A note on the astronomy education in Japan

Abstract

To look for the methods of development in astronomy education we have made two activities. The first was to hold a meeting this August, for astronomers mostly working in the universities and school teachers engaged or interested in astronomy education. About ]20 persons attended from many parts of Japan. The second was to investigate the astronomy education of school teachers and staffs of organizations of social education by means of questionaires. In the questions were included also the problems ~ith which these educators are confronted. Similar investigations were made by one of the authors(N.O.) and the results have already been reported (Owaki 1982, 1984). While in this former case the teachers questioned were limited to those in or near the Tokyo area, the present invdstigation was extended to cover the whole country. The results are now being analysed. One of the aims of these activities is to present data for discussion dt the Com.46 of the XXth IAU General Assembly and the IAU Colloquium both to be held in 1988. Here we shall briefly report, prior to these meetings, preliminary results of our activities~