Synopsis of the Curriculum Council's Midterm Report
1. Purpose of national curriculum standards reform
(1) To help a child cultivate rich humanity, sociality and identity
as a Japanese living in the international community.
(2) To help a child develop ability to learn and think independently.
(3) To help a child acquire basic abilities and skills and grow one's
own individuality by allowing ample scope for educational activities
to develop.
(4) To encourage each school to show ingenuity in developing distinctive
educational activities.
2. Principal points of the reform
(1) In accordance with the initiation of the comprehensive five-day
school week, the annual school hours will be reduced by the Saturday
school hours; it will be two credits hours per week less than the current
class schedule. The required credits to complete upper secondary school
education will be reduced to 74 ~ 76 credits from the present 80 credits.
(2) The national curriculum standards will be generalized and more flexible
so that each school will be able to show ingenuity in making a distinctive
timetable.
(3) The kindergarten education will provide children with more opportunities
to have richer experiences in pleasant playful circumstances. It will
also enhance moral education suitable for children in early childhood.
(4) The educational contents for elementary school will be closely examined
and they will be limited to the very basics necessary for daily life,
such as reading writing and arithmetic. Children will practice repeatedly
until they acquire those skills.
(5) On the basis of the elementary school education, the lower secondary
school education will aim at helping students acquire basic abilities
and skills necessary for the social life. More elective subjects will
be provided for a student to be able to develop individuality.
(6) In the upper secondary school education, the total number of credits
for common required subjects will be minimized in order to provide each
school and each student more freedom to choose subjects, so that a student
will be able to further develop individuality and become independent.
(7) Schools for the visually disabled, the hearing impaired and the
otherwise disabled will provide more helpful guidance to improve or
overcome child's current nature of disability, so that the disabled
child can develop one's ability to the maximum and can participate in
social activities independently. The visit-and-teach program in the
upper secondary division of such special education schools will be specified
and the interaction program with regular elementary and lower secondary
schools will further be promoted.
(8) "Period for Integrated Study" (tentative name) will be
established to encourage each school to show ingenuity in providing
interdisciplinary and comprehensive courses, including international
understanding, foreign language conversation, information study, environmental
education and welfare education. The hands-on and the problem-solving
approaches as in activities in nature, volunteer activities and creative
activities, will highly be recommended in these classroom settings
(9) Foreign language (English) will be a required subject at lower secondary
school. An emphasis will be put on the development of student's speaking
and listening skills. English conversation classes will be given in
the "Period for Integrated Study" at the elementary school
level as well.
(10) "Information Basics" will be a required course in Industrial
Arts and Homemaking at lower secondary school. The new subject, "Information
Study", will be added to the upper secondary school curriculum.
(11) The moral education will be facilitated by the hands-on learning
approach as in volunteer activities and activities in nature, so that
children can learn the social rules and basic morals.
General Outline of the Principle of National Curriculum Standards Reform
(Midterm Report)
Preface
The Curriculum Council received an inquiry from the Minister of Education
in August 1996 about "reform of the national curriculum standards
of kindergarten, elementary school, lower and upper secondary schools
and schools for the visually disabled, the hearing impaired and the
otherwise disabled". The Council has been comprehensively deliberating
the principle of the reform that embraces whole elementary and secondary
education.
Subcommittees of the Curriculum Council will soon be established in
each stage of education (elementary school, lower secondary school,
upper secondary school and special education) to discuss specific issues.
To provide them a guideline, the Council has made this midterm report
on the results of its discussions.
I. Fundamental approach to national curriculum standards reform
A. Fundamental approach to national curriculum standards reform
(Hope of children's sound development and hope for school's role)
Education is a task to help a child develop one's own identity and faculties
from early childhood to adolescence and is not just school's responsibility.
Schools, families and communities must cooperate and effectively demonstrate
each of their educational function. Such well-balanced education is
the key to children's sound development. Specifically, children's life
style and learning environment need to be changed, and the roles of
schools, families and communities need to be reviewed. School's primary
role is to motivate children to learn and to teach them how to learn.
Families and communities are expected to recognize their roles in education
and to do their part successfully.
School should be a pleasant place for children to feel relaxed. The
school's role is to satisfy children by providing them opportunities
to receive recognition and to realize the self while they interact with
one another and with teachers in classes and in other school activities.
