What Does Impacts on Civic Engagement?: A Review of Empirical Research in Japanese School Education

The purpose of this study is to identify the characteristics of empirical research on civic engagement in Japanese schools and to draw implications for future research. A quantitative examination of previous empirical studies reveals that the range of independent variables related to the promotion or discouragement of civic engagement and the methods of examining the relationships between variables differ depending on the research area: (1) micro-level variables and statistical analysis in political science, (2) micro/macro variables and statistical analysis in pedagogy, (3) macro-level variables and non-statistical analysis in pedagogy. The analysis of typical cases of these three research patterns shows that they have different characteristics in terms of the purpose of the research and the research design accordingly. It also shows that the variables and research objects focused on diff er according to the discipline, suggesting the need to encourage collaboration between different disciplines, particularly between political science and education, in order to promote more comprehensive research on youth civic engagement

多文化社会における相互文化的対話に向けた歴史教育内容構成の特質 : 欧州評議会の“Shared Histories for Europe without Dividing Lines”の場合

The aim of this article is to elucidate the characteristics of the content structure of the history curriculum “Shared Histories for Europe without Dividing Lines”, developed by the Council of Europe for intercultural dialogue in a multicultural society. After the analysis, this study showed that social history was selected as the main scope of the curriculum. In addition, the following two principles were found in the learning process of the unit. (i) relativising the learners’ values that reflected by each nation from the perspective of European “shared values”. (ii) relativising the European values from the non-European perspectives. Comparing the previous studies, this study showed the more concrete contents and learning process. This study also have a potential to provide a new perspective on history education curriculum as multicultural education in Japan

「歴史総合」教科書における資質・能力論の展開 : 社会系教科と資質・能力論との共存による相乗効果を目指して

This research discusses a desirable relationship between subject education and the theory of qualities and abilities represented in Japan’s new Course of Study. The Course of Study values acquiring skills going beyond individual subjects. However, the discussion on how to educate those skills in each subject is unclear. Taking the textbook “Modern and Contemporary History” as a case, we conducted content analysis to investigate how the theory of qualities and abilities in the Course of Study is reflected in subject education. Findings indicate that the textbook maintained the core qualities and abilities the subject had pursued, which are learning and utilizing historical content and thinking skills. However, by situating students as independent researchers, which is closely related to the nature of history, the textbook also intended to educate on qualities and abilities that went beyond “Modern and Contemporary History.” This finding implies that educators in individual subjects need to revisit the nature of the subject, identify the qualities and abilities that are not limited to the subject but can still be educated on by the subject due to a close relationship, and adjust those qualities and abilities with other subjects’ ones

「現代社会の見方・考え方」の意味を探究する公民的分野導入単元の開発・実践 : 東広島市・広域交流型オンライン学習を事例に

The purpose of this paper is to propose an introductory lesson in the civics that explores the meaning of “Perspectives and Ways of Thinking in Contemporary Society”. Currently, in junior high school social studies civics lessons, students are expected to use their " perspectives on contemporary society ". The introductory lesson is an important part of the implementation of such lessons. Previous studies have attempted to make students aware of the meaning of "Perspectives and Ways of Thinking in Contemporary Society" through experiences that put it to work. However, this method cannot make students recognize the "Perspectives and Ways of Thinking in Contemporary Society". Therefore, in this article, an introductory lesson to the civics was planned and implemented, incorporating activities to explore the meaning of "Perspectives and Ways of Thinking in Contemporary Society". As a result, a new introductory lesson in the civics was presented. However, the challenge is that few children are aware of the meaning of the "Perspectives and Ways of Thinking in Contemporary Society, which will be useful in future civics lessons

A temporal shift of the evolutionary principle shaping intratumor heterogeneity in colorectal cancer

Advanced colorectal cancer harbors extensive intratumor heterogeneity shaped by neutral evolution; however, intratumor heterogeneity in colorectal precancerous lesions has been poorly studied. We perform multiregion whole-exome sequencing on ten early colorectal tumors, which contained adenoma and carcinoma in situ. By comparing with sequencing data from advanced colorectal tumors, we show that the early tumors accumulate a higher proportion of subclonal driver mutations than the advanced tumors, which is highlighted by subclonal mutations in KRAS and APC. We also demonstrate that variant allele frequencies of subclonal mutations tend to be higher in early tumors, suggesting that the subclonal mutations are subject to selective sweep in early tumorigenesis while neutral evolution is dominant in advanced ones. This study establishes that the evolutionary principle underlying intratumor heterogeneity shifts from Darwinian to neutral evolution during colorectal tumor progression