This study examined the relationship between the social orientation of parents and the aggressive and prosocial behavior of their children. One hundred and fifty-eight parents rated themselves on their social and individual orientation (Ito, 1993a) and also wrote what they would say to their children in hypothetical situations where children had social problems with their peers. The children were evaluated in terms of their aggressive and prosocial behavior by teachers. It was found that the children of parents who were more socially oriented were less aggressive than those of parents who were more individually oriented. Furthermore, in a hypothetical conflict situations (for example, a peer broke the block castle of a child and the child behaved aggressively to the peer), socially oriented parents reported that they would tell their children to apologize to the child and have the children reconcile, whereas individually oriented parents would more frequently advise their children to assist their own views.

Key Words:
young children, parent, orientedness, aggressive behavior

　　The U.S. has focused on educational reforms of public schools.
　　Kindergarten is now challenged by curriculum escalation and academic trickle-down. Teachers are pressured to adjust their curricula in order to meet standards of accountability driven by societal forces. Meanwhile, under the influence of reading readiness theory, developmentally appropriate progams, and whole language theory, kindergarten teachers are afraid of pressuring children to learn at too early an age. Consequently, teachers have become reluctant to give reading instruction until children possess some prerequisite skills.
However, research reveals that (1) literacy emerges before children are formally taught to read through informal interactions with adults, (2) literacy is defined to encompass the whole act of reading, not merely decoding, and (3) waiting for children at risk to mature often deprives them of their opportunities to learn about literacy concepts. Based on these findings, an emergent literacy perspective is being accepted by most researchers now. Emergent literacy makes it possible for children to try out various learning tasks and learn to undrestand how to use language for their own purposes. Vygotskian theory of "zone of proximal development " offers the frame work for this paradigm. Reading instruction needs not to be delayed but to be supported by teachers through social interaction and children's active participation.

Key Words:
educational reforms, kindergarten, accountability, reading readiness, emergent literacy

　　The present study examined the development of children's understanding of other's perspective toward themselves. Thirty-two 5-five years orders, 37 second graders and 35 fourth graders ware interviewed about how they thought that each of several significant others (e.g., mother, peer, and teacher) perceived and evaluated themselves. Children's answers were classified according to the Sakuma, Muto, Endo (2000)'s category Scheme. The results indicated that 1) the self-descriptions from mother's perspective were most infrequency at all ages. 2) Preschoolers gave some self-descriptions from mother's and teacher's perspectives in terms of general evaluative terms, whereas school age children tended to describe the self from peer's perspective in terms of diligent one. The difference of the perspectives by others in self-descriptions became more clarified with age. It became also more reflecting unique qualities of each social relation.

Key words:
Self-understanding, Social relationship, Preschoolers, Elementary school children

　　Increasing numbers of preschool teachers experience difficulty in dealing with disruptive children. In this case study, we had continual discussions with a preschool (yochien) teacher who took charge of a three-year-old disruptive boy, and observed her teaching for nine months. Initially, the teacher was severely bothered by the boy's frequent disruptive behavior. Gradually, as she increased her episodes of one-on-one play with him, and shared information about him with other teachers. Eventually, his disruptive behavior became less serious and competent behaviors increased in frequency. During this course of change, the teacher was repeatedly confronted with discrepancies between her teaching plans and the boy's reactions to them. These discrepancies, however, promoted her under standing of the boy and improved her practice. Therefore, we believe, developmental psychologists should encourage educators to become aware of such discrepancies and to recognize that such discrepancies can be used in finding solutions to their problems.

Key Words:
developmental support, consultation, preschool children, disruptive behavior, preschool teacher

　　For many years, it has been pointed out a big gap exists between preschools and first grades in Japan. While measures have been taken to by both preschools and first grades to solve this problem, children continue to have trouble making a smooth transition into first grade.
　　The purpose of this study is to gain insight into curriculum development enabling this smooth transition by referring to kindergartens in California which seem to lie somewhere between first grade and preschool in Japan.
　　An analysis of California kindergarten curriculum and lessons showed that activities harmonizing play with learning, at appropriate levels, are practiced in small groups with individual guidance. Such activities allow children to move step by step from an emphasis on play to one on learning. We conclude that using the present curriculum in Japan, a new preschool curriculum can be developed that, like the California kindergarten curriculum, combines play with learning, thus making the transition into first grade smoother.

