National Institute for Educational Policy Research

The oculo-motor re ects the viewer s ability to process visual information. This paper examines whether the oculo-motor was affected by two factors: rstly task dif culty and secondly eye-movement frequency. In this paper, oculo-motor indices were de ned as measurements of pupil size, blink and eye-movement. For the purpose of this study, two experiments were designed based on previous subsequential ocular tasks were subjects were required to solve a series of mathematical problems and to orally report their calculations.The results of this experiment found that pupil size and blink rate increased in response to task dif culty in the oral calculation group. In contrast however both the saccade occurrence rate and saccade length were found to decrease with the increased dif culty of the task. The results suggests that oculo-motor indices respond to task dif culty. Secondly, eye-movement frequencies were elicited by the switching frequency of a visual target. Pupil size and the saccade time were found to increase with the frequency however, blink and gazing time were found to decrease in response to the frequency. There was a negative correlation between blinking and gazing time. Additionally, the correlation between blinking and saccade time appeared in the higher frequencies.These results indicate the oculo-motor indices are affected by both task dif culty and eye-movement frequency. Furthermore, eye-movement frequency appears to play a different role than that of task dif culty.

Socioeconomic status (SES) has a powerful influence on cognitive, social and brain development. Children from low-SES backgrounds show poor executive function (EF). However, it is unclear if there is a SES-dependent disparity in functional brain development. The present study examined whether the SES of preschool children (N = 93) is associated with prefrontal activation during cognitive shifting tasks as measured by near-infrared spectroscopy. Low-SES children did not show activation in lateral prefrontal regions during the tasks, whereas middle- and high-SES children showed prefrontal activations, although no differences were found in terms of behavioural performance. These results suggest that SES can affect the functional development of the prefrontal regions. In this study, we discuss the practical implications of the results.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to clarify the lesson study (LS) processes and evaluate their effectiveness in Japanese elementary and secondary (middle and high) schools, through a school survey by the National Institute for Educational Policy Research of Japan (NIER). Design/methodology/approach The authors randomly selected 1,000 elementary schools and 1,000 middle schools and 500 high schools in Japan. Survey items are methods of LS, and indicators of building professional learning communities (PLC) through LSs, close communication between teachers, high quality instruction by teachers, and test scores of students of the school. Findings Based on the school survey in elementary and middle schools, almost all schools set up a school‐wide committee, a research theme, and a schedule for LS, and LSs were implemented as part of a school‐wide lesson study from which an action research report is produced. On the other hand, in high schools, almost all the schools implemented LSs, but each LS is independent and implemented specifically for the professional development of the individual teacher who undertakes the research lesson. The authors consider LS as a way to facilitate a PLC in the school. There are correlations between the methods of LS and the indicators of a PLC in elementary and middle schools. However, the effectiveness of LS differs between elementary and middle schools. With respect to the research theme and the organization and discussion of lesson plans, LS methods in middle schools are developed into LS methods in elementary schools. The LS methods may be developed gradually both in elementary and middle schools. Originality/value Statistical data of LS in Japanese elementary and secondary schools are presented for the first time, demonstrating the effectiveness of LS.

Responding to international concerns regarding childhood bullying and a need to identify a common bullying measure, this study examines the comparability of children's self-reports of bullying across five countries. The Pacific-Rim Bullying Measure, a self-report measure of students' experiences with six different types of bullying behaviour and victimization, was administered to 1,398 Grade 5 students from Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, and United States. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory modeling were used to evaluate construct equivalence on the measure across different countries. Preliminary results revealed some construct differences across countries, that is, the bullying measure is measuring one construct, but that the construct is manifested differently in the different countries.

