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CHAPTER IMPROVEMENT OF CONTENT OF- EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENTOF ABILITY

In recent years, increasing attention has been given to the need for school education in Japan to evaluate and develop every pupil's individual ability. To meet the needs of the times, it is necessary to improve the quality of education, and, at the same time, to give pupils a firm grasp of the improved content of education and to cultivate their thinking ability and creative genius. An important problem which requires much additional research at this time may be to improve teaching methods.

Taking these consideration into account, the Ministry of Education examined very carefully the old curriculum and systematized the curriculum contents when the curriculum) revision was effected in 1958.

Toward more effective school instruction, the courses of study of both elementary and lower secondary schoo1s call teacher's attention to investigation and utilization of teaching materials and teaching aids. Various kinds of teaching aids including textbooks are used in our school education. Predominant trend in school education today is toward frequent use of audio-visual aids.

In many other countries, too, various new projects to increase the efficiency of school education are being carried out. Profitable results of modern educational study and development of science and technology have been applied to school instruction. Radio, television sets and films have been used mainly in ordinary class-room instruction, but in recent years, increased attention has been paid to developing individualized instruction, which is offered according to each pupil's ability, and individual learning by each pupil himself for instance, the programed instruction with the aid of teaching machines, and the language laboratory utilizing tape recorders.

The newer tendency in school education abroad will be discussed below with respect to the use of television, programed instruction and language 1aboratory.