Faculty of Education
Graduate School of Education
Mie University

Address: 1577 Kurima-Machiya-cho, Tsu, 514-8507 Japan
Phone: +81-59-232-1211

Faculty of Education

Outline

The Faculty of Education consists of four main programs (Teacher Training, Information Technology, Continuing Education, and Human Development) and the Postgraduate Program in Special Education. The Faculty also has one attached facility called the Integrated Center for Educational Research and Practice and four attached schools (Elementary School, Junior High School, School for Children with Special Needs, and Kindergarten).

Program in Teacher Training

The basic objective of this program is educating prospective teachers who will gain a deep knowledge of compulsory education, primary and junior high school education, and have practical teaching ability to keep positively abreast of the rapid changes of society. The students in this program are required to study and acquire the extensive knowledge and skills necessary to obtain at least two teaching licenses, selected among qualifications in teaching primary school, junior high school, school for children with special needs and kindergarten. They are also required to obtain practical knowledge, computer skills and other technical knowledge useful in teaching. Each field of specialization offers a curriculum rich enough to not only obtain a teaching license, but also to enhance professional knowledge and technical skills.

Japanese

The department of Japanese aims primarily to train students to be schoolteachers with a deep understanding and a rich sense of the Japanese language through a comprehensive and practical study of the nature and linguistic functions of the Japanese language, Japanese expressions, Japanese literature and Japanese language teaching.

Social Studies

The department of Social Studies gives students opportunities to study various fields of knowledge that form the basis of social studies at primary and junior high school, and geography, history and civics at senior high school. Students are required to develop a general knowledge in all categories and then specialize in one major field. This department aims to cultivate students to become schoolteachers with a deep understanding and good leadership ability by providing them with experiences and proficiency in the instruction of various subjects.

Mathematics

The goal of the department of Mathematics is to cultivate schoolteachers who are equipped with a logical way of thinking, an intuitive way of looking at things in their everyday life, and a practical way of understanding the significance of arithmetic and mathematics as a subject taught at school.

Science

The department of Science is a teacher-training course which includes the study of science at primary and junior high school, and physics, chemistry, biology, earth science and astronomy at senior high school. This department aims at cultivating creative teachers and good leaders, equipped with a sense of wonder vis-à-vis Nature and recognition of the importance of the environment, who possess a solid knowledge of Natural Science from its fundamentals to more recent developments through experiments and practical work.

Music

The department of Music focuses on cultivating able teachers who have a rich sensibility based on a deep technical knowledge as well as a broad general perspective and a scientific understanding of music. The students are trained to become accomplished teachers who support continuing education, which is strongly demanded by modern society, and who likewise develop a creative, enthusiastic and flexible approach to teaching.

Fine Arts

The objective of the department of Fine Arts is to cultivate leaders who have a strong grasp of various theories and activities of art through a comprehensive approach to both the practice of artistic expression and its theoretical basis, while pursuing a specialty and gaining a high degree of practical ability which will, in turn, be strongly demanded in both school and society in the future.

Health and Physical Education

The department of Health and Physical Education aims to educate scholarly and scientific professionals in health and physical education, sports, kinesiology, as well as health education, and to cultivate prospective teachers who will gain a high degree of practical and professional proficiency after they have acquired the basic knowledge and skills of the discipline.

Technology

The department of Technology cultivates prospective teachers who have a broad background in the many professional, social, and domestic aspects of technology. Another aim is to foster professionals who possess a breadth of perspective concerning technology through a comprehensive education in both the fundamentals of technology and the theoretical knowledge which supports it in practice.

Home Economics

Home Economics is an academic discipline that aims to help solve the problems of the environment we live in and improve contemporary society. Students are educated as prospective Home Economics teachers through practical and theoretical studies concerning family life and community.

English

The basic aim of the department of English is to educate students to become competent and skilled English teachers in an era of globalization. Students in this department will develop English proficiency, language awareness, and international sensibility through the comprehensive study of historical and social aspects of the English language, British and American literature, linguistics, cultures of English-speaking countries and areas, and methodologies of English teaching.

