Shingo Yotsutsuji

This study examined reliability and validity of Classroom-Based School Life Orientation Scale. The scale was created from the results of a survey to 644 pupils in the 5th and 6th grades asking about how they like to live life in the classroom group. The following 5 factors were found from the answers: other-focus, teacher-focus, self-focus, enjoyment-focus and close-friend-focus. Inter consistency of these factors proved the scale reliability. Relation between the factors and classroom climate showed the validity of the scale. Regarding gender differences, girls had higher scores on other-focus, and boysʼ scores were higher on self-focus and enjoyment-focus. Difference in school years was as follows: 5th graders had higher scores on other-focus and teacher-focus, while 6th gradersʼ scores were higher on enjoyment-focus.

A scale was developed to examine elementary school children’s perspectives on bullying and its factor structure, reliability and validity were examined. A questionnaire survey was conducted with fourth to sixth graders (N=599) about their perspectives on bullying. Explanatory factor analyses (maximum likelihood procedure, promax rotation) were conducted and the factor structure was refined. As a result, the “Scale of Elementary School Children’s Perspectives on Bullying,” which consists of three factors and 11 items, was developed. The factors were: “Limited acceptance for the bullying,” “A keen sense of bullying,” and “Solvability for the bullying.” Furthermore, adequate reliability and validity of the scale were confirmed.

Previous studies on improvement programs to psychological issues in Japanese educational settings were analyzed from the perspectives of "statistical verification of the effects of different improvement programs" and "consistency with learning contents of subjects and fields determined by government curriculum guidelines." Moreover, new improvement programs are discussed. Among various psychological issues in Japanese educational settings, "classroom collapse," "learning motivation," "selfesteem," "satisfaction with classes," and "motivation for school life" were focused. Previous practical studies (N=28) dealing with these issues were analyzed from the two perspectives described above. Among 28 studies, 24 conducted statistical analyses of the effects of the methods and all of them indicated significant effects. Moreover, 19 articles mentioned the subjects and fields in which the practice was conducted. Among the 19 articles, 11 described the consistency between practice and subjects and fields. The above results suggest that previous improvement programs to psychological issues in educational settings might not be sufficient from the perspectives of statistical verification of the effects and consistency with learning contents of subjects and fields that are determined by government curriculum guidelines and further accumulation of research is required. Based on the above, future improvement programs to psychological issues in Japanese educational settings are suggested from the following three perspectives: (1) developing programs as annual curriculums consisting of small units having statistically verified effects, (2) developing programs for moral education, periods of integrated study, and special activities, which are often utilized as improvement programs to psychological issues, by clarifying the correlation with the government curriculum guidelines, (3) developing programs for comprehensively solving psychological issues in educational settings. It is suggested that comprehensive improvement programs for dealing with psychological issues in educational settings should be developed based on the three perspectives described above.

Class management in elementary schools was examined based on the results of a questionnaire survey conducted with elementary school teachers (N=22). Many of the participants responded "human relationships" and "rules and manners" to the question, "What do you consider important in class management? Next, they were asked, "What are you actually doing to develop human relationships and rules and manners?" It was suggested that teachers were attempting to increase communication between "teachers and children," "between children," and between "teachers and other children," to develop human relationships and were trying to develop a common understanding about rules and manners in the whole class and make rules and manners together with children to develop rules and manners. That is, teachers were attempting to share the recognition of rules and manners among all the class members. Furthermore, there were various perspectives on the "ideal class image" and "measures to develop an ideal class." Future perspectives on class management and measures to improve it were discuss based on the above findings.

