Research of Environmental Education in Teacher Traning Education in Japan

2002 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 12680192
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Science education
• Research Institution: Kinki Welfare University
• Principal Investigator: INOUE Michiko Kinki Welfare University, Associate Professor, 社会福祉学部, 助教授 (80269919)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): TAJIRI Yumiko Seika Women's Junior College, Associate Professor, 助教授 (50216967)
• Project Period (FY): 2000 – 2002
• Keywords: environmental education / early childhood / teacher training / curriculum / 環境教育の実態

Research Abstract

It is important to introduce environmental education into kindergartens or nurseries that the teachers have haigh-levelled knowledge, concerns, and practical skills. For this, training for the teachers may be significant. In research periods, we gathered syllabuses from 202 junior colleges in Japan which produce teachers of kindergartens or nurseries, and analyzed the curriculum and contents to investigate how these colleges practice environmental education for the students in early childhood education course.
The results were (1) environmental education was done in the elective subjects of liberal arts, (2) the practical skills of nature-playing activities were developed in "environment" which is a required subject of early childhood education, (3) environmental education was not introduced in the subject "comprehensive practice" which is a required one for teacher training courses.
Thus, the contents of these subjects should be improved from the viewpoint of environmental education.