| Research Abstract |
The purpose of this research is to analyze and examine the practices of educational evaluation in those curricula similar to the Integrated Study, so that we can develop concrete methods of assessment in integrated studies. This research focused especially on the following two areas.
First, we examined practices in the Primary School Attached to Nara Women's University, and Wako and Wako Tsurukawa Primary Schools, which have traditionally dealt with integrated studies. The Attached Primary School was intensively investigated not only by collecting and examining its historical materials, but also by observing various types of its present lessons. The results were reported in the Interim Report (1999), whose revision was later published as Examining the Possibilities of 'Integrated Studies' (Tanaka, K. ed., Minerva, 1999). The Final Report (2000) clarified the position of this part of our research in the wider history of education in Japan.
Secondly, this research also examined theories and practices in the USA, UK, and Germany, where we can find various noteworthy fruits in assessment in integrated studies. We particularly looked at portfolio assessment, which is getting very popular in the USA as a method of 'performance-based assessment' and 'authentic assessment'. Some of the investigators visited Johnson City School District in New York State in order to observe their actual practices of portfolio assessment. Interviewing the staff there was especially useful. The foreign practices are reported in the book entitled Integrated Studies and Portfolio Assessment (Tanaka, K. and Nishioka, K., Nihon Hyojun, 1999) and the Final Report (2000).
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