Key words:
kindergarten, smooth transition, fusion of play and learning, California

　　In this study, the ability of children to recognize life was examined by asking them to feed earthworms, tadpoles or goldfish to tortoises. Fifty-seven five-year-old children from three kindergartens were studied. Five-year-olds were selected because this is said to be the best age for 'waking up' the ability of children to discriminate between living and non-living things. This study revealed that feeding tortoises is not significantly related to a child's ability to recognize life. However, detailed analysis of the sets of reasons behind the choices children made, showed that kindergartners who would feed earthworms to tortoises would not necessarily feed them tadpoles or goldfish.

Key Words:
Five-year-old children, ability to recognize life, living things,

　　This study explored the relationship between preschoolers' social behavior at school and at home based on information provided by teachers and mothers on children's social skills and behavior problems. A factor analysis of the data from 76 children extracted three factors for social skills at school: self-control, cooperative skills and assertive skills. Two factors were extracted for school behavior problems; externalizing problem behavior and internalizing problem behavior. A factor analyses of the data from 73 children revealed three factors for social skills at home: assertive skills, cooperative skills, and self-control skills and two factors underlying behavior problems at home, externalizing problem behavior and externalizing problem behavior. The results of a correlation analyses show that assertive skills at school are positively related to assertive skills at home and that cooperative skills at school are positively related to self-control skills at home. Also, externalizing problem behaviors at school was positively related to externalizing it at home. These findings point to the significance of school-home partnerships in helping children acquire appropriate social behaviors.

Key words:
social skills, problem behaviors, preschoolers, school, home

　　This paper presents a relational analysis of the participation of a five-year-old Chinese boy in a day care center. The viewpoint of interpreting children's development in a total network of caretakers, peers, tools, events and so forth was used as it was proposed by Kujiraoka in 1999. In this study, ethnographic data were obtained from participant observations and interviews conducted from October 1993 to April 1994 in Tokyo.
The major findings are (1) that the boy felt particular attachment to three boys and one caretaker in his class and (2) that in a period of four months the perception of the boy in the center shifted from "a boy who cannot understand Japanese language" to "a boy who cannot understand other's needs or instructions". The boy appears to have been evaluated and understood based on the transformation of his relations with his peers and caretakers, rather than on any of his internal changes.

Key Words:
a Chinese boy, a Japanese day-care center, relational viewpoint, cultural adjustment of young children, ethnographic method

　　This paper is a study of 'nature and science education' in Japanese early childhood education from 1924 to 1945 with particular reference to Hori Shichizo's educational theory of observation.
　　Hori(1886-1978) was the director of the kindergarten attached to Tokyo Women's Teacher's College from 1924-1930. This six years covers the period between the time that Kurahashi Souzo resigned as the kindergarten director and then returned to this position. Hori is a person who, until recently, has attracted little attention among researchers in Japanese early childhood education, although he wrote some books and was an authority on science education. In Hori's theory, ' science and nature education' begins with young children's questions. This research clarifies the following four points concerning Hori's theory.
　(1) Observation theory can be summarized as stressing that a child's own desire to understand and its natural curiosity are very important and are always present.
　(2) Observation is the activity of interpreting external stimuli through the senses, it is the way natural phenomena become understood.
　(3) The language Hori uses is similar to that used in kindergartens today however his underlying thinking is different. Thus it is difficult to say that today's 'nature and science education' originates with Hori.
　(4) However, from the viewpoint of the history of Japanese early childhood education, it could be said that it was the educational theory which should be left behind to record.

Key Words:
nature and science education, observation, Hori Shichizo