The Council deliberated from the following standpoints while hoping
for children's sound development and expecting schools to play the important
role as stated above.
1. Basic role in each stage of education
Our discussions about the basic role in each stage of education are
summarized below.
The kindergarten's basic role is to give comprehensive guidance through
playful hands-on learning activities which highly value children's own
desire, willingness and interests. The kindergarten education aims at
helping a child cultivate rich heart and imagination as the fundamentals
of a good human being, willingness to deal with matters and sound mind
to have sound life.
The elementary school education aims at helping a child acquire essential
knowledge, skills and mind to have healthy social life as an individual
as well as a member of the society or the nation. It also aims at helping
a child develop rich humanity, recognize one's own charm and individuality
through interactions with others and foster mind of self-reliance.
The lower secondary school education aims at helping a student acquire
essential knowledge, skills and mind to have healthy social life as
an individual as well as a member of the society or the nation. It also
aims at helping a student foster rich humanity, recognize and develop
one's own individuality and further cultivate mind of self-reliance.
The upper secondary education aims at helping a student appreciate the
meaning of one's own life, develop mind and ability to choose career
and deepen understanding of the society. Depending upon students' interest,
the upper secondary education will provide them opportunities to learn
the basics in the specialties of their choices and will encourage them
to further develop individualities and independence.
Schools for the visually disabled, the hearing impaired and the otherwise
disabled provide education equivalent to kindergarten, elementary school
and lower and upper secondary schools. The special education aims at
helping a student develop knowledge and skills necessary to improve
and overcome one's current nature of disability, develop individuality
to the maximum, and cultivate capability and ability necessary to independently
participate in social activities.
2. Current state of children, curriculum implementation and educational
issues
Under the present curriculum, the academic achievement of Japanese children
is satisfactory overall. However, there are several issues existing:
(i) considerable number of children do not fully understand class contents,
(ii) children's abilities to study and judge by themselves and to express
their own opinions have not yet fully developed, and (iii) children's
abilities to view things from different angles are not yet satisfactory.
3. Acquisition of the "absolute value in all ages"
Education must help children securely acquire the "absolute value
in all ages" in this kaleidoscopic world.
4. Cultivation of child's ability to flexibly cope with social changes
Education is expected to help a child develop ability to anticipate
social changes and to cope with them flexibly.
5. Educational contents under the comprehensive five-day school week
system
Taking the opportunity of the initiation of the comprehensive five-day
school week system, we all must keep it in mind that education can not
be completed only by school education, and that the important role of
school education is to lay the foundations of lifelong learning. On
the basis of this understanding, educational activities should be developed.
6. Close examination of educational contents and thorough acquisition
of the basics
The educational contents will be closely examined and they will be limited
to the very basics necessary for further study and daily life. Students
will study the selected basics repeatedly until they thoroughly master
the contents.
7. Instruction and evaluation system
A student's academic ability should not be measured by the quantity
of knowledge acquired; it should rather be assessed by whether or not
he/she has acquired the "zest for living" such as ability
to learn and think independently. The evaluation system for each subject
also needs to be improved in consideration of the grade and specific
features of each subject.
B. Purpose of national curriculum standards reform
1. To help a child cultivate rich humanity, sociality and identity as
a Japanese living in the international community
A child will be encouraged to cultivate well-balanced rich humanity
and sociality, and to develop health and physical strength to lead vigorous
life. Rich humanity includes sympathy, mind to respect each other and
live together in harmony, respect for life and human rights, sensibility
of appreciating beauty, volunteer spirit and the like. It will place
much value on moral education which helps a child acquire social rules
and basic morality, a sense of norms, public morals, justice and fairness,
sound judgment, strong will and ability to take action, awareness of
responsibility, autonomy, self-control and the like.
Children will be encouraged to deepen their understanding of national
as well as local history, culture and tradition, and to develop love
to those matters. They will also be encouraged to appreciate different
cultures open-mindedly, and to cultivate the mind of international cooperation
and the identity as Japanese living in the international community.
2. To help children develop ability to learn and think independently
There was a tendency for school education to emphasize volume of knowledge.
