Abstract—On November 22th, 2014, the Education Minister of Japan proposed to promote “active learning” in elementary and secondary education, and to promote effective curriculum management at each school by aligning the process of planning, implementing, assessing, and improving curricula. This study purposed to promote pre-service teachers’ understanding and skills of curriculum management by the implementation of active learning. Participants were 56 first-year university students who were taking pre-service teacher education courses for elementary and secondary education. All of the participants were participating in a curriculum studies class. Participants first studied the aims, structure and contents of the “Courses of Study” in Japan, and they learned how to develop, analyze, manage, evaluate, and revise a school curriculum. Then, they worked in a group of six using the jigsaw method to analyze the “Courses of Study.” Results of the study show that students who learned actively in a small group significantly increased their understanding (
t (55) = 3.03,
p < .00) and skills (
t (55) = 6.51,
p < .00) in curriculum management week by week. Results suggest that if students learn actively and cooperatively, they could understand what is important in managing a curriculum.
Index Terms—Active learning, Jigsaw method, curriculum management, “courses of study”.
Hiroki Yoshida is with Tokoha University, Shizuoka, Japan (e-mail: h-yoshida@av-lab.org).
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Cite: Hiroki Yoshida, "Effects of Active Learning for Curriculum Management: With Focus on the “Courses of Study” of Japan," International Journal of Knowledge Engineering vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 77-84, 2016.
