Development and Application of Social Studies Digital Contents for Inquiry Based Learning: A Case of “NONTA’s Classroom” and “Higashi-Hiroshima City Library Collaboration Seminar”

The purpose of this study is to develop digital contents that support inquiry based learning and to propose application examples of “local community studies” conducted in Japanese primary social studies education. For this reason, we set up a development project team by researchers and university students majoring in social studies education and developed digital contents over a year. In this project, we formulated five “design principles” for development. The contents were envisioned in consideration of the format, cooperation with social studies textbooks and supplementary readers for community studies, correspondence with the course of study, and the fairness of the areas handled. Finally, the digital contents which name is “NONTA’s Classroom” was developed and 10 keywords were released on the website. Along with the release, in cooperation with Higashi-Hiroshima City Library, we invited local elementary school students to use the digital contents and learn and verified the application and improvement of digital content. As a result of this research, 1)we conceived the design and concrete contents and structure of digital content that supports inquiry based learning and developed it. Also, 2)we specified an example of how to apply and confirmed its effectiveness

「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that the textbook maintained the core qualities and abilities the subject had pursued, which are learning and utilizing historical content and thinking skills.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

Development and Application of Digital Content for Elementary Social Studies using Inquiry-Based Learning: An Online Learning Plan for Local Study to Encourage Wide Area Communication of Elementary School Students in the Context of Municipal Mergers

In this paper, we present the results of the development of thirty digital contents in “NONTA Classroom”, for deepening regional understanding. We propose the pedagogical foundations for implementing them in the curriculum of elementary school education. We conceived of an online local study for elementary school social studies, in which the Board of Education mediates between Educational Vison Research Institute (EVRI) of Hiroshima University and elementary schools in Higashi-Hiroshima City. Future research will examine how children’s citizenship and teachers’ curriculum design are improved in the context of actual practice