Now however, the school education looks itself from the children's standpoint
and places a high value on the development of children's intellectual
interests and inquiring minds. It also emphasizes the importance of
motivating children to learn and helping them develop abilities to learn,
to reason, to judge, to express, to discover and to solve problems,
to create and to cope with social changes independently. Besides, to
aim at children's successful self-realization, it is indispensable to
relate knowledge with actual life. This requires the promotion of the
hands-on learning and problem-solving approaches.
3. To help a child acquire basic abilities and skills and grow one's
own individuality by allowing ample scope for educational activities
to develop.
The common contents of compulsory education will be closely examined
and they will consist of the very basics necessary for the social life.
By developing educational activities without pressure of time or stress,
schools will effectively help a child acquire the selected contents
thoroughly and grow one's own individuality.
For this purpose, by considering children's interests, schools need
to promote children's independent learning and to further develop individualized
instruction. In addition, the elective course system will be introduced
to fourth graders and older of elementary school, and there will be
more elective subjects for higher graders at lower secondary school.
At upper secondary school, elective subjects will take the most part
of the curriculum and common subjects will be minimized.
4. To encourage each school to show ingenuity in developing distinctive
educational activities
The national curriculum standards will be generalized and more flexible
so that each school will be able to show ingenuity in developing distinctive
educational activities by making its own timetable and curriculum in
accordance with the actual situations of each community, school and
children. In addition, the number of elective subjects will be increased
and the "Period of Integrated Study" (tentative name) will
be established to further promote each school's unique educational activities.
Schools should have a close connection with families and communities
and should be more open to them.
C. Basic principle regarding common issues to every stage of school
education and to every subject
1. Moral education
In accordance with the actual situations of each community, school and
children, each school will be encouraged to develop its distinctive
approach suitable to each stage of child development. The hands-on learning
approach and practical activities are highly recommended to be used
in order to show children what they have learned actually works in daily
life. Particularly, volunteer activities will be promoted further because
of its positive educational impact.
2. Response to internationalization
Children will be inspired to be proud of and to feel love of Japanese
history, culture and tradition as well as to deepen their understanding
of those. At the same time, they will be encouraged to appreciate different
cultures open-mindedly and to develop capabilities and abilities to
live in harmony with people with different cultures and customs. Improvement
of fundamental and practical communicative competence in foreign language
will be emphasized and foreign language (English) will be a required
subject at lower secondary school. Elementary school will provide hands-on
learning activities to expose children to foreign language and to help
them get familiar with foreign life and culture in the "Period
of Integrated Study" (tentative name).
3. Response to the information-oriented society
Consistent and systematic information education through every stage
of school education will require positive use of computers in virtually
every subject. Elementary school will employ computers for children's
learning activities in the "Period of Integrated Study" (tentative
name). Lower secondary school will require students to learn the information
basics including basic computer skills. Upper secondary school will
appropriately place the subject of "Information Study" (tentative
name) in the curriculum.
4. Response to environmental issues
Children will deepen their understanding of the environment and energy
issues and will develop respect for the environment. They will be encouraged
to develop practical minds and abilities to voluntarily take actions
to preserve the environment and make it better. Thus, the problem-solving
and the hands-on learning approaches will be more emphasized. By taking
the actual situation of each region into consideration, the environmental
education will be enhanced in related classes.
5. Response to the aging society
Children will deepen their understanding of the aging society and will
develop practical minds to voluntarily take actions for the elderly.
For this purpose, related classes will provide children with opportunities
to have some basic idea of the aging society and to deepen their understanding
of such issues as nursing and welfare. Specifically, actual interaction
with elderly people and volunteer activities related to nursing and
welfare will be emphasized.
6. Interdisciplinary and comprehensive learning
The "Period of Integrated Study" (tentative name) will be
established to encourage each school to further develop its distinctive
interdisciplinary and comprehensive learning activities. Besides, the
national curriculum standards will be generalized and become more flexible
so that each school will be able to show ingenuity in instruction.
II. Organization of curriculum and framework of class hours through
every stage of school education
A. Organization of curriculum
The curricula of elementary school and lower and upper secondary schools
will consist of the existing subjects, moral education, special activities
and "Period of Integrated Study" (tentative name).
B. "Period of Integrated Study" (tentative name)
The newly established "Period of Integrated Study" (tentative
name) will encourage each school to show ingenuity in conducting interdisciplinary
and comprehensive courses such as international understanding/ foreign
language conversation, information education, environmental education
and welfare education in accordance with the actual situations of each
community and school.
