Takashi Mutou

　This study reveals the organization of "dining" by examining the physical setting and interactions with children and care-giver during lunch time at day-care centers. Subjects were 5 one-year-olds and a care-giver in Saitama prefecture. The others were 12 one-year-olds and 2 care-givers in Tokyo.
The major findings of this study are as follows: 
1) The first day-care center empathizes sympathetic "dining', . The center arranges that the physical settings can afford intimate interactions between a care-giver and 5 children. 
2) The second day-care center adopts systematic "dining". It requires children to concentrate respectively during lunch time. 
These results coincide with the care-giver's goals for an ideal lunch style.

Key Words: "Dining", Day-care center, Physical setting, Interaction

"Life Education" is the generalization of Chen He-Qin's own educational thoughts, and the core of his educational thoughts. "Life Education" contains abundant theories and practices, but, the most distinctive features of "Life Education" are curriculum theory and methodology. Direct experience is indeed the primary principal of Life Education method. Several principles and methods of "Life Education" theory have rationality for elementary education especially for preschool education and preschool teacher education, but in case of general educational principle, this theory can not avoid the bias. 
In this thesis, the author introduces Chen He-Qin's( father of Chinese preschool education ) "Life Education" thoughts, experiments and practice of "Life Education" analyzed superiority and defect of "Life Education" , and studied its influence to preschool education reform in recent years.

Key words: "Life Education" , Direct experience, Preschool education reform

The present paper aims to discuss historical issues regarding Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), especially the character of Russian ECCE policy, with particular reference to institutes of this type that were established just after the Russian Revolution of 1917. 
Under the circumstances of war and war communism in the spring of 1919, the First Russian 
Conference on ECCE was held in Moscow. At this conference D.A. Lazurkina, the head of Doshkol'nyi Otdel (department of ECCE) of Narkompros (Ministry of Education), reported that the nation, not parents, should educate infants. After some discussion, the conference resolved that not only the government but also parents should take a part in educating infants. In the debate on the next report, "Basic form of ECCE institutes" by L.K. Shleger, those specialists at ECCE who had been active in childcare and education before 1917 proposed that the basic ECCE institutes be of the kindergarten type, operating 4-6 hours a day. On the other hand, officials of Doshhol'nyi Otdel and various female workers supported an alternative arrangement in which centers of a day care type, open at least 8-10 hours a day, would become the basic form. Meanwhile, S.T. Shatskii insisted that the decision correspond to local conditions. 
　Advocates of the theory of the extinction of the family, who claimed that the role of the family would diminish and finally disappear during the transition through socialism to communism, argued for the daycare center type as the basic form and proposed that the ideal type be a children's home in which youths would live for extended periods without returning each evening to their parents. Supporters of the kindergarten type maintained that the role of the family in raising children would not vanish, even in the final stage of communism, and thus they contended that kindergartens would be the best institutions for assisting mothers in caring for their children. The proponents of daycare centers stressed the urgent need to reduce infant mortality and also to free women from childcare so that they could work in production. The kindergarten supporters argued in turn that the institutes they favored were the best that could be formed under the difficult conditions of that period. Shortages of staff, buildings and funds made it especially difficult, they explained, to operate ambitious daycare facilities effectively. Kindergartens, with their smaller demands for human and material resources, could expect to perform their functions more successfully than daycare establishments, and thus the kindergartens would represent a more attractive option for mothers desiring assistance with childcare. The final resolution of the Conference essentially supported the kindergarten type as the basic form, but it also accepted the daycare center type, with the understanding that such an institution must avoid exhausting children during their comparatively long days there. 
Socialist ideology aside, other elements comprising the history of ECCE in Soviet Russia including (a) the goal of supporting industrialization by freeing women to work in production, (b) the popularization of modern knowledge on education and childcare, and (c) the burdens of total war---can be found in numerous European countries, the USA and Japan.

Key words: working time of the childcare institutions, the withering away of the family, female 
workers, infant mortality, Soviet Russia 

In this study, I am investigating moral education in Early Childhood Education. Children's moral feelings, moral decision making, moral behavior, moral will, and moral attitudes are　connected with mother-child relationships, peer interactions and moral atmosphere. A moral atmosphere is one which children can feel safe, be accepted and be respected. Moral atmosphere is the basic factor of moral education. The analysis of my recorded observations shows that when democratic classrooms have a moral atmosphere, children will exhibit moral behavior.

Key words : moral atmosphere, moral behavior, moral decision making, mutual relationship

When consideing the theory and practice of Japanese early childhood education history, a pioneer who has contributed greatly to the progress of early childhood education both in theory and practice should be mentioned. He was Minoru Wada(1876-1954). Since the European and American kindergarten pedagogy was accepted by Japan, in the time when the early childhood education, which was using play instrument (Gift) created by modeling translated version of Frbbel's works, was considered mainstream, and kindergartens were not popular, Wada was quick to recognize the eastablishment of the early childhood education theory as a "Study" and necessarity of kindergarten education. He formulated a theory of early childhood education which suited the Japanese situation, and evolved his theory practically in the Mejiro Kindergarten(1915) that he founded. Wada divided the infant's life into two parts : physiological-habitual life activities in their dailylife, and play activities as their expressions of positive self-motivation. In his theory, he treated the former as "The Theory of Disciplinary Instruction", and the latter as 'The 
Theory of Play Education" , and based his kindergarten's practice on it. The 'Kindergarten Theory" as his kindergarten practiced, for example, was constructed to be very useful for the infant's guidance. Although he divided the infant's life into two part, in his 'Kindergarten Theory" he combined the two into one. In other words, from Wada's point view, the theory and practice relations could be considered as connected. His method of maintaining a good balance between theory and practice should be highly regarded in the modern history of Japanese early childhood education.

