Levels of Octachlorostyrene in Mothers' Milk and Potential Exposure Among Infants in Sendai City, Japan 2012

Persistent organic pollutants can accumulate inside the human body, including in mothers’ milk, which may affect infant development. This cross-sectional study aimed to examine selected persistent organic pollutants in the milk of 100 mothers in Sendai city, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. We used gas-chromatography-electron capture negative chemical ionization-mass spectrometry to check for octachlorostyrene, dechlorane (Dec) plus, Dec 602, Dec 603, and Dec 604. Octachlorostyrene was detected in 86 samples at more than the method detection limit (84 pg g-lipid⁻¹) but no dechloranes were above the method detection limit (1 ng mL⁻¹ for dechlorane plus, Dec 602, and Dec 603; 20 ng mL⁻¹ for Dec 604). The mean octachlorostyrene concentration was 461 pg g-lipid−1, the median was 337 pg g-lipid⁻¹, and the standard deviation 450 pg g-lipid⁻¹. No baseline characteristics were associated with octachlorostyrene level except for mother’s occupation (stay-at-home mother, 353 ± 327 pg g-lipid⁻¹; others, 531 ± 509 pg g-lipid⁻¹). Octachlorostyrene was also significantly negatively correlated with lipid content (r = −0.35, p = 0.0004). However, the maximum intake of octachlorostyrene among infants in this study (3.5 ng/kg/day) was under the acceptable daily intake (30 ng/kg/day, derived from 12−month study in rats), and is therefore unlikely to pose a health risk

児童期における自己制御学習に向けた授業と家庭学習のシステム（その1） : 復習の効果に着目して

The purpose of this research is to examine the educational environment that promotes the self-regulated learning of children. To realize the purpose， it was tried to devise homeworks that improve the metacognition， and to relate it to the class. The devised homeworks of review were imposed for the fifth grader in the public elementary school， and the effects were examined in the frame of the aptitude-treatment interaction. It was shown that the appropriate way of the review influences the self-regulated learning of the child to some degree， and brings a little favorable change for the study attitude. However， because the individual differences of how to work the home study should be large， it will be necessary to examine the factors of the individual differences， and to plan the strategies to make the children work on their self-regulated home studies. Key Words: metacognition， self-regulated learning， homework， aptitude-treatment interactio

自己学習能力を育む授業がもたらす児童の自己概念の変化とメタ認知能力の発達I

The purposes of the present study was to examine the effects of the teaching that aimed to promote self-learning ability on the self-concepts and the metacognition. The 15-item self-concepts questionnaire, the 12-item metacognition questionnaire and the achievement test of arithmetic were administered to 109 (3 classes) fifth grade children. Then the teaching that intended promoting self-learning ability was conducted to 36 children (1 class) during about 2 months. After the teaching, the self-concepts questionnaire, the metacognition questionnaire and the achievement test of arithmetic were administered. The results were as following: (1) Weak correlations were obtained between metacognition and self-concepts, but significant correlations were not obtained between metacognition and achievement test score. (2) The main effects of the teaching on the self-concepts and the metacognition were not obtained enough. The self-concepts and metacognition as the aptitudes influenced the self-concepts and metacognition as each. The implications of these results for providing help for the future studies in the elementary school, and the measure of metacognition were discussed

児童期における自己制御学習に向けた授業と家庭学習のシステム : その2 ―予習の効果に着目して―

The purpose of this research is to examine the educational environment that promotes the self-regulated learning of children. To realize the purpose, it was tried to devise homework that improve the metacognition, and to relate it to the class. The devised homework of preparation was imposed for the sixth grader in a public elementary school, and the effects were examined in the frame of the aptitude-treatment interaction. It was shown that the effects of the homework of preparation didn’t influence the self-regulated learning of the child, and only prior metacognition brought the significant effect. Because the individual differences of how to work the home study should be large, each child’s homework score was calculated based on each child’approach on homework, then the effect of the score was examined. The child with a high homework score had a high achievement score and thinking score. However, a more long-term practice research is needed as for the effect of the homework of preparation

児童期における自己概念の形成とメタ認知

The purposes of the present study were to explore the characteristics of the self-concepts and the metacognition in childhood, and to compare the developmental differences of self-concepts and the metacognition between the school-children and the students. The results indicated that the self-concepts develop from the optimistic self-esteem to the self-consciousness for the transformation of self, and that metacognitive abilities develop in the factors of activities for understanding, activities of self-evaluation, and activities of self-learning. Also, the results indicated that the correlations between the self-concepts and the metacognition in the students were higher than the school-children. The implications of these results for providing help for the future instruction-learning studies in elementary school were discussed

メタ認知的活動が学習行動に及ぼす影響

This study attempted to analyze the structure of metacognition based on the metacognitive activities measured by questionnaire, and to investigate the effects of metacognitive activities on various learning behaviors. 209 students\u27 data were used. The results indicated the foliowings: 1) Factor analysis suggested that metacognitive activities were constructed of activities for understanding, activities of self-evaluation, and activities of self-learning. 2) Relations between metacognitive activities and outcome variables were not strong. But subjects who have high score on above 2 factors including factor 1 were better achievers and conducted more learning behaviors. 3) Multiple regression analyses for outcome variables revealed that academic achievement was the most powerful predictor as an aptitude variable. The expected effects of metacognition were not obtained. Possible relations among metacognition, learning strategy, and measured metacognitive activities were proposed. It is suggested how to improve questionnaire and necessity to take other measures of metacognition. The prospective metacognition study was discussed

乳幼児をもつ母親のインターネット利用と子育て不安

　武庫川女子大学子育てひろばを利用している保護者を対象に，子育てひろばの利用と子育て不安，および子育て環境に関するアンケート調査を実施した。その結果の中から，インターネット利用と子育て不安との関連性を中心に報告する。子育てに関する情報をインターネットから得るだけでなく，積極的に情報を発信したり，子育て不安の解消に役立てたりしている現代の母親の姿が浮かび上がった。子育て支援においては，母親の子育て環境と育児不安の現状を踏まえ，母親による自分の子育てについての省察と自己決定を支援していくことが求められる

幼児期におけるメタ認知の発達と支援

This paper surveys the result of developmental research of metacognition of preschool children, and argues how these knowledge should be efficiently employed in preschool education and childcare. The metacognition of preschool children is the precursor of metacognition, and children acquire gradually metamemory, meta-knowing, theory of mind , self-reguration, cooperativity, etc. They are related mutually, and should be called“ the sprout of learning” connected to learning after entering school. It is important to raise metacognition in early childhood education, and it is necessary to support children to have their own purpose and target, to devise themselves in the process of play, to look back upon play of them and self-evaluate of own play, to do collaborative activity, and to express own thinking by language each other. Future research is due to examine the effect of those supports on the basis of episode from longitudinal observation. Key Words: metacognition, theory of mind, self-regulation, cooperativity, preschool educatio