Education for Children with Special Needs

While working toward obtaining a license to teach at either primary or junior high school, the students in this department are educated in order to become outstanding qualified teachers for special support education who can meet the social and educational requirements of different kinds of people with special needs.

Early Childhood Education

Young children experience the most dramatic human development in their lives through playing, shaping and creating, listening to music, and many other everyday activities. The students in this department will study and analyze the world of infancy in order to become competent kindergarten teachers with sufficient practical knowledge.

Educational Sciences

This department aims to familiarize students with issues concerning education in general, not only in Japan, but in foreign countries as well, examining past, present and future developments in the fields of methodology and educational psychology. It also aims to foster an understanding of educational philosophy by providing theoretical and practical techniques to address various issues in education.

Program in Information Technology

Established in 1990, the program in Information Technology aims at providing students with professional knowledge and skills in computer science and its related fields. Though not required, students can obtain teacher's licenses, especially in High School Information (Computing) and Math.

Program in Lifelong Education

The program in Lifelong Education was founded in 1997 in order to meet the needs of a highly developed and rapidly changing society, which requires efficient instructors and leaders of continuing social education in a broad sense. It consists of the following two departments: Health and Sports Science and Consumer Science. The aims of this program are educating efficient future leaders in the fields of health and sports science and consumption studies, not only within the confines of education, but also in the culture and industry of the larger community. This program provides students with a curriculum necessary for acquiring teaching licenses of junior and senior high schools.

Health and Sports Science

Today it is widely recognized that physical exercise is playing a more and more important role in our life, since we live in an era of continual learning, as well as in an aging society where leisure has taken on a greater sense of importance. In this department, students will be trained to be competent leaders who are able to work theoretically and practically with lifelong education in a broad perspective, appropriate to our new era and society. The department provides for the study of sports and recreation activities and of problems concerning health and physical fitness. The curriculum is set up for students to obtain basic certification as sports instructors in regional communities.

Consumer Science

Consumer Science provides opportunities for theoretical and practical studies on life planning and consumer problems by considering complex sociological situations. Students are educated to become specialists capable of coping with global environmental problems, gender equality issues, community revitalization and related topics.

Human Development

Human Developmental Sciences

The program in Human Development was founded in 1999. In 2006, the new department of Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language was established in this program. The key phrase for this program is “cultivating the ability to solve actual educational problems.” Our goal is to train capable educators who are rooted in their regional communities. Graduates of this program will not only have their own ideas concerning development and education, but they will also acquire the theory and skills to coordinate the activities of various people who are trying to solve problems in education, and nurture their own ability to work together with these people. Since education takes place not only in schools but also in the home and society, the program aims to create human resources for educational activities in this wider sense.

Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language

Our aim is to train teachers who teach Japanese to non-native speakers. Students are required to obtain knowledge and skills necessary for teaching Japanese to people from various backgrounds. Students study the language, culture and society of Japan and other countries. We train talented people who have both an international viewpoint and the ability of cross-cultural communication, and who play an active role in teaching Japanese not only in Japan but also in other countries.

Postgraduate Program in Special Education

The postgraduate program in Special Education, which was founded in 1979, basically aims at educating and securing excellent, qualified teachers for special education to enrich the education for mentally challenged children. The students in this program are also selected from among current schoolteachers, and are required to take a specialized course in education for children with special needs, as well as to obtain a first-class education license in this area.

Integrated Center for Educational Research and Practice

This Center was originally founded as the Center for Educational Technology in April, 1977, and was promoted to the present Integrated Center for Educational Research and Practice in April, 1999. The objective of this Center is to conduct comprehensive research about educational practice and, as a result, to contribute to the development and advancement of education. At present, the Center concentrates its major efforts on:

  1. Holding practical training, lectures, and open classes in which media technology, such as personal computers for information science education (about 40 computers) and DVD players, are used in order to meet basic educational necessities in a highly developed information society,
  2. Holding study meetings with current schoolteachers and accepting teachers officially sent for study and training by the prefectural or municipal government in order to conduct joint research between the university and local schools, and
  3. Participating in joint projects with similar centers of other universities.

