Abstract
This paper illustrates geography education in Japanese elementary school and investigates the current problems and perspectives at these grade levels. The problems are summarized as follows: (1) Students have few map skills and only basic knowledge of various place names in Japan and in the world and (2) students learn little about world geography through the elementary school curriculum. As a result, elementary school students have few opportunities to study physical geographic phenomena and to learn about features of the natural environment.
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Notes
- 1.
The National Curriculum Standards’ objectives for the third and fourth grades are combined. However, a separate syllabus is planned for each grade.
References
Nakayama M, Kimoto T, Komine I, Nishizawa T (1990) Chiri kyoiku no kaizen wo kangaeru: 1989 nendo shuki gakujutu takai simpojiumu I (The improvement of geographical education: symposium presentation held at the academic meeting of the association of Japanese geographers, Autumn 1989). Chirigaku hyoron (Geogr Rev Jpn) 63(Ser A)(3):166–182
Yoshida K (2008) Kodomo no asabi kodo to chikaku kankyo no hattatsu purosesu (Children’s play behavior and development process of environmental perception). Chirigaku hyoron (Geogr Rev Jpn) 81(8):671–688
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Yoshida, K. (2015). Problems and Perspectives of Geography Education in Japanese Elementary Schools. In: Ida, Y., Yuda, M., Shimura, T., Ike, S., Ohnishi, K., Oshima, H. (eds) Geography Education in Japan. International Perspectives in Geography, vol 3. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54953-6_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54953-6_2
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