This paper employs the law hermeneutics method to explore deficiencies in the procurement law for approved textbooks in compulsory education. The following deficiencies were found: 1. Article 8-3 of National Educational Law conflicts with the principle of charging textbooks costs as “agency fees”. 2. Article 8-3 of National Educational Law violates the “Bestimmtheitsgebot”. 3. The regulation about procuring textbooks drawn up by the Minister of Education violates the “Vorbehalt des Gesetzes”. 4. Procuring textbooks by signing an inter-entity supply contract according to the Government Procurement Act violates “Vorrang des Gesetzes”.
　　This paper also refers to related laws and regulations of the Japanese textbook procurement system and submits suggestions for revising laws for procuring textbooks.

　　Textbooks on various school subjects dealing with the concept of global warming in grades 1-9 were examined using the content analysis method. Based on literature analysis, the concept of global warming was divided into five themes (sub-concepts): weather and climate, human activities and the environment, the causes and impacts of global warming, energy development and management, and green life. A total of 176 books from various curricula containing 1365 chapters were explored for this study. The main findings are as follows: 1. Contents relating to the concept of global warming have characteristics of cross-curricular dimensions. The above sub-concepts have been primarily integrated into the curriculum of Science and Technology (99 chapters) and Social Studies (76 chapters). 2. Related subjects have been integrated into respective curricula at significantly different percentages. With nearly 44% of 225 chapters, Science and Technology ranked the highest for grade 1-9 curricula. In the aforementioned chapters, the sub-concept of green life (67 chapters) is mentioned most frequently. 3. The concept of global warming and the five sub-concepts are integrated increasingly into textbooks with increases in grade levels.

　　This study was designed to determine changes in the mathematics achievements and goal orientations among disadvantaged students after instructional intervention in textbook transformation and instructional intervention for disadvantaged students. There were eight disadvantaged students in this instructional intervention. Factor analysis, MANOVA, and covariance analysis were used in data analysis. Several important findings were discovered. First, prior to instructional intervention, the achievement goal orientations of disadvantaged students were no different from those of other students, but their mathematics achievements were lower than those of others. Second, after instructional intervention, the achievement goal orientation of disadvantaged students became higher. Finally, after instructional intervention, the mathematics achievements of disadvantaged students became higher, too.

　　This study examines aspects of instructional transformation based on theories of effective mathematics teaching and a video-taped lesson demonstrated by an experienced teacher for teaching basic concepts of area measurement. These aspects included the use of textbooks, problem posing, the use of instructional representations and aids, and approaches for engaging students in discussion. The findings suggest that the teacher tended to pose problems, which represented curriculum adaptation and tailoring to some extent, by referring to multiple sources. The sources included: a. Problems that the teacher invented coupled with extended materials closely related to learning goals set by the textbook. b. Student problem-solving performance evaluated from formative assessments. The teacher employed instructional representations and aids, verbal language for problem posing, manipulatives (geoboards, 1 cm3 cubes, and grids), and project-equipment. The mathematics problems discussed for the lesson exhibited the instructional transformation, including the math problems and sub-questions used in an attempt to connect with mathematical thinking of students and to clarify any misconceptions. These aspects aforementioned seemed to connect with the teacher’s subject matter knowledge of mathematics and pedagogical content knowledge of mathematics.