Purpose: Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has been robustly endorsed through policy mechanisms, prompting numerous context-specific voluntary initiatives in Japanese schools and communities. However, this field remains in its infancy. This study aimed to investigate the literature on ESD in Japan to reveal research trends, identify…

Against the prevailing outcomes-based education and the instrumentalization of education, a movement has arisen towards holistic education. This aims to go beyond objective measurement of the outcomes of education in order to treat the student as a whole person. In this paper, we shall examine some strands of education in Japan which in some way…

Equitable access to high-quality higher education is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 4, 5, and 10, which indicate that it is crucial for a future sustainable society. Globalisation and reductions in systemic barriers to university admission are creating increasingly diverse higher education classrooms, but traditional…

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is a popular teaching approach that is being enthusiastically adopted across Japan (Ikeda, M. 2019. "CLIL in Comparison with PPP: A Revolution in ELT by Competency-Based Language Education." In "Innovation in Language Teaching and Learning: The Case of Japan," edited by H.…

Background: In our research project, we have developed a scoring rubric for a second language (L2) summary writing for English as a foreign language (EFL) students in Japanese universities. This study aimed to examine the applicability of our five-dimensional rubric, which features both analytic and holistic assessments, to classrooms in the EFL…

This report highlights findings from the "Happy Schools Project: Capacity Building for Learner Well-being in the Asia-Pacific (Phase II)" pilots in Japan, Lao PDR and Thailand from 2018-2020. The aim of the pilots was to promote happiness in schools through enhanced learner well-being, social emotional learning and holistic development…

This book examines some of the major higher education reforms and policy shifts globally, particularly in the light of recent shifts in quality and standards-driven education and policy research. It critiques the neo-liberal ideological imperatives of current higher education and policy reforms, and illustrates the way that changes in the…

Japan stands as a rare country in which ESD has been incorporated as mainstream policy. However, looking back on the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD), ESD has not brought about the transformation in Japan that one expects ESD to aim for, despite this support at the policy level. The cause may be that pouring…

National cultural distance is considered to be a strong predictor of language learners' pragmatic competence. To test the actual effect of national cultural distance on pragmatic competence holistically and comprehension and production aspects of pragmatic competence discretely, the current study was conducted on two groups of undergraduate…

During this five-day unit, students will enter the world of a Japanese classroom. They will talk about school uniforms, "fill" their backpacks with school items, and learn how to do a simple self-introduction in front of their peers. Students will participate in the cultural customs of a Japanese classroom and view pictures, videos, and…

The IADIS CELDA 2012 Conference intention was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There had been advances in both cognitive psychology and computing that have affected the educational arena. The convergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a…