In Japan, many high school students have severe depression. Preventive interventions for school-based cognitive-behavioral depression are effective countermeasures against depressive problems among high school students. However, since high school curriculums are time-consuming, such interventions are less common among high school students.…

The "first-grade problem" of the lack of concentration, listening, and following of instruction has been widely identified among Japanese kindergarten students. To promote their executive functioning and self-regulation to prevent this issue, we developed the Social Thinking and Academic Readiness Training (START) program. The…

The Early Childhood Education Quality (ECEQ) initiative is a pioneering approach toward supporting ongoing, self-organized professional development in the private kindergarten sector in Japan. The purpose of this study is to examine how kindergarten teachers and ECEQ coordinators experience this approach and view the ECEQ process. Online…

The Japanese educational system is highly competitive and applies high stakes standardized admission testing. As this approach has led to student stress and a narrow instructional focus, the Japanese Government revised educational goals toward more holistic development of well-rounded citizens who are healthy, independent, creative, and work…

The purpose of this study was to empirically investigate a family-centered approach to positive behavior support (PBS) that was designed to be culturally responsive to families of diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. A Japanese mother and a child with autism were the primary participants. Multiple research methods were used. A…

If there is one thing that describes the trajectory of American education, it is this: more high-stakes testing. In the United States, the debates surrounding this trajectory can be so fierce that it feels like we are in uncharted waters. As Christopher Bjork reminds us in this study, however, we are not the first to make testing so central to…