This paper describes the influence of eye blinks on frequency analysis and power spectrum difference for task-evoked pupillography and eye-movement during an experiment which consisted of ocular following tasks and oral calculation tasks with three levels of task difficulty: control, 1×1,and 1×2 digit oral calculation.The compensation model for temporal pupil size based on MLP (multi layer perceptron) was trained to detect a blink and to estimate pupil size by using blinkless pupillary change and artificial blink patterns. The PSD (power spectrum density) measurements from the estimated pupillography during oral calculation tasks show significant differences, and the PSD increased with task difficulty in the area of 0.1 - 0.5Hz and 1.6 - 3.5Hz, as did the average pupil size.The eye-movement during blinks was corrected manually, to remove irregular eye-movements such as saccades. The CSD (cross spectrum density) was achieved from horizontal and vertical eye-movement coordinates. Significant differences in CSDs among experimental conditions were examined in the area of 0.6 - 1.5 Hz. These differences suggest that the task difficulty affects the relationship between horizontal and vertical eye-movement coordinates in the frequency domain.

Kitagawa F. (2007) The regionalization of science and innovation governance in Japan?, Regional Studies 41, 1099–1114. Traditionally a country that has favoured the centralized national direction of industry–science relationships, Japan is gradually transforming its innovation system with the ‘regionalization’ of science and technology (S&T) policies, characterized by the promotion of ‘clusters’ and academic entrepreneurship. However, there remain fundamental questions as to the development and actual potential of truly ‘regional’ governance structures to guide science policy in target areas. This paper examines developments in the governance of science and innovation in Japan, with a particular focus on the policy instruments used, their impact on regional economic development, organizational embeddedness in regions and the ability of regions to coordinate innovation support policies. Kitagawa F. (2007) La régionalisation de la gouvernance de la science et de l'innovation au Japon?, Regional Studies 41, 1099–1114. Traditionnellement un pays qui a favorisé le dirigisme quant aux rapports entre la science et l'innovation, le Japon transforme progressivement son système d'innovation par la ‘régionalisation’ de ses politiques en faveur de la science et de la technologie (S et T), ce qui se caractérise par la promotion de ‘grappes’ et de l'esprit d'entreprise académique. Cependant, il reste des questions fondamentales quant au développement et au potentiel réel des structures de gouvernance vraiment ‘régionales’ susceptibles de piloter la politique en faveur de la science dans des zones cibles. Cet article cherche à examiner des développements dans le domaine de la gouvernance de la science et de l'innovation au Japon, portant notamment sur les outils de politique employés, leur impact sur le développement économique régional, l'ancrage organisationnel régional et la capacité des régions à coordonner des politiques de soutien pour l'innovation. Innovation Politique de S et T Régionalisation Gouvernance Esprit d'entreprise académique Japon Kitagawa F. (2007) Regionalisierung der Regierungsführung für Wissenschaft und Innovation in Japan?, Regional Studies 41, 1099–1114. Bisher war Japan ein Land, das auf eine zentralisierte nationale Leitung der Beziehungen zwischen Industrie und Wissenschaft setzte. Jetzt wandelt es sein Innovations, system allmählich um, indem es die Politiken für Wissenschaft und Technologie ,regionalisiert', was durch die Förderung von ,Clustern' und von akademischem Unternehmertum gekennzeichnet ist. Es verbleiben jedoch grundlegende Fragen hinsichtlich der Entwicklung und des tatsächlichen Potenzials für wirklich ,regionale' Strukturen der Regierungsführung zur Leitung der Wissenschaftspolitik in den Zielbereichen. In diesem Beitrag werden die Entwicklungen in der Regierungsführung für Wissenschaft und Innovation in Japan untersucht, wobei besonders auf die eingesetzten politischen Instrumente, ihre Auswirkung auf die regionale Wirtschaftsentwicklung, die organisationelle Einbettung in die Regionen und die Fähigkeit der Regionen zur Koordination der Politiken zur Unterstützung der Innovation eingegangen wird. Innovation Wissenschafts-und Technologiepolitik Regionalisierung Regierungsführung Akademisches Unternehmertum Japan Kitagawa F. (2007) ¿La regionalización de la gobernanza de la ciencia y la innovación en Japón?, Regional Studies 41, 1099–1114. Un país como Japón que tradicionalmente ha favorecido la dirección nacional centralizada de las relaciones entre la industria y la ciencia, está ahora transformando poco a poco su sistema de innovación con la regionalización de las políticas científicas y tecnológicas, caracterizadas por el fomento de agrupaciones y el empresariado académico. Sin embargo, quedan por responder cuestiones fundamentales en cuanto al desarrollo y el potencial actual de verdaderas estructuras de gobernanza regional para guiar la política científica en áreas importantes. En este artículo examino los desarrollos en la gobernanza de la ciencia y la innovación en Japón prestando especial atención a qué instrumentos políticos se utilizan, cómo repercuten en el desarrollo económico regional y cómo se integran en las regiones a nivel organizativo. Asimismo analizo cuál es la capacidad de las regiones para coordinar las políticas de apoyo a la innovación. Innovación Política científica y tecnológica Regionalización Gobernanza Empresariado académico Japón

