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上越教育大学附属中学校における総合的な学習の時間等さまざまな教科の学びがかかわった，ミュージカルによる表現活動は今年で12年目となる伝統を築いてきた。本論では，取り分け2004年度からの３年間，「表現創造科」という新設教科の枠組みのもとで試みられた，ミュージカル制作の実践に焦点を当て，この表現創造科における授業展開の中での生徒たちの変容を捉えると共に，彼等への意識調査をもとに，総合表現活動によって学習者に培われるさまざまな力について検証した。教科横断的な学習は本来共通のテーマを基に各教科が関連して取り組むスタイルが多い中で，表現創造科の実践においては，共通のテーマを基盤としながらも，ほぼ全教科・領域に渡って表現活動を横断させてアプローチした点で独創的な取り組みであったと捉える。その結果，教科を越えた幅広い，主体的な表現の力を培うことが，生徒へのパフォーマンス評価やさまざまな意識調査の結果から明らかとなった。, From 1996 to 2007, the junior high school attached to Joetsu University of Education successfully combined music, visual arts, and dance with drama. This junior high school established a new subject named “The Course of Expression and Creation.” It is a combined subject of traditional music and visual arts. The aim of“ Expression and Creation” is to cultivate wide ranges of both creativities and sensitivities to enrich one’s inner world, as well as developing the love for the art and artistic expressions, through dynamic activities in expression and appreciation of art. The 9th grade students in the attached junior high school created their own musicals in this subject. According to the survey in 2006 for the 112 students, they showed that the curriculum of Integrated arts is very effective, not only in solving updated issues such as Japanese children’s lack of communication, but also in learning by emotion and will through their experiences. Thus, the challenge of this new approach which includes various arts genres ― music, visual arts, dance and drama ― made Japanese youngsters more creative in many ways.

To meet the increasing demands of the twenty-first century, Japanese students must acquire a variety of talents. However, the first priority at Japanese schools is to increase children's communicative abilities. In order to help solve this problem, Japan's current curriculum requires music and other arts to be integrated with other subjects at various elementary and junior high schools. The author is going to report on one such program at a junior high school attached to Joetsu University in Niigata Prefecture where students perform in musical productions. The author, who has participated in the program from its inception and throughout its ten-year history, will use the results of student questionnaires to help evaluate its effectiveness. Furthermore, dance and drama are currently compulsory subjects in many developed countries. One such program in the United States of America is the "Blueprint for Teaching and Learning the Arts, Grades K-12" published by New York City Department of Education (2004) which the author thinks should serve as a model for Japanese schools. The author further proposes new criteria and evaluation methods to expand this approach throughout Japan.