Jinjo Shogaku Sanjutsu (1st-6th grade, 12 volumes in all) is a national textbook of arithmetic used in ordinary elementary schools from April, 1935 to March, 1943. It was also called the Midori Byoshi (green covered textbook), because the cover of the textbook was green. The previous textbook, Jinjo Shogaku Sanjutsusho, was also called the Kuro Byoshi (black covered textbook), because the cover of the textbook was black. Naomiti Shiono, educational supervisor in the Ministry of Education, became the head of the project and compiled the Midori Byoshi. He spent seven years and one month from September, 1933 to October, 1940 on the compilation of the textbook. This was done amid the heightening and expansion of the mathematics education reform movement. The following points are discussed in this paper. First: The process of Naomiti Shiono aiming at the revision of the Kuro Byoshi textbook until he became the Midori Byoshi textbook compilation head, and the compilation process that followed. Second: The characteristics of the aims, the contents, the methods and the levels of the Midori Byoshi textbook. Third: Response to and the significance of the Midori Byoshi textbook compilation. Fourth: The message from Midori Byoshi textbook to the present day arithmetic and mathematics education. That is, to strive for an enriching education, and not to lower the level of education, and so on.

View full abstract

Many people point out that the reason why children's achievement deterioration is next point. The point is that many teachers don't have enough abilities to teach many subjects. So, we aimed to progress teacher's teaching skills, in this study. In this paper, we aimed to progress teacher's teaching skill through our teaching concerning the way of the study of teaching contents in the school workshop. It was cleared that the school workshop had effected on the teachers. Because, their teachings in the study meeting were received a favorable review about educational essential points by the superintendent of schools, teachers of the school board, the head teacher, the vice-principal and many teachers of another school.

View full abstract

To develop mathematics attitude scales of teachers and students, we carried out two examinations which were intended for 137 teachers and 332 6th grade students in elementary schools. According to results of the exploratory factor analysis for two examinations, values of Cronbach's α coefficients of reliability were good in factors picked out. And also Goodness of Fit Index (GFI), Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index(AGFI), and Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) were good in validity of items of factors picked out by confirmatory factor analysis. So we could develop mathematics attitude scales of teachers and students through analyses and inqiries of results of two examinations. Also we clarified relationships between mathematics attitudes of teachers and students in comparison with common items out of items of mathematics attitudes of teachers and students.

View full abstract

Daisu-gaku Seigi (Commentary on Algebra; a preparatory book for entrance examination in algebra) written by Seiji Iwakiri was not only useful for passing entrance exam but also excellent as an inspiring mathematics study book. Iwakiri established a self-learning drill style of an exam prep book and strictly introduced a way of careful checking of dividing by zero in problem solving in Daisu-gaku Seigi. Iwakiri transplanted this drill style and way of checking zero from those in higher education to the field of exam prep books. In this paper we discuss mathematics-educational significance of Daisu-gaku Seigi by comparing with Fujimori's exam prep book which was very popular in that age.

View full abstract

In the study of arithmetic and mathematics, it is very important to observe familiar phenomena and to model them from the mathematical point of view. For this purpose, many teaching materials have been provided so far, and its importance has been shown. This sort of activities of students always accompanies trial and error. By repeating trial and error, students accumulate a lot of experiences which make further improvement and progress. Their teaching materials have been practiced in the elective subjects and integrated studies. But, the new Guidelines for Course of study say that the total number of classes of elective subjects and integrated studies should reduce and that of required subjects should increase. Therefore, in near future, we need to practice the teaching materials mentioned above in the required subjects. In this paper, we make up “blowgun darts” as a mathematics teaching material in the required subject, so that students can experience the usefulness of mathematics. We report the practice of program “Mathematics in Blowgun Darts”.

View full abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the trend of mathematics education in Singapore. The following approaches were employed in this research. The first was to investigate the content of the mathematics textbook in elementary school. Another was to utilize my experiences in NIE (stands for National Institute of Education in Singapore) that were the base of the education research of Singapore for two months. As a result of this research, the following were clarified to me. In the textbook, many aspects that promote the thought of mathematics were in each area, and the thinking process was explained in much space. The textbook emphasized not only the application of mathematics to a real scene but also the advancement of the mathematical content. Although mathematics education was influenced from an international academic ability survey in recent years, it is necessary to reexamine the treatment of a real scene in Japanese mathematics education from the viewpoint of the improving mathematical thinking.

View full abstract