News of bullying-related suicides being reported almost on a daily basis and it is a major problem in the field of education. Different bullying prevention programs have been developed and conducted in educational settings for preventing bullying. Programs including Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP; Olweus, 2007) and KiVa program, among others have been used internationally and have reported good results. These programs are currently being comprehensively utilized. On the other hand, development and conduct of bullying prevention programs in Japan are often left to individual schools, and nationwide systematic programs have not been developed to date. Moreover, in many cases, effects of bullying prevention programs have not been empirically verified. This study analyzed Japanese bullying prevention programs used in educational settings, from the following perspectives: (1) statistical verification of program efficacy, and (2) confirmation of consistency with curriculum guidelines. "confirmation of consistency with curriculum guidelines" means that the practice contents of the practiced bullying prevention program accorded with an aim and the contents such as each subject shown in curriculum guidelines. First, we searched the Internet for the keywords "bullying," and "programs" in the Japanese literature, and identified 33 articles, which were reviewed. Among the 33 papers, statistical verification of program efficacy was conducted in 15 studies, all of which indicated that the programs were effective. Moreover, 19 papers described subjects and fields in which the programs were practiced. Among the 19 papers, only four described the consistency between practice and contents of subjects and fields. Previous studies might be insufficient in both statistical verification of program efficacy and examining the consistency between programs and learning contents. Therefore, further studies on this topic are required. Future perspectives of Japanese bullying prevention programs are discussed based on these results from following perspective. (1) Developing a program of annual curriculums composed of small plural learning units having statistically established efficacy for bullying prevention. (2) Developing a program that is specifically placed in curriculum guidelines, especially in "moral education," "integrated studies," and "special activities," lessons, which are often used in bullying prevention programs. It is expected that programs for bullying prevention for wide use in Japanese educational settings could be developed based on these perspectives.

This study was conducted to identify methods of developing integrated studies that are useful for classroom management, through exploratory learning conducted by children. "Hirano Heart-warming Project," a project in which children could think about ways for feeling "the warmth of the heart," as well as "activities for feeling the warmth of the heart" developed by the children were conducted with fifth graders during the integrated studies period. After conducting the project, many children felt positive changes in the class. It is suggested that this project is effective for classroom management.

The effect of approaches using Structured Group Encounter (SGE) and Social Skills Training (SST) on students' school morale was examined. The degree of strength of students' images of ideal classes, i.e., how strong images students have about the ideal class situation, was used as a parameter. Participants were sixth grade elementary school students (N = 31). SGE and SST were conducted with them eight times respectively. The results did not indicate significant changes in the students' images about ideal classes. However, the scores of the "learning motivation" factor, which is a sub-scale of the school morale scale, increased significantly with the group with high scores of "ideal of unity" factor, which is a sub-scale of the scale of elementary school students' images of ideal classes, compared to the group with low scores of the factor. These results suggest that continuous use of SGE and STT would be effective for significantly increasing learning motivation in students with high ideal of unity about the classes they belong.

Relationships between students' ideal images from their classes and school morale were investigated. The inventory of Elementary school students' images for the ideal classes was developed using Sixth grade elementary school students' (n = 103) responses to a questionnaire. Factor analysis of the responses identified four factors: "Studies and discipline", "Class cohesiveness", "Human relationships" and "Enjoyment". Then, sixth graders (n = 148) responded to the Questionnaire designed to examine the relationship between students' images for the ideal classes and school morale. Results indicated that "human relationships" was positively related to the School Morale Questionnaire subscale scores for "class climate," and "relationships between classmates." Moreover, " Studies and discipline" and " class cohesiveness" were positively related to the School Morale Questionnaire subscale score for "study motivation."

The present study investigated bullying at a university in comparison with bullying at primary, secondary and high schools. University students (N=318) completed a questionnaire asking whether there is bullying at the university or not, whether bullying at the university is serious or not, which actions does university student's bullying have, how is thought of bullying, why bullying exists at the university, why bullying does not exist at the university. As a result, it was suggested that the actions such as "Rejection" and "Annoyed by the group" be recognized as bullying in the university though bullying by "Violence" shown in the elementary schools and the junior high schools was not so done. It was suggested that the university students recognized serious bullying at the university agreed to the idea that bullying was the action never permitted at a high rate. It was also suggested that the university students recognized serious bullying at the university answererd on ground of "Human nature" and "Environment". The university students who thought that bullying did not exist at the university were assuming that the weakness of the interpersonal relationship was the reason at a high rate.

This study focused on bullying at a university in comparison with bullying at primary secondary and high schools. Though a considerable number of studies have been conducted on bullying at schools, little attention has been given to bullying at university level. The findings from 87 university students revealed that some recognized bullying quite seriously but some did not at all. Examples of perceived bullying were ignorance, bad mouth, yanking and discrimination, Violence did not nominate at university level. It may be one of unique tendencies for university students. On the other hand, students, these who were not aware of any bullying, were prone to recognize that they themselves were enough grown up not to bully anyone, or they could escape from being bullied. A further direction of this study will be to conduct more survey on university students.