article Share on Making a place for seniors on the Net: SeniorNet, senior identity, and the digital divide Authors: Mizuko Ito National Institute for Educational Policy Research of Japan, Tokyo, Japan National Institute for Educational Policy Research of Japan, Tokyo, JapanView Profile , Vicki L. O'Day Univ. of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA Univ. of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CAView Profile , Annette Adler Agilent Labs, Palo Alto, CA Agilent Labs, Palo Alto, CAView Profile , Charlotte Linde NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CAView Profile , Elizabeth D. Mynatt Georgia Institute of Techology, Altanta Georgia Institute of Techology, AltantaView Profile Authors Info & Claims ACM SIGCAS Computers and SocietyVolume 31Issue 3September 2001 pp 15–21https://doi.org/10.1145/504696.504699Published:01 September 2001Publication History 23citation1,297DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations23Total Downloads1,297Last 12 Months31Last 6 weeks2 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteGet Access

As artificial intelligence systems increasingly make high-stakes recommendations and decisions automatically in many facets of our lives, the use of explainable artificial intelligence to inform stakeholders about the reasons behind such systems has been gaining much attention in a wide range of fields, including education. Also, in the field of education there has been a long history of research into self-explanation, where students explain the process of their answers. This has been recognized as a beneficial intervention to promote metacognitive skills, however, there is also unexplored potential to gain insight into the problems that learners experience due to inadequate prerequisite knowledge and skills that are required, or in the process of their application to the task at hand. While this aspect of self-explanation has been of interest to teachers, there is little research into the use of such information to inform educational AI systems. In this paper, we propose a system in which both students and the AI system explain to each other their reasons behind decisions that were made, such as: self-explanation of student cognition during the answering process, and explanation of recommendations based on internal mechanizes and other abstract representations of model algorithms.

One widely accepted explanation of bullying, known as the aggressive-motive thesis, assumes that bullying is a form of aggressive behaviour triggered by external stress. However, recent evidences have suggested a different explanation, known as the frustration-aggression thesis, which asserts that bullying is a psychological defense triggered by external stress to reduce anxiety. The present investigation is an attempt to compare school bullying in Japan and Hong Kong and to find out whether the frustration-aggression thesis is applicable in the schooling context of both societies. Data analysis using structural equation modeling was based on 703 girls selected from 13 primary and 6 junior secondary schools in Japan and 2,477 girls selected from 21 primary and 19 secondary schools in Hong Kong. Results of the analysis suggest that girl bullying in Japan can be explained by the frustration-aggression thesis but that girl bullying in Hong Kong can be explained by the aggressive-motive thesis. The reasons behind the different bullying mechanisms are suggested, but further investigations are needed to uncover the underlying causes.

Low executive function (EF) during early childhood is a major risk factor for developmental delay, academic failure, and social withdrawal. Susceptible genes may affect the molecular and biological mechanisms underpinning EF. More specifically, genes associated with the regulation of prefrontal dopamine may modulate the response of prefrontal neurons during executive control. Several studies with adults and older children have shown that variants of the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene are associated with behavioral performance and prefrontal activations in EF tasks. However, the effect of the COMT genotype on prefrontal activations during EF tasks on young children is still unknown. The present study examined whether a common functional polymorphism (Val158Met) in the COMT gene was associated with prefrontal activations and cognitive shifting in 3- to 6-year-old children. The study revealed that, compared with children with at least one Met allele (Met/Met and Met/Val), children who were Val homozygous (i) were more able to flexibly switch rules in cognitive shifting tasks and (ii) exhibited increased activations in lateral prefrontal regions during these tasks. This is the first evidence that demonstrates the relationship between a gene polymorphism and prefrontal activations in young children. It also indicates that COMT Val homozygosity may be advantageous for cognitive shifting and prefrontal functions, at least during early childhood, and children who possess this variant may have a lower risk of developing future cognitive and social development issues.

