Change and Implementation Circumstances of "The Period for Integrated Study:" : Surveys from Academic Years 2001 and 2002 among Primary and Secondary School Teachers

This research was conducted during 2001 and 2002 academic years and involved a total of 5797 teachers from primary and secondary schools in the main island of Okinawa in Japan. A survey was employed to grasp the implementation circumstances of "The Period for Integrated Study," a comprehensive curriculum required by the central government. The survey focused on short-term changes over one years, comparing results of primary and secondary school levels, including both junior high schools and high schools. The results showed the amount of time devoted to the course of study in elementary and junior high schools, indicating general compliance with respect to hours required. High schools, however, averaged between 0 and 1 hour per week, in part because they were not required to comply completely until 2003. Using the results of the Chi-square tests concerning teacher assignments, we found significant correlations between student academic year and teachers' assignment categories in primary schools. The percentage of elementary schools making teacher assignments anew as persons in charge of "Integrated Study" increased in accordance with requirements for complete implementation of "Integrated Study." The various patterns of implementation were significantly correlated with student academic year in elementary and junior high schools. For elementary and junior high schools, "meeting the required hours all at once" showed a decline and "weekly scheduled classes" increased. Concerning "who sets the themes and sub-themes" in secondary school, students doing so themselves increased in 2002 compared to 2001. Also, with respect to the learning formats and guidance patterns as well as evaluations, in the majority of measures, the percentage was high schools, primary schools' integrated study implementation levels were highly developed. Concerning learning formats both junior and senior highs exhibited marked characteristics. With respect to the stipulated areas and content of study, during both academic years, a large percentage of junior high schools schools chose "self-study." Comparatively, the content of high school integrated study clustered around "health", and "human rights" and so forth. The special characteristics of each school's implementation circumstances emerged by comparing the schools. We inferred that differences arising from the results of these implementation circumstances involve content and guidance methods that consider development stages as well as whether the faculty system was comprised of homeroom teachers (primary school) or teachers of specialized fields (junior high school)