A Study of Curriculum Content and Assessment in Competency-based Curriculum: Lessons From the CBE Social Studies Program in Ohio

次期学習指導要領でコンピテンシー・ベイス・カリキュラムへの転換がはかられようとしている今日，日本の小学校社会科はどのようにカリキュラムを再構成すればよいのかを示すべく，アメリカ・オハイオ州のCBE社会科編とCBE評価編を検討した。CBE社会科編は目標に方法知や内容知に関連するコンピテンシー，汎用型コンピテンシーの3点を設定していた。特に内容知に関連するコンピテンシーに重点が置かれ，ストランド概念に基づいて精選した内容をキー発問に基づいて探究することで獲得される，社会を分析・評価する道具となる見方・考え方ともいうべきものをもって，自らの社会への関与のあり方を導ける市民を育成する学習に特徴があった。またCBE社会科評価編では，ストランド概念とそれを支える知識と技能を評価するために3タイプの方法を用いていた。それらの1つであるパフォーマンス評価では，知的市民の社会参加の文脈で，児童が獲得したものを活用できているかを評価するものとなっていた。以上の点で，CBE社会科編は内容編成と評価において，日本の小学校社会科教育に有効な示唆を与えている。Educators are in the process of moving away from content-based to competency-based curricula. I investigated social studies courses of the competency-based Education program and its assessment in the U.S. state of Ohio in order to provide suggestions for elementary school social studies education in Japan. In the 1970s, Ohio and other U.S. states faced questions concerning how to provide students with the knowledge, abilities and skills that they needed to safeguard the future of society. In the CBE social studies program, the education goals focused on method knowledge, content knowledge, and generic skills. The curriculum content was developed using the concept of strands so that students might learn topics deeply over a long period of time, and they might make a clear progress in understanding course content from year to year. This program used three types of measures to assess the strands and their related knowledge and skills. One of them was performance assessment to gauge whether children could utilize what they acquired in a real context in which they socially participated as intellectual citizens. Consequently, the CBE social studies program can provide effective suggestions for elementary school social studies education in Japan in curriculum content and assessment

Analysis of Expressed Sequence Tags from the Fungus Aspergillus oryzae Cultured Under Different Conditions

We performed random sequencing of cDNAs from nine biologically or industrially important cultures of the industrially valuable fungus Aspergillus oryzae to obtain expressed sequence tags (ESTs). Consequently, 21 446 raw ESTs were accumulated and subsequently assembled to 7589 non-redundant consensus sequences (contigs). Among all contigs, 5491 (72.4%) were derived from only a particular culture. These included 4735 (62.4%) singletons, i.e. lone ESTs overlapping with no others. These data showed that consideration of culture grown under various conditions as cDNA sources enabled efficient collection of ESTs. BLAST searches against the public databases showed that 2953 (38.9%) of the EST contigs showed significant similarities to deposited sequences with known functions, 793 (10.5%) were similar to hypothetical proteins, and the remaining 3843 (50.6%) showed no significant similarity to sequences in the databases. Culture-specific contigs were extracted on the basis of the EST frequency normalized by the total number for each culture condition. In addition, contig sequences were compared with sequence sets in eukaryotic orthologous groups (KOGs), and classified into the KOG functional categories

Ultra-High-Resolution Computed Tomography of the Lung: Image Quality of a Prototype Scanner

Purpose: The image noise and image quality of a prototype ultra-high-resolution computed tomography (U-HRCT) scanner was evaluated and compared with those of conventional high-resolution CT (C-HRCT) scanners. Materials and Methods: This study was approved by the institutional review board. A U-HRCT scanner prototype with 0.25 mm × 4 rows and operating at 120 mAs was used. The C-HRCT images were obtained using a 0.5 mm × 16 or 0.5 mm × 64 detector-row CT scanner operating at 150 mAs. Images from both scanners were reconstructed at 0.1-mm intervals; the slice thickness was 0.25 mm for the U-HRCT scanner and 0.5 mm for the C-HRCT scanners. For both scanners, the display field of view was 80 mm. The image noise of each scanner was evaluated using a phantom. U-HRCT and C-HRCT images of 53 images selected from 37 lung nodules were then observed and graded using a 5-point score by 10 board-certified thoracic radiologists. The images were presented to the observers randomly and in a blinded manner. Results: The image noise for U-HRCT (100.87 ± 0.51 Hounsfield units [HU]) was greater than that for C-HRCT (40.41 ± 0.52 HU; P <.0001). The image quality of U-HRCT was graded as superior to that of C-HRCT (P <.0001) for all of the following parameters that were examined: margins of subsolid and solid nodules, edges of solid components and pulmonary ves sels in subsolid nodules, air bronchograms, pleural indentations, margins of pulmonary vessels, edges of bronchi, and interlobar fissures. Conclusion: Despite a larger image noise, the prototype U-HRCT scanner had a significantly better image quality than the C-HRCT scanners