Download PDFShinpei Kuwajima, Akira Yanagibashi, Kotaro Abe, Ryoji Nagai, and Kengo Nishimoto
August, 2015
Abstract
In order to clarify the Japanese context of evaluation in citizenship education, we will focus on the thoughts of four educational researchers at the post WW2 Japan: Shuichi Katsuta, Toshio Nakauchi, Kaoru Ueda, and Minoru Murai.
Section 1 will argue the potentiality and limitation of educational theory of ability, achievement, and assessment in Katsuta’s and Nakauchi’s thought. Their arguments aimed at a criticism against meritocracy, and at this point their argument would be a meaningful suggestion even for our age. There is, however, the limitation of their theory and we will refer to a criticism against their argument after 1980s.
Section 2 will refer to Kaoru Ueda’s thought on evaluation. For Ueda, evaluation in education is a start point of teaching. He puts importance on the individual. Ueda says that if you cannot conceive the differences [Zure], students’ changes appeared after teaching, you are not apt at teaching students any more. However, it needs very high-quality teachers, and it would be a weak point of his thought.
Section 3 will introduce Minoru Murai’s theory on evaluation in education. What is an educational problem for Murai? It is goodness. For Murai education is making individuals better. Therefore we should or need to ask what education is for. By this approach, educational bad condition would be reconstructed and get better. At this point, Murai’s thought resembles Biesta’s arguments.
