Practicing the Thematic Units in the Senior High School Japanese Classroom IV

This paper revealed the results and problems of practicing the thematic units in the llth grade Japanese subject, ""Contemporary Style of Writings"" in 2001, and inquired into the assignment of developing the curriculum of Senior High School Japanese Language composed of thematic units. On inquiring into the problem of developing the curriculum mentioned above, we showed a figure which explains the five steps in studying and teaching Japanese texts through thematic units. Those steps are as follows; (1) making ready to read at an early stage before reading the texts, (2) understanding each text, (3) discovering interrelationship among the texts in the unit, (4) confirming the theme of the unit, (5) becoming aware of the process of transformation in recognizing the theme of the unit. We found out that there are many assignments in the third, fourth, and fifth steps, among the five steps. The most important problems to be solved is to develop a sequential and systematic curriculum, and learning process which attaches importance to the methods how learners learn

Jiadifenolide induces the expression of cellular communication network factor (CCN) genes, and CCN2 exhibits neurotrophic activity in neuronal precursor cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells

Jiadifenolide has been reported to have neurotrophin-like activity in primary rat cortical neurons, and also possesses neurotrophic effects in neuronal precursor cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), as we have previously reported. However, the molecular mechanisms by which jiadifenolide exerts its neurotrophic effects in rat and human neurons are unknown. Thus, we aimed to investigate the molecular mechanisms and pathways by which jiadifenolide promotes neurotrophic effects. Here, we found that jiadifenolide activated cellular communication network factor (CCN) signaling pathways by up-regulating mRNA level expression of CCN genes in human neuronal cells. We also found that CCN2 (also known as connective tissue growth factor, CTGF) protein promotes neurotrophic effects through activation of the p44/42 mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway. This is the first discovery which links neurotrophic activity with CCN signaling

Practicing the Thematic Units in the Senior High School Japanese Classroom V : Examining the Problems in "Comprehensive Learning" from the point of view of Building Thematic Units in Japanese Language

We have developed some thematic units of Japanese language learning for senior high school students, and practiced them since 1997. Now many teachers are trying to develop new style units for "Comprehensive Learning" (Sogotekina Gakushu), though in many cases they can't produce excellent results. The reasons they have difficulty in developing some new type, and can't get expected results are as follows: 1) the relationships between the aims and contents of the existing school subjects, such as Japanese, or Social Studies and so on, and those of the new subject (Comprehensive Learning), 2) the new subject emphasizes "Learning by doing", or "Experiences". By this method, it is not easy to help students achieve specific abilities and knowledges systematically. To find a solution to these problems, we insist that the structures and functions of thematic units for Japanese language we have developed should be reevaluate. From the first, the structures of the units and characteristics of teaching materials of Japanese language as a school subject are thematic and comprehensive, though Japanese language teachers often have little understanding of it

Practicing the Thematic Units in the Senior High School Japanese Classroom III

This paper aims to analyze the teaching of the thematic unit named "Culture: Gazing and discovering" which is a part of Modern Japanese for the 11 th graders, evaluate the results, and point out the problems to be solved to reconstruct the whole curriculum. At the final stage of the plan, students were asked to write short essays on "what develops the culture" consisted of the following 3 paragraphs; (1) what students thought before starting the unit, (2) what they thought on the methods of recognition through studying each texts in the unit, and (3) what they realized through the activities of (1) and (2). One third of the students showed the evidence that they arrived at higher level of recognition, though the texts in the unit required them to think in the abstract to a high degree. By analyzing the unit construction and the teaching-learning process, we found the effectiveness of the arrangement of the selections, and student-centered teaching. But there are many students who could not achieve the expected objects. We should improve the construction of units and teaching-learning activities to help all the students arrive at desirable level

Developing Abilities of Reading Argumentative Texts Critically at the Senior High School

This paper aims to propose a new teaching process which can help students to read argumentative and logical texts critically. Reading texts critically forms the basis of living independently. With this in mind we teach how to read argumentative texts as a major task of Japanese language teaching. However there are some problems to be solved before we accomplish the task. Creating a new teaching process useful for helping students reading critically is one of the most urgent problems we come up against. The new teaching process takes on the character of five problem solving steps: 1) preparing for reading; 2) getting assignments; 3) tackling the assignments; 4) writing critical essays; 5) evaluating the essays written on the step 4. In this paper we focused on the step 1 and 2 steps