The objectives of the "Period of Integrated Study" are as
follows.
1. It aims at helping a child develop capability and ability to discover
and to properly solve problems by oneself. It also aims at developing
child's mind to voluntarily cope with problem-solving activities and/or
inquiring activities depending upon one's own interest. Additionally,
it emphasizes that a child needs to learn thinking process and reasoning,
including the way of getting information, examining, summarizing, reporting
and debating.
2. It emphasizes to employ the hands-on learning and the problem-solving
approaches as in experiential activities in nature and social activities
like volunteer activities, experimentation/ observation, inquiring,
creative activities and other productive activities.
3. In elementary and secondary schools, it is defined as educational
activities other than formal subjects and it will be established for
third graders and older of elementary school. It will also be a requirement
in upper secondary school and a discussion will be given on this matter.
4. More than 70 credit hours annually will be allocated to it in elementary
and lower secondary schools (2 credit hours per week).
C. Basic policies on class hours
1. The current total class hours per annum will be reduced by around
70 credit hours, which represent the existing Saturday class hours (2
credit hours per week).
2. Restrictions on total annual school weeks and on one credit hour
will be relaxed so that each school can show ingenuity in forming a
timetable and a curriculum.
III. Curriculum and class hours in each school stage
A. Kindergarten curriculum and educational hours
1. The educational contents will consist of the following five existing
fields: "health", "human relations", "environment",
"language" and "expression". The kindergarten education
will further be developed in accordance with its fundamental concept
that kindergarten provides children with individualized and comprehensive
guidance through their lives centering on play, which is their independent
activities.
2. Relaxation of restrictions governing kindergarten management will
be enhanced so that kindergarten will be more open to the community
and will provide day-care service and other services in response to
local needs and guardians' needs.
B. Elementary school curriculum and annual class hours
1. The curriculum will consist of the existing subjects, moral education,
special activities and "Period of Integrated Study" (tentative
name). Some elements of the elective course system will be introduced
to fourth graders and older in order to help children obtain some basic
ability to select.
2. The annual total class hours of each grade will be reduced by 70
credit hours (2 credit hours per week).
3. The educational contents of each subject will be closely examined
and they will be limited to the very basics and children will be encouraged
to acquire the contents thoroughly.
C. Lower secondary school curriculum and annual class hours
1. The curriculum will consist of the existing required subjects, electives,
moral education, special activities and "Period of Integrated Study"
(tentative name). English or another foreign language will be a required
subject.
2. The annual total class hours of each grade will be reduced by 70
credit hours (2 credit hours per week).
3. The educational contents of required subjects will be closely examined
and they will be limited to the very basics and the class hours for
those subjects will be reduced.
4. There will be more class hours for electives for higher graders.
Specifically, all second graders will be able to take electives, and
for third graders, electives will be more diverse.
The number of elective subjects will be increased so that all subjects
will be open to all students. Contents of electives will be each school's
responsibility, and thus the school will be able to conduct more diverse
educational activities including task-oriented learning, supplementary
class and advanced class. In addition, the maximum class hours of each
elective will be increased to 70 credit hours a year.
5. The number of class hours for required subjects will not be indicated
by the current method of setting the minimum and the maximum. Those
for electives and the "Period of Integrated Study" (tentative
name) will be indicated in the way such that each school can make a
distinctive curriculum by exercising its ingenuity.
D. Upper secondary school curriculum, the total numbers of credits required
for completion and for required subjects/courses
1. The total numbers of credits required for completion and for required
subjects/courses
a. The total number of credits required to complete upper secondary
school education will be reduced to 74 ~ 76 credits from the current
80 credits.
b. The total number of credits for required subjects/courses will be
reduced as much as possible. Currently, 38 credits are required in the
general education course and 35 credits in the specialized and the integrated
courses.
c. In the specialized education course, the total number of credits
required for the specialized subjects/courses will be reduced to 25
~ 28 credits from the current 30 credits.
d. The standard weekly class hours for a full-time student will be reduced
to 30 credit hours from the current 32 credit hours.
2. Upper secondary school curriculum
a. Required subjects/courses common to the general, the specialized
and the integrated education courses
(1) In the required subjects, courses with the smallest possible credits
will be added to the core electives so that the total credits for required
courses can be reduced.