Graduate School of Education

Outline

The Graduate School of Education was founded in 1989 for the express purpose of cultivating professionals who are able to do research and have practical experience in the field of education or its related fields. There are three major fields of study in the graduate school: graduate programs in Educational Sciences, Education for Children with Special Needs, and Teaching an Academic Discipline, the last of which has 10 fields of specialization. Current schoolteachers are given special considerations according to Article 14 (and others) of the Criteria for the Foundation of Graduate School.

Educational Sciences

This program focuses upon the study of education in a broader and more extensive sense than an approach that concentrates upon any one, particular school subject, through fostering cooperation among related fields, as well as conducting theoretical and practical research about education, methodology and educational psychology.

Graduate Program in Education for Children with Special Needs

This program aims to make a wider and deeper study of both theoretical and practical problems concerning the education and guidance of children with special needs by combining theories and practical methods of pedagogy and educational psychology on the basis of the psychological and medical characteristics of children with special needs.

Graduate Program in Teaching an Academic Discipline

Japanese

The purpose of the sub-program in Japanese is to foster the teachers' ability to instruct and do research in the practice of teaching with the help of a deepened sense of the theory of Japanese Language Teaching, which is brought about by a specialized study of not only Japanese language and literature, Chinese classical literature, and calligraphy but also recent findings of educational sciences.

Social Studies

The course of study in Social Studies strives, on the one hand, to promote an advanced study of history, geography, jurisprudence, political science, sociology, economics, philosophy, ethics, and other areas, and on the other, to deepen the theoretical and practical study of Social Studies teaching in a comprehensive way.

Mathematics

The sub-program in Mathematics strives to deepen the theoretical and practical understanding of teaching mathematics as an academic discipline on the basis of a specialized study of algebra, geometry, analysis, and applied mathematics.

Science

The graduate course of study in Science encourages the specialized study of physics, chemistry, biology, earth science and astronomy, and, furthermore, by incorporating that advanced, interdisciplinary work, this sub-program aims at making a more profound study of science teaching in terms of theory and practice.

Music

The sub-program in Music intends to make a more profound study of vocal and instrumental education, as well as composition, musicology and pedagogy, with a stress on their theoretical and practical aspects, in order to further explore more effective ways of promoting the teaching of music as an academic subject.

Fine Arts

The sub-program in Fine Arts attempts to deepen the awareness of fine arts teaching with a better understanding of the role that the perception of beauty plays in developing learners’ character, while placing an emphasis upon the specialized study of painting, sculpture and plastic arts, graphic design, arts and crafts, art theories, and art history.

Health and Physical Education

The sub-program in Health and Physical Education aims at promoting a deeper understanding of physical education and sports science, kinesiology, and health education in order to deepen the theory and the principles of practice that contribute to teaching physical education, which has its basis in the interrelation of those studies.

Technology

The objective of the Technology sub-program is to explore the nature of teaching Technology as an academic discipline by adopting an approach that is both theoretical and practical in recognition of the fact that Technology is a science closely related to everyday life; at the same time, it also strives to promote the study of electrical engineering, electronics, mechanical engineering, materials engineering, crop cultivation and other related fields.

Home Economics

The Home Economics graduate sub-program provides opportunities for advanced studies and research on improving family, community, and global life. Fields of study offered within this sub-program include clothing and textiles, food and nutrition, housing design and living environment, home management, childcare, and Home Economics teacher education. Home Economics teacher education promotes the theoretical and practical study of teaching Home Economics as a school subject.

English

The sub-program in English aims to make a wider and deeper study of English Teaching Methodology, English Linguistics, and British and American Literature, and, on the basis of this advanced work, to make a more specialized study of the theoretical and practical problems of English Language Teaching through an interdisciplinary approach.


Faculty of EducationMie University