textbook publisher. From these, we found that science in Lao PDR emphasize Basic Learning Competencies where knowledge, skills and attitude-value are the key factors, yet the actual contents are placed in textbooks without thinking the learning processes or scientific theories connecting different topics. Japanese science education, on the other hand, defines specific levels of problem solving abilities for each grade and contents of textbooks are selected to match for specific skills at each level. Comparing textbook production in both countries also revealed significant difference between two countries. Laos, where textbooks are reviewed, rewritten, and published within a single year, has various issues for improving the quality and contents of textbooks. Japanese textbook production, to begin with, are scheduled to spend 4 years as a cycle and repeated every 4 years. Also, unlike a single textbook by the government in Laos, private publishers are competing each other to create a better textbook under a strict supervision and approval by the Japanese government and Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. In this paper, we therefore summarized the difference between Laos and Japanese for various issues and how we can improve science education in Laos

Analysis of Teaching and Learning about "Characteristics of Air" of Lao Pupils

This paper aims to analyze teaching and learning of Lao pupils during a lesson of "World Around Us". A lesson about "Characteristics of Air" was conducted with a style of experiment in grade 4 with about 30 pupils were videoed in the academic year of 2013-14 at a primary school in Vientiane capital, Lao People\u27s Democratic Republic. We created a transcript of conversation took place during the lesson and analyzed the video with a protocol analysis. From this analysis, we found that by conducting three different activities or experiments, pupils successfully learned about characteristics of air through hands-on experience. However, we also found that there are multiple issues in the lesson. First is that some tools or equipment used in the activities are not appropriate. Second is that both pupils and teacher seem to be unfamiliar with the process of experiment such as data recording, experiment procedure and safety. Lastly, but maybe most important thing is that teacher\u27s teaching skill needs to be improved. In the video, teacher is simply asking pupils what they observed and answering them with simply that is correct or wrong, and also when she is asking for the reason, instead of leading to the correct answer, she was simply waiting pupils come up with it. We also noticed that between the three activities about characteristics of air, teacher did not explain the relationship between the results of three activities, which is probably the most important step to settle the scientific concept about characteristics of air into pupils knowledge. However, this is probably not due to the lack of teaching skill of a teacher but originates in the curriculum structure itself in Lao PDR Yet as observed how pupils showed interests in activities, once we successfully provide the appropriate teaching and learning skills, we think there is a room for significant improvement for Lao Science Education in the future

Review of Science Education in Lao People’s Democratic Republic : Aims and Issues with the Curriculum

We analyzed the contents or more particularly the Basic Learning Competencies (BLC) for the elementary school subject “World Around Us” of Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). Lao PDR is revising their curriculum guidelines for elementary school in 2016. Since we have an opportunity to study the current curriculum guideline and textbook contents of the “World Around Us” here at the Naruto University of Education this year, we therefore analyzed what is exactly in the context of the BLC within the curriculum. Without referring details to the textbook itself, we first summarized the obvious issues and problems in the BLC of the curriculum guideline for the “World Around Us”. We found that for some topics, the order of BLC in some strands are placed in strange manner, so that students seems to learn the application before they learn the basics. In this paper, we therefore summarized some issues in need of further attention for total of 8 strands from all 3 sections (Living Things, Non-Living Things, and Lao PDR) defined in the curriculum guideline

ラオス ジンミン ミンシュ キョウワコク World Around Us シドウ ヨウリョウ ゼンヤク 2014ネン カイテイマエ バン

ラオス人民民主共和国では２００７年に教育法が改正されてから７年が過ぎ，教育カリキュラムの内容が見直されようとしている。現在，ラオス人民民主共和国の理科教育は『World Around Us』という総合的な教科の一部として行われている。本稿は現在行われようとしているラオスのカリキュラム改訂のために，改定前のWorld Around Us の指導要領を記録として残しておくことが目的である。It has been 7 years since the government of Lao People\u27s Democratic Republic revised its‘ Law on Education\u27 in 2007, and now the government is planning to revise its curriculum guidelines. Science topics are currently taught in a subject of “World Around Us” that is an integrated subject of various studies. This is a paper to keep an official record of the government\u27s curriculum guideline of "World Around Us" before it is revised

ラオス ジンミン キョウワコク ノ ショトウ キョウイク ノ キョウカショ "World Around US" ニオケル リカ ノ ナイヨウ コウセイ ト ソノ モンダイテン

We analyzed the scientific contents within textbooks of “World Around Us” that is used for elementary education in Lao People’s Democratic Republic. We compared the organization and how different teaching units are distributed among different grades between Laos and Japan. We found that while topics about “life”（biology）are abundant, topics about “energy”（physics）and “particles”（chemistry）are minimal or even considered to be deficient as a science education. Another issue is that units are placed without considering teaching order and not based on systematic learning order. On top of above issues the critical problem about these textbooks and contents is that some of them are simply wrong or unsuitable for Laos, i.e., motion of the Sun is introduced as if the observer is standing in Southern hemisphere. For the Laos’ revision of educational curricula, it is important to reorganize the textbook contents to introduce the suitable scientific concepts in the right order, matching to children’s developmental stages