Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 5.4
Contents of Social Studies textbook used in sixth grade of elementary school
Chapter
Section
1. History in Japan (History)
Jomon period to tumulus period/Building emperor-centered
country/Generation of warriors/Muromachi culture/Warring
states period to Edo period/Culture and new education in
Edo/Meiji restoration/Japan toward the world/Protracted war
and people's lives/To new Japan, peaceful Japan
2. Our lives and politics
(Politics)
Politics make our wish come true
Constitution of Japan and our lives
3. Japan in the world (Peace
education and Geography)
Countries with ties to Japan
U.S., Korea, China and Saudi Arabia
Our future and role of Japan in the world
Kita et al. (
2012e
,
f
)
As students advance in grade level, required skills change from simply
reading
maps, graphs, and fi gures to
interpreting
maps or other fi gures and using them to
inform their research or study. Equally important from the third through fi fth grades
are students' communication skills for arguing why their fi ndings are important.
In the sixth grade, textbooks treat history from past to present and politics in Japan.
The last section includes cultural geography of countries around the world (Table
5.4
).
This chapter includes peace education, since it is very important for students to think
about how they can contribute to global society. This geographic content is very similar
to what junior high school students study. This part may be good practice for sixth
grade students to discover what they will learn in the next stage of education.
5.3.3
Geography Textbooks in Secondary School Education
5.3.3.1
Objectives of Geography Education and Textbooks in Junior
High Schools
At the junior high school level, Geography is still a part of Social Studies. The main
objective of Social Studies in the National Curriculum Standards is to help students
“look wider and raise awareness of society, think from various perspectives using
various data, understand and love our own nation and history, establish a basis for
citizens to live in a global society, and make a peaceful and democratic nation and
society” (MEXT
2008a
, p. 31).
Table
5.5
shows the content of a textbook for junior high students. This topic is
normally used for 2 years. The geography curriculum in junior high school is designed
for students to think about geographic phenomena from multiple perspectives. Students
learn about and compare the world with Japan through their own research.
Geography in junior high school is focused on regional geography, so the cur-
riculum emphasizes the understanding of differences and similarities in the world,
