-Focussed on the New Goal of "Desirable Outcomes" in Nursery Education, and Its Evaluation-

Akiko Yoshioka

Setsuko Ogata

Eri Kamisakamoto

Kazumi Tashiro

As the President of the Japanese Society for the Education of Young Children [JSEYC] , Dr. Emiko Hannah Ishigaki deeply regrets to inform you that, on February 22nd, 1998, Dr. Masako Shoji, Honorary President of JSEYC, Honorary Member of OMEP, and distinguished Professor of Early Childhood Education in Japan, passed away. On February 24th, the Funeral Service was held at Nagaregawa Church, in Hiroshima ; on March 17th, a Memorial Service was held at Seiwa College Chapel, in Nishinomiya. The late Dr. Shoji was indeed a woman of leadership for the education of young children, not only in Japanese society but also all over the world in preschool education. We know how much she meant to us. She gave us hope and encouragement to conduct research. We received many thoughtful messages from all over the world. The thoughts and prayers of her concerned friends and colleagues are a source of strength indeed. Her memory will be with us forever.

The purpose of this article is to draw lessons from a new movement in child-centred education encouraged by the British Government. This study considers two policies which were drawn up to ensure the quality of nursery education. The first of these is to set a goal of "Desirable Outcomes" (SCAA,1996) , and the second is to organize inspections of nursery education institutions by visiting inspectors from OFSTED, according to the Nursery Education and Grant-Maintained Schools Act 1996. Materials for this study include documents published by the SCAA (one of QCA' s predecessors) and the OFSTED, published reports on inspections, and information from personal communications. The "Desirable Outcomes" system has attracted some criticism that its sights are set too low, but it may be extremely useful and instructive if it is regarded as guaranteeing a minimum standard of nursery education for all, despite any possible gaps between the ministries of education and social welfare. Furthermore, there may be lessons to be learned from the method of evaluation, and the manner in which results may be made available to the public to show the actual quality of education.

Key Words : Quality, England, Nursery Education, Desirable Outcomes, Inspection

The Purpose of this study is to analyse the spontaneous questions posed by children aged from three to five years, about the nearby natural environment, so as to make use of such questions as an aid to learning about the environment in the Early Childhood Education content. Parents were asked to note their childrenﾕs questions, which were then sorted and analysed according to the children7s ages and acc.ording to type; those types included the following; what, where, why, how come, when, name-asking, animistic questions, growth-processes, living situations, features, construction, function, comparison, and cause and effect. As the infantsﾕ thinking progressed, becoming more detailed and scientific, their questions became deeper and more difficult. Accordingly, teachers should give three-year-old children a stable environment where they can explore things and phenomena by themselves, and for older infants, various environments should be provided in which children can play to the full and educate themselves through their own intellectual curiosity and scientific inclination. This paper concludes with some suggestions for ways to set up such learning situations.

Key Words : spontaneous questions, children aged from three to five years, environment in the Early Childhood Education content,

　　　　　　　infants' thinking, teaching and aiding,

　In this paper, I tried to elucidate how infants grasp the relation between self and others. In this purpose, I analyzed diaries written by an infant for one and a half year(5:04-6:11) , and found out three points. 1) The infant related with others in various ways. I categorized the relations into seven types; to act on, to be acted on, to be valued, to give something, to take something, to play together and to observe. 2) Each person has different component of seven types with the infant, and I divided into four groups; family group, kindergarten teacher group, friend group and the rest. I found that the feature of kindergarten teacher group is different from other groups. 3) The relation with mother and the relation with kindergarten teacher changed with time and were complementary. 

key words : relation between self and others, diaries written by an infant, seven types of the relations, four groups of others, the relation with mother and the relation with kindergarten teacher
 

This is a study of science education in modem Japan. The aims of this research are the following two: 
1) Making a clear at the enlightenment of modern scientific thought in modern Japan. 
2) Setting a high valuation on YUKITI FUKUZAWAs accomplished works in science education;
because the works are the base point of science educations history and science primers history in Japan, and his works are important in the history of modern Japanese children's culture.

Key words : Yukichi Fukuzawa, KYUURJ - ZUKAI (science primer) , science education, modern scientific thought, Japanese science history

This study was carried out to explore the transgenerational-transmisson mechanism in child abuse and to find the way of child care by surveying what young women think of motherhood, specifically, examining the following two points : 1. Difference in young womenﾕs femininity depending on the nature of attachment. 2. Abuse prevention for unmarried women. The survey was conducted with 173 students from a nursing school by means of questionnaire, The focus was on the characteristics of the subjects and internal working model as well as the aspects of femininity development, i.e. "readiness of motherhood" and "childishness ' As result, the internal working model was classified as follows : Secure Group - 87 persons ambivalent Group - 44 persons Avoidant Group - 42 persons While the Secure Group showed statistically high point for both "affection toward infants." and "positiveness toward child care." in measuring "readiness of motherhood" ,the Avoidant Group indicated high point for the "immatureness" as the measure of "childisness" . From this, it was found that the attachment fostered in childhood is connected with the "readiness of motherhood" and "childishness" which may occur subsequently .

key ward : child abuse, attachment, readiness of motherhood, childishness

This study examined that 1)kindergarten-teachers who didn' t write plan by fixed form formulated what kind of vision 2)they practiced what kind of fact-grasp in their processes of vision. Based on the constant observations of the three teachers' practices and interviews on their reflections, the data were analyzed. The analysis revealed that 1)teachers practiced fact-grasp of not only children but also theirselves, 2)teachers had two types of vision-both the action planand the direction point, 3)the process of vision that were conscious of problems and persuited the cause of the problem made their visions more physical. It is important for discussion of curriculum that there is not only short-time circle like <action plan practice-evaluation> but also long-time circle like 'direction point

Key Words : process of vision, fact-grasp, problem and cause, action plan, direction point