We examine the influence of task types on information-seeking behaviors on the Web by using screen capture logs and eye-movement data. Eleven participants performed two different types of web search, an informational task and a transactional task, and their think aloud protocols and behaviors were recorded. Analyses of the screen capture logs showed that the task type affected the participants' informationseeking behaviors. In the transactional task, participants visited more web pages than for the informational task, but their reading time for each page was shorter than in the informational task. A preliminary analysis of eye-movement data for nine participants revealed characteristics of the scanpaths followed in search result pages as well as the distribution of lookzones for each task.

This paper investigates whether birth weight itself causes individuals’ future life chances. By using a sample of twins in Japan and controlling for the potential effects of genes and family backgrounds, we examine the effect of birth weight on later educational and economic outcomes. The most important finding is that birth weight has a causal effect on academic achievement around the age of 15, but not on the highest years of schooling and earnings.

Previous research has shown that executive function is correlated with prosocial behavior during early childhood. Whether early prosocial behaviors were associated with later executive function during preschool years or vice versa was thus examined in a longitudinal design. The prosocial behaviors and executive function of children (N = 64) aged 42 to 65 months were evaluated twice (Times 1 and 2), based on teachers’ reports and children’s performance on hot and cool executive function tasks. Results revealed that prosocial behaviors at Time 1 were associated with later hot executive function at Time 2, but executive function at Time 1 was not related to prosocial behaviors at Time 2. These findings suggest that prosocial behaviors may enhance children’s hot executive function.

Delay of gratification refers to the ability to forgo a small immediate reward to obtain a larger delayed reward. Cognitive mechanisms underlying the delay of gratification in young children have been examined extensively. However, the neural mechanism of this process is largely unknown. The present study examined whether inferior prefrontal regions play an important role in the delay of gratification choice paradigm in young children. Preschool children were given a choice version of a delay of gratification task, and their neural activation during the task was assessed using near-infrared spectroscopy in cross-sectional (Study 1) and longitudinal designs (Study 2). Results revealed the activation of the right inferior prefrontal regions of children during the task in both studies. Specifically, the inferior prefrontal regions of the children were activated during immediate choices but not during delay choices. This study is the first to demonstrate the neural correlates of the delay of gratification in young children. We discuss how the right inferior prefrontal regions of preschool children are activated during the delay of gratification.

This article outlines trends in the ongoing reform of moral education in Japan by examining how this is dealing with problems and issues which have arisen from past practice in moral education in schools. The Moral Class has been incorporated in the elementary and junior high school curriculum as ‘a non-subject lesson’ since 1958. In 2015 the course of study was revised to upgrade the Moral Class to an official subject in order to revamp moral education for the well-being of children and of society. The focus of this reform is described as a shift to thinking and discussion with the intention that the new subject will encourage children to think reflectively and critically. It is expected that active learning, such as discussion, collaborative work and problem-solving, will enhance children’s abilities to think deeply and to act proactively. Teacher education and collaboration within the society will be key to realizing the potential of this new subject.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explain how initial teachers in Japan can develop instructional and thinking skills through lesson study with mentors. It will clarify the point of view in which mentors evaluate the lesson plan, research lessons and kyouzai-kenkyuu of initial teachers. Design/methodology/approach – This study adopts a case analysis that shows how a mentor gives advice to an initial teacher in the post-lesson discussion. In Japanese lesson study, the time schedule of the post-lesson discussion is well structured, so the time for a mentor to state his or her comment is limited to around ten minutes. Mentors try to help initial teachers develop instructional and thinking skills. Findings – From simple problem to high-level cases in which finding the problem of a lesson is difficult, only a highly competent mentor can find the problem and suggest improvements. Mentors need the competency to observe the lesson and the knowledge and skills to improve the lesson. Research limitations/implications – This paper focusses on how mentors can help develop the kyouzai-kenkyuu understanding of initial teachers. More studies that focus on how mentors can train initial teachers to understand how students learn during lessons are needed. Originality/value – This paper discloses what Japanese teachers think of lesson plans and kyouzai-kenkyuu and how mentors help develop kyouzai-kenkyuu understanding among initial teachers.