(2) The new subject, "Information Study" (tentative name),
will be added to the general education course curriculum.
(3) In the comprehensive education course, "Task-Oriented Research"
and "Man and Industrialized Society" are currently among the
required courses. The treatment of those courses in the general and
the specialized education courses will be discussed later.
b. New subjects/courses other than those specified in the Course of
Study will be encouraged to add to the general education course curriculum.
c. The new vocational subjects, "Welfare Study" (tentative
name) and "Information Study" (tentative name), will be added.
The recommended required subjects in the integrated course will be specified
in the Course of Study.
E. Curricula and annual class hours for schools for the visually disabled,
the hearing impaired and the otherwise disabled
The curricula will be reformed in accordance with those reforms in kindergarten,
elementary school and lower and upper secondary schools. In response
to the social changes and the nature of disabilities of children (such
as severity, multiplicity and diversity of disabilities), the following
reforms will be implemented to further encourage disabled children to
independently participate in social activities.
a. To encourage children to be independent and work after the completion
of schools, discussion will include adding new courses, such as a course
related to information study, in the schools for the visually disabled,
the hearing impaired, the physically disabled and the health impaired,
in response to the social changes and children's needs. The discussion
will also include establishing new educational courses such as "Commercial
Course" (tentative name) and "Industrial Course" (tentative
name) in the schools for the mentally retarded.
b. The specification of the following programs in the Course of Study
will be discussed: the itinerant teacher program in upper secondary
department, the special class program in elementary and lower secondary
schools, and the program under which a disabled child can take subjects
in a regular classroom and receive special instruction in a special
classroom.
c. The interaction program of disabled children with healthy children
will be further promoted.
IV. Contents of each subject and course
A. Kindergarten
The fundamental concept of kindergarten education, that is to provide
each child with individualized and comprehensive guidance in the playful
environment, will be maintained. It will be clarified that, to secure
abundant voluntary actions by children, teachers deliberately organize
desirable environment based on their proper understanding of preschool
children. Also the teacher's basic role, such as a teacher's part in
children's playing activities, will be specified.
The following reforms will also be implemented.
(a) To employ more activities to develop children's mental and physical
health as well as to improve moral education in order for them to acquire
appropriate morality in daily life.
(b) To emphasize the importance of providing children with opportunities
to have personal and actual live experiences through hands-on learning
activities in nature and in communities.
(c) To clearly indicate the model education that stimulates children's
intellectual development.
(d) To carefully respond to specific features of child development in
early childhood when self-consciousness and self-restraint start growing.
(e) To encourage children to have self-realization through group activities.
Furthermore, kindergarten will be open to communities and promote day-care
service to meet the diverse needs of families and communities. Kindergarten
and nursery school will be encouraged to promote the common use of facilities
including a build-to-share system.
B. Elementary, lower secondary and upper secondary schools
1. Japanese Language
a. The previous approach emphasized that students read and comprehended
the details of literary works. However, now students are encouraged
to have their own ideas and to develop abilities to logically express
their ideas. Thus, such class activities as making speeches, holding
debates and making reports will be recommended.
b. The instruction of reading Kanji (Chinese characters) will basically
be the same as the current one. The writing instruction will be shifted
to upper graders. Consideration will be given to the relaxation of required
Kanji shown in the Chart of Required Kanji Distributed by Grade in elementary
schools.
c. The classics class will aim at fostering student's interests in classics
and developing their interests throughout their lives. Elementary school
children will briefly learn some classic works written in literary style.
At lower secondary school, stimulating student's interest in classics
will be more emphasized than giving instruction of literary grammar
and/or history. Upper secondary school will provide students opportunities,
depending upon their interests, to develop their abilities to read and
comprehend various classics and appreciate those works.
2. Social Studies, Geography and History, Civics
a. Instead of expecting students to memorize all the relevant knowledge,
it will be important to help them develop qualities required as Japanese
in the international society. The qualities include ability and mind
to study both domestic and international issues from various angles
and make judgments in a fair fashion, understanding and love of their
country and its history, and the spirit of international cooperation.
b. For sixth graders, historical phenomena which they learn will be
selected more carefully, and the learning of achievements by historical
figures and typical cultural properties will be the focus of the history
class. In history class at lower secondary school, students will study
Japanese history together with world history as a background knowledge.