Key word ; Minoru Wada, Kindergarten Theory, Theory of Play Education, Theory of Disciplinary 
　 Instruction, Theory and Practice 

This study examined how preschool children (6-year-old) portray their friends in a group activity of a nursery school. A teacher had a target child to stand up and the rest of the class was questioned about the standing classmate (X), "Tell me about your friend X." Then many children raised their hands and stated their opinions voluntarily. Children's initial responses and teacher's feedback toward it were analyzed in this study. The results suggested that pre-school children's person-concepts is more sophisticated than shown by previous studies using one-to-one individual interview. 1) The preschoolers used psychological trait terms to discuss their friends more frequently than appearance ones. 2) Children often used an adverb "itsumo (always)" which implies enduring aspects of a person. 3) The variation_ of expressions in repetitions of peer's opinion revealed characteristics of the target child. 4) Several children were aware of both positive and negative aspects about their friends, and repetition served as a basis to produce these expressions. Also the teacher provided variety of feedback, which would affect children's person-concepts.
1 ) They not only acknowledged the children's responses, but also questioned or interpreted them in many ways. 
2) Their feedback depended on whether children's responses were positive or negative.

Key words: preschool children, understanding of others, everyday setting 

The purpose of this study is to show the concrete environment of the Kindergarten education that enhance the educational continuation between the Kindergarten and the elementary school. 
First we clarify the necessity of the Kindergarten education, being conscious of connecting with the Life Environment Studies in elementary school, in showing the coordination and the relationships between the guidelines of the Kindergarten and the course of study of the elementary school. In this paper, we show the environment of the illustrated books, in which children can have the general ideas of the Life Environment Studies. We check the illustrated books whose pictures and words are similar to those in the textbooks of the Life Environment Studies, which are in accord with the aim (2) the second grade of the course of study.

Key words: kindergarten education, elementary , illustrated book, school education, the Life 
　　 Environment Studies, 

This paper investigates the relationship between peer relations and corporality in young childhood. The purpose is to clarify the linkage between a companion relation of children and a fact that they move similarly to the others. Children's similar movement is the formation of "a body as a whole', for example, the linking of a physical and psychological states. The result of the observation shows overlapping of joint ownership of companion consciousness with the similar movement. It seems to happen because it bring about the sense of reality owing to a child's body sense and visibility for the other.

Key words : corporality, as a whole' companion consciousness, similar movement to the other, "a body

The purpose of this paper is to consider ways to improve the quality of care and education in　nurseries, and publication of the results thereof. Specifically,this paper compares theories and practices of information publication in the U.K. with those in Japan. 
　Recent changes in Japan followed the Child Welfare Law, which was amended in 1997, and the UK followed with the Children Act(1989). In Japan, the idea of competition has been introduced. Competition between nursery care institutions will or may promote improvement, and such competition can only work properly if it is based on accurate information. The task, then, is to provide parents and day nurseries with good information to inspire and maintain appropriate competition. 
The public information available in the UK seems basically similar to that in Japan, but has better detail, and is more concretely presented. The available information should help parents to choose day nurseries, and help the day nurseries to improve themselves by informed adjustments of their internal processes. Of overriding importance is the principle that children's welfare is paramount.

Key Words : Improving the Quality of Day Nurseries, Public Information, Comparison of Japan and the U.K., Children Act 　　　　　 　1989 (UK), Revised/Amended Child Welfare Law (Japan) 

As a sequel to the first report, this study was carried out to explore the transgenerational-tr ansmisson mechanism in child abuse and to find the way of child care by surveying the preparedness for motherhood as a basic study. The objective was to identify the difference in attitude towards pregnancy, caused by attachment (internal working model). 
The survey was conducted with 278 pregnant women by means of a questionnaire. The focus was on the characteristics of the subjects, internal working model and the attitude with regards to becoming a mother.
As result, the internal working model was classified as follows':
Secure Group-143 persons 
Ambivalent Group-73 persons 
Avoidant Group-62 persons 
Factor analysis was conducted on the attitude that pregnant women have towards becoming a mother, using 3 groups : secure, ambivalent and avoidant. Commom factors to all 3groups were acceptance, uncertainty, childcare burden and confidence. Though acceptance was common to all 3groups, acceptance had many lateral relations including as much negative as affirmative regard towards nursing infants: with the ambivalent group, acceptance regarded oneself becoming a mother ; with the avoidant group, it was the acceptance of the nursing infant ; with the secure group, it was also the acceptance of one's becoming a mother. 
Furthermore, the factor structure was composed for each group. Compared to the other 2groups, the secure group had a systematized factor structure. 
In this way , it was possible to pinpoint part of the internal structure that explains the attitude which a pregnant women has towards becoming a mother. As a result, a difference in this attitude was seen in the 3groups because of the variable mother's attachment.

key ward : child abuse, attachment, a pregnant women, readiness of motherhood,