Users often conduct exploratory searches on the Web to solve complex problems, but how for evaluating the effectiveness of a search, especially in a user-centered approach, remains an open question. We propose a user-centered method to evaluate the effectiveness of an exploratory search by focusing on the change in the users' mental representations of a topic during their exploratory search on the Web. This was done by comparing the concept maps depicted before and after each users searching. Thirty-five undergraduate students recruited from various departments and universities participated in our experiment. The participants were instructed to search for and gather Web pages for the task of writing a term paper on two given topics, politics and media, while working in either of two scenarios: "Selective scenario" (identifying only ten Web pages as important) and "As-Many-As scenario" (collecting as many Web pages as possible). The participants were divided into two groups: one group searched for both topics in the Selective scenario, and the other searched for them in the As-Many-As scenario. They composed their concept maps before and after searching. We defined the following measures to show the differences between the maps before and after a search to analyze the concept maps made by the participants: common, new, and lost map components like nodes, links, and link labels. We used these measures to compare the results from different topics, scenarios, and browser types. The results showed that the concept maps greatly changed after searching and that there were more common nodes and link labels in the Selective scenario than in the As-Many-As scenario. A comparative analysis of the concept maps between the pre- and post-search maps indicated that the users significantly changed their knowledge structure of a topic by completing the exploratory search task.

The present study examined whether the lateral prefrontal regions played an important role in a less is more (LIM) task in young children. Preschool children were given a LIM task, and neural activation during the task was assessed using a functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Results revealed that children's right ventrolateral prefrontal regions were activated during the task. Specifically, stronger prefrontal activation was shown when children chose a small reward compared to when they selected the other option. Results suggest that the lateral prefrontal regions, the core region of cool EF, contributes to performance in the LIM task.

The oculo-motor re ects the viewer s ability to process visual information. This paper examines whether the oculo-motor was affected by two factors: rstly task dif culty and secondly eye-movement frequency. In this paper, oculo-motor indices were de ned as measurements of pupil size, blink and eye-movement. For the purpose of this study, two experiments were designed based on previous subsequential ocular tasks were subjects were required to solve a series of mathematical problems and to orally report their calculations.The results of this experiment found that pupil size and blink rate increased in response to task dif culty in the oral calculation group. In contrast however both the saccade occurrence rate and saccade length were found to decrease with the increased dif culty of the task. The results suggests that oculo-motor indices respond to task dif culty. Secondly, eye-movement frequencies were elicited by the switching frequency of a visual target. Pupil size and the saccade time were found to increase with the frequency however, blink and gazing time were found to decrease in response to the frequency. There was a negative correlation between blinking and gazing time. Additionally, the correlation between blinking and saccade time appeared in the higher frequencies.These results indicate the oculo-motor indices are affected by both task dif culty and eye-movement frequency. Furthermore, eye-movement frequency appears to play a different role than that of task dif culty.

This study focuses on perfectionism in Japanese and North American academically gifted children as it pertains to their potential contribution in the countries seeking progress and global leadership. Perfectionist’ tendencies and the characteristics that typically reveal such tendencies are examined in academically gifted Japanese juku-school students (N=195, average age 11 years 6 months) using the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Frost et al., 1990). A comparison is made with the same age peers living in the United States of America from the Parker and Mills study conducted in 1996. The study revealed a stronger orientation towards perfectionism in academically gifted Japanese children than their American counterparts, especially in terms of their efforts to do their best in their own social milieu. Concluding remarks recognize the difficulties in conducting cross-cultural research.