Japanese history will be shown in rough sections, so that students can
grasp the major flow. The students will also be expected to view things
from different angles by learning how to study and examine history.
Those approaches will be able to help the students respect culture and
tradition and deepen their understanding and love of Japanese history.
c. Specific and concrete case studies will be emphasized in geography
and civics at lower secondary school.
d. The task-oriented research approach will be employed in geography
and history class and civics class at upper secondary school. In this
approach, a task in geography and history class is, for example, to
research on changes in a specific region or to research on food, clothing
and housing. Through the research, the students will be able to learn
to view things from historical and geographical points, and that will
accelerate the development of students' various thinking abilities.
3. Arithmetic, Mathematics
a. A child will be helped to acquire basic knowledge and skills of number,
quantity and geometrical figure through practical and operational activities
and problem-solving activities, while the connection between mathematics
and the real life is being considered. A child will be expected to develop
ability to think mathematically and to cultivate creativity.
b. Elementary school children will be helped to master the basic computation
skills by repetitious learning. The class contents will carefully be
examined; learning of fraction will be transferred to the curriculum
for upper graders and problems of complicated geometrical figures will
be reduced. Lower secondary school will help students acquire basic
knowledge of number, quantity and geometrical figure, and will advance
the problem-solving approach to learning. Besides, complicated computation
will be reduced and instead teaching basic contents will be prioritized.
c. Upper secondary school will establish a new subject, which incorporates
mathematical history and statistical processing of daily events, and
this subject will be a required elective.
4. Science
a. The science class should be well related to child's experiences in
nature and daily life, and will place much value on child's development
of intellectual interest, inquiring mind toward nature, problem-solving
ability, comprehensive insight and creativity.
b. At elementary school, the class contents will carefully be examined
and some difficult contents will be transferred to the curriculum for
upper graders. Rather, the class will emphasize the learning activities
that relate the children's actual experiences in daily lives and close
natural environment. At lower secondary school, the class contents will
also be closely examined by the grade. Students will be encouraged to
develop their abilities to discover and solve problems by themselves
through such learning activities as field observations, inquiring activities
and task-oriented research.
c. Upper secondary school will have a new subject in order to help students
develop scientific perception and thinking by having them learn science
history and the relation between human life and science, and the new
subject will be a required elective.
5. Life Environment Studies
a. Children's activities and experiences in communities, in natural
environment and with people in their neighborhood will further be promoted.
The class contents for two school years will be shown together so that
various activities can be elaborated further.
6. Music, Arts (Music)
a. The music class will emphasize that children enjoy music, find pleasure
in musical activities and have minds to appreciate music throughout
their lives.
b. Instruction will be given more flexibly in response to the actual
situations of each community, school and children. For example, children
will be able to choose the contents they wish to learn and the class
contents for two or more school years will be shown together.
c. Students will be encouraged to deepen their understanding of the
music culture in Japan as well as those in foreign countries.
7. Drawing and Handicrafts, Fine Arts, Arts (Fine Arts, Craft)
a. It will be emphasized that children take interest in arts and craft
throughout their lives and they willingly take part in creative activities.
In order to cultivate the basic capability and ability, they will be
encouraged to conduct unique and diverse creative activities by exercising
their senses and imaginations, and by fully demonstrating their skills.
b. Instruction will be given more flexibly in response to the actual
situations of each community, school and children. For example, children
will be able to choose the contents they wish to learn and the class
contents for two or more school years will be shown together.
c. At lower and upper secondary schools, it will be emphasized that
a student develop an appreciation of Japanese as well as Asian fine
arts and their distinctive features.
8. Fine Arts (Calligraphy)
a. It will be emphasized that a student has a love of calligraphy throughout
one's life. The student will learn expression and appreciation in well-balanced
manner and will be able to practice in the handwriting style of one's
choice.
9. Homemaking, Industrial Arts and Homemaking
a. Children will learn relation between daily life and industrial arts,
family life, family relations, significance of raising a child and the
like. They will also be encouraged to acquire the basic knowledge and
essential skills, and to develop strong wills and practical minds to
have desirable family lives by the united efforts of both sexes.
b. At elementary school, the class contents for two school years will
be shown together to provide appropriate and flexible instruction in
response to the actual situations of each school and children. At lower
secondary school, the following eleven elements of the subject will
be reviewed: timber processing, electricity, metalworking, machine,
cultivation, information basics, family life, food, clothing, housing
and nursing. Timber processing will be integrated with metalworking
and family life with nursing. Information basics will be a requirement
for all students.
