Decline of academic competence of Japanese students : The actual conditions and the improvement methods

本研究的目的是调查日本学生学业能力的实际状况，并制定切实可行的提高方法。第一个目的是在关西(大阪及周边城市)和关东(东京及周边城市)进行了两次调查。为了对结果进行比较，这些方法是基于其他研究人员之前进行的调查。关西研究的样本规模约为2000人，由两名年级学生和八名年级学生组成。另一方面，关东研究对从一年级到六年级的大约6000名学生进行了调查。测验成绩显示，学生的核心学业能力明显下降，而学业能力的变异度有所增加。总体而言，这种差异与学生的家庭环境状况有关，但一些学校克服了这些问题。第二个目的是，我们批判性地回顾了最近关于学业能力的报告和辩论，并就学校教育和改进方法进行了讨论。我们特别关注课外的学习支持。例如，我们在一些学校建立了学习辅导室，并通过案例进行了实践研究，以发展自主学习。此外，我们还为初中生举办了研讨会，这有助于计划课程和评估，以发展学生的学习技能。

The purpose of the present research was to investigate the actual conditions of academic competence of Japanese students and to develop practically the improvement methods.For the first purpose we made two investigations in Kansai (Osaka and the neighboring cities) and Kanto (Tokyo and the neighboring cities). To make comparisons of the results, the methods were based on the investigation that was previously made by other researchers. The sample of Kansai research, the size of which was about two thousand, was consisted of two graders and eight graders. On the other hand, about six thousand students from one graders to six graders were investigated in Kanto research. The test scores showed that the core academic competence declined evidently and that the variance of the competence increased. In general, the variance was correlated with conditions in home environments of the students, but some schools overcame these problems.For the second purpose we reviewed critically the recent reports and debates on academic competence, and make discussion on school education and the improvement methods. Especially we focused on the learning support in outside of classes. For example we founded counseling rooms for learning in some schools and made practical research through the cases in order to develop self-regulated learning. In addition we held the seminars for junior high school students, which were helpful for planning lessons and evaluations to develop students' learning skills.