The content of school education has always been at the center of modern school reforms. At the end of Edo period and during the early Meiji period, Fukui domain (han) and later Fukui prefecture took the initiative in modernizing their school system. The program of "futsu no gaku" ("general education" for the samurai class in Fukui domain)…

This study examines academic trends in learning and assessment theories based on the OPPA (One Page Portfolio Assessment), which was developed in 2002. The study also clarifies the theoretical framework, teaching practices, application, and effectiveness of the OPPA. The OPPA was developed to solve three teaching and learning challenges: (1) how…

In Japan, the Ainu people have been living mainly in Hokkaido and many Koreans continue to live since the end of the World War Two. Since 1990's, the number of migrant workers has increased rapidly. In this sense, Japanese society has been multicultural and multiethnic. However, those minority groups have been strictly discriminated against in…

The recent "Nationwide academic achievement and study situation survey" was clearly influenced by the idea of "authentic assessment", an educational assessment perspective focused on "quality" and "engagement". However, when "performance assessment", the assessment method corresponding to this focus, is adopted in academic achievement surveys, it…

In this paper, two nationwide assessments for elementary and secondary students' educational achievement in Korea were reviewed for their assessment frameworks and the overall results; the Diagnostic Test for Basic Skills (DTBS) of Grade 3 elementary students and the National Assessment of Educational Achievement (NAEA) for Grade 6, 9 and 10…

Every state in the United States, under the NCLB act, has set state standards and is testing all students in grades 3-8. Students are given printed questions to which they write answers with a pencil on an answer sheet. These written tests are usually given to determine the academic achievements of students. This paper traces the early history of…

The political landscape in school finance has undergone significant changes in the United States in recent years. It was only a generation ago that the state government assumed the primary funding responsibility in public schools, public agencies at the state and local level "monopolized" service delivery, and many reform initiatives did not…

Current Educational Reform in Japan is oddly captured with confused conceptions of "compulsory education." The Ministry of Education blankets such connotations of it, as a national budget system, mandated school curriculum, responsible partnership of school with community and accountabilities of local school board, in defense of vested national…

I take up recent remarks by Teruhisa Horio about school student disaffection in Japan and see echoes of this in Britain. In that country the traditional school curriculum of discrete largely academic subjects is often taken to be one cause of the problem. I review justifications for it but no sound ones appear to be available. We need to…

Today, work and other societal practices are experiencing accelerating paradigm shifts from mass-production-based systems toward new systems based on networking between organizations, collaboration, and partnerships. This shift requires new paradigms in the fields of education, learning, and development. As human activity quickly changes to…