著者

茎津 智子 岡田 洋子 菅野 予史季 井上 ひとみ 井上 由紀子 志賀 加奈子

出版者

天使大学

雑誌

天使大学紀要 (ISSN:13464388)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.5, pp.1-12, 2005-09-30

---

This study discussed how to do Death Education for school-aged children and evaluated intervention in Death Education. The subjects were 80 children - the 4^<th> grade of elementary school. As the teaching material for Death Education a documentary film was prepared; the story of a school-aged boy living and fighting against his disease. The subjects wrote two reports about "the meaning of life" or "life now", before and after of the Death Education. Their reports were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Analysis revealed that there were four major categories before intervention (#1-4), and five major categories after intervention (#5-9). 1. the preciousness of life, 2. their feelings about daily life, 3. their thought about life and death regarding other person's circumstances, 4. the significance of life and death, 5. the absurdity of death, 6. their new leaning about the preciousness life, 7. their impression about living and life, 8. attitudes to life, 9. their emotional response to the unreasonable death of other. As a result, compared with categories before and after intervention, children have an opportunity to think and to feel about "life", "death" and "daily life" more familiarly after the intervention. This teaching material for Death Education was easy to comprehend for them, because the character in the film was a school-aged child of the same generation. It was extrapolated that children were concerned about "life", "death" and "daily life", but they had no chance to talk or reflect about this theme with their families, teachers or friends. We still have to continue to discuss and evaluate methods of Death Education, but in greater dialogue about this theme with children.