10. Physical Education, Health and Physical Education
a. A child will be inspired to have a love of sports throughout one's
life and develop ability and mind to have a healthy life. Physical education
aims at improving child's physical strength and offering more elective
exercise events appropriate for the stage of child development. Health
education will selectively give instruction over such recent issues
as mental health problems caused by recent changes in life and behavior
and by changes of diseases structure, drug abuse problem, diseases caused
by habit, disaster prevention, issues surrounding sex and the like.
b. Physical education at elementary school will be improved by the elective
system of exercise events. Lower secondary school and upper secondary
school will promote the elective system of exercise fields and events.
The contents of health education will be decided in consideration of
the relation to other subjects.
c. Health education will also be given in physical education classes
to third and fourth graders of elementary school and the contents will
include the prevention of drug abuse.
11. Foreign Language
a. It will be specified in the Course of Study that foreign language
will be a required subject at lower secondary school. It will be further
discussed what foreign language, if not English, to be a required subject.
b. The development of listening and speaking proficiency will be emphasized
in consideration of the actual use of target language. Thus, the instruction
should aim at helping students develop their communicative competence.
c. Lower secondary school will employ activities in which students practice
target language in specific contexts of its meaningful use, such as
"telephone conversation" and "shopping". Much of
the instruction will focus on such practice activities; sentence patterns,
grammar, vocabulary and so on will be limited to the basics necessary
for the activities.
12. Vocational Subject/Course
a. In appropriate response to social changes and industrial trend, the
contents will be carefully examined to help students master basic technical
knowledge and skills necessary to work as specialists in future. Besides,
practical and experiential learning activities, such as experiments
and practical training, will be enhanced.
b. As the aging society is growing, training students for welfare activities,
such as social worker training, is a pressing task. For this, the new
subject "Welfare" (tentative name) will be added. In response
to the need of training students for information related business in
the advanced information communication society, the new subject "Information
Study" (tentative name) will be started.
13. Moral Education
a. It is pointed out that children have not sufficiently learned social
rules and basic morals these days. In the light of such children's moral
degeneracy, the following instructions will be given in each stage of
the child development: (i) to help first and second graders adapt themselves
to school life and learn basic daily habits, (ii) to help third and
fourth graders lead a controlled life while they develop the independent
mind, (iii) to help fifth and sixth graders realize the role and responsibility
as a social member, (iv) to help a student in lower secondary school
lead a well-disciplined life as a lower secondary school student, and
also realize oneself as a citizen and cultivate the spirit of international
cooperation, and (v) to help a student in upper secondary school have
mind to live independently with the sense of responsibility as a member
of the society and cultivate willingness to contribute to the international
community.
b. In consideration of the actual situations and issues of each community,
school and children, elementary school and lower secondary school will
selectively allocate credit hours for the moral education. Additionally,
school aims at giving children personal guidance and encouraging them
practice moral conduct in daily life. For this, the hands-on learning
approach as in observations, research, touching real things, volunteer
activities and role playing, will be adopted while specific matters
in classrooms and in school life are given careful consideration.
c. In view of teaching what life one should lead and how as a human
being, civics class and homeroom activities will be improved at upper
secondary school, so that a student will acquire the mind of fulfilling
duty and responsibility, volunteer spirit and moral sense as a member
of democratic society.
14. Special Activities
Special activities consist of homeroom activities, student council activities,
club activities and school events. Special activities will be reformed
as follows.
a. Special activities will contribute to helping a student have desirable
human relations, to promoting rich hands-on learning activities, and
to encouraging a student acquire basic morals and social rules. They
will also emphasize that they help a student develop independent and
practical mind to build a better life as a group member.
b. Homeroom activities at lower and upper secondary schools will put
a high value on offering practical hands-on learning activities in order
to further improve the guidance of teaching what life one should lead
and how as a human being.
c. More school events will adopt the hands-on learning approach as in
activities in nature, cooperative activities with different age groups,
interactions with elderly people and volunteer activities. Also, activities
relating one event to the other will be promoted, and practice and preparation
for events will be reviewed.
d. In consideration of the relations of club activities with extracurricular
activities, out-of-school activities and the newly established "Period
of Integrated Study" (tentative name), elementary school will distribute
reasonable class hours to the club activities. Lower and upper secondary
schools will eliminate club activities.
