Sugimura Mika

Under the guidance of Superintendent Takeji Kinoshita, at the Elementary School Attached to Nara Women's Higher Normal School in the 1920s, a new study method was practiced, one which incorporated “Middle Integrated Study” as an intermediary between “Large Integrated Study” and “Small Integrated Study.” Middle Integrated Study used as a reference point the Unit Learning Based on Daily Life Experiences of the innovative American educational practitioner J. L. Meriam, establishing four Units Based on Daily Life Experiences: Observation, Handwork, Stories, and Play. However, an issue arose as to how the newly introduced “Unit Learning Based on Daily Life Experiences” within Middle Integrated Study could be linked with both Large and Small Integrated Studies. Prior research has not clarified what practices were adopted by teachers to link Unit Learning Based on Daily Life Experiences within Middle Integrated Study with both Large and Small Integrated Studies within the larger encompassing problem of linking Middle Integrated Study with Large and Small Integrated Studies.  This paper investigates how the teachers, under the direction of Superintendent Kinoshita, developed teaching practices that enabled organic connections between Middle Integrated Study and Large and Small Integrated Studies, and aims at clarification of these practices. The paper also examines how the teachers assimilated and put into practice Meriam's Unit Learning Based on Daily Life Experiences in linking Middle Integrated Study with Large and Small Integrated Studies.  Research finds that it was two teachers who performed practices that organically linked Middle Integrated Study with Large and Small Integrated Studies, Kiyoshi Tsukamoto and Rokuro Iwase. In Large Integrated Study for second-year regular elementary-school students, Tsukamoto established daily self-study for students, and performed Unit Learning Based on Daily Life Experiences comprised of four units, Observation, Handwork, Stories, and Play, which were identical to those for Middle Integrated Study. Thus he linked Middle Integrated Study with Large Integrated Study and ensured consistency. Meanwhile, Iwase utilized policies for Unit Learning Based on Daily Life Experiences developed for the Middle Integrated Study of third-year regular elementary-school students, and attempted, as he developed his teaching practices, to link these policies with each school subject in Small Integrated Study for fourth-year students. This sort of practice used Meriam's Theory of Unit Learning as a model, but whereas Meriam insisted that the curriculum should employ unit learning composed of the four units throughout all grades, Iwase attempted to establish a connection between the children's daily life and the curriculum content. Within the constraints imposed by the law, he did this by incorporating Units Based on Daily Life Experiences suited to each subject into the curriculum in Small Integrated Studies. Unique characteristics are displayed by these teachers' efforts to actively assimilate and creatively put into practice Meriam's Unit Learning Based on Daily Life Experiences.