C. Schools for the visually disabled, the hearing impaired and otherwise
disabled
1. Objectives and titles of nursing and training activities will be
reviewed in order to further clarify that nursing and training are individualized
and autonomous activities to help children become independent.
2. Nursing school education for the mentally retarded will consider
initiating a subject of foreign language (English) as an elective at
upper secondary department and a subject related to service industry.
3. In order to further emphasize the necessity of taking educational
measures in early stage of child development, it will be discussed whether
the matters related to educational counseling for children under three
years of age should be specified in the Course of Study for kindergarten.
V. Related matters of national curriculum standards reform
1. Textbooks and supplements
It is important to write and compile textbooks, which properly reflect
the purpose of the national curriculum standards reform (i.e. deliberate
selection of educational contents and cultivation of the ability to
learn how to learn and to solve problems).
For moral education, not only providing reading materials, but also
developing and using different types of teaching materials will be planned.
Such efforts will provide variety in class activities to learn moral
value, meaning of life and so forth.
2. Teaching methods
Improvement of teaching methods is required to provide individualized
instruction which pays much attention to each child's interest, understanding
of class content and the degree of achievement.
The cooperative teaching strategy will be further recommended. It includes
the instruction given by the united efforts of teachers of different
specialties and the team teaching. The special part-time lecturer system
will be more widely adopted.
It is planned to build or improve educational aids (e.g. computers),
information communication networks, information aids and books in school
library, audio-visual aids, educational facilities and equipments outside
of school and the like.
3. Evaluation of academic achievement
Improvement of evaluation method is expected to contribute to the development
of child's will to learn and ability to think, to judge and to express.
The Courses of Study will employ different evaluation strategies suitable
to each stage of school, each grade and unique characteristics of each
subject.
4. Entrance examination for upper level of school
The method of entrance examinations should be diversified to find out
child's approach to learning, way of thinking and ability to express
own idea in accordance with the fundamental principle that places a
high value on careful examination of contents, child's approach to learning
and development of problem-solving ability. Measuring child's ability
by volume of fragmentary knowledge acquired does not agree with this
principle. Besides, listening comprehension tests in foreign language
should be adopted more broadly.
In consideration of an increasing number of elective subjects, it is
necessary to provide a variety of examination methods and multiple criteria
of evaluation. Student's achievement on elective subjects at lower secondary
school will not be evaluated at an entrance examination for upper secondary
school.
5. Teaching personnel
It is necessary to encourage teachers to understand the importance of
the development of student's ability to learn and think independently,
the careful examination of educational contents, and the improvement
of educational activities by exercising their ingenuity. Teacher training,
appointment and in-service training will be improved in response to
the needs.
To successfully achieve the goal of this reform, raising the level of
instruction system is indispensable and thus, the distribution of teachers
needs to be considered. Specifically, an increasing number of elective
subjects requires more discussion on the model distribution of teachers.
6. Education in concert with families and communities
To facilitate the open-school movement, schools will actively offer
their facilities for public use everyday including holidays and provide
learning opportunities for adults and children in communities.
A school needs to inform families and communities how its education
is conducted, and to ask for their understanding of its educational
activities. In addition, it should have their active cooperation and
make the best use of facilities and natural environment in the district
for its educational activities.
Families and communities should provide children with a variety of opportunities
during such long school recess as summer vacation, so that children
can participate in various activities including hands-on learning opportunities
in daily life, in social life (e.g. volunteer activities) and in nature
as well as cultural activities and sports activities.
7. School management
A school should always review its curriculum, events and meetings, and
encourage families and communities to recognize and fill their roles.
Some schools neglect the national curriculum standards. Taking the opportunity
of this reform, every school is requested to fully understand the principle
and the meaning of the reform.
Considering the principle of this reform, boards of education should
effectively help schools show ingenuity in forming their own curricula.
In addition, the boards are expected to improve their functions in order
to encourage local communities to take part in education.
（ Elementary School Division ） |
