Japanese Lesson Study is a model for teacher professional learning that has recently attracted world attention particularly within the mathematics education community. It is a highly structured process of teacher collaboration, observation, reflection and practice. The world focus has been mainly due to the work of American researchers such as Stigler and Hiebert (Am Educ Winter:1-10, 1998; The teaching gap: Best ideas from the world's teachers for improving education in the classroom. Free Press, New York 1999), Lewis and Tsuchida (Am Educ Winter:14-17; 50-52, 1998) and Fernandez [J Teach Educ 53 (5): [395][396][397][398][399][400][401][402][403][404][405] 2002]. These researchers have documented Lesson Study from the perspective of their social, cultural and educational contexts. In order to develop a deeper understanding of Lesson Study in a post-modern global world, there is a need to seek views beyond those presented from an American perspective. This paper will provide further additional perspectives from an Australian state view and a Malaysian state district view and a university view. The aim is to develop an understanding of how the different contexts have influenced the structure and implementation of the Japanese Lesson Study model.

No abstract

No abstract

This is a companion paper and should be read with the earlier one (White, 2017) that focused mainly on Australian governmental policies. In this paper, a more classroom and student focus will be adopted while summarising a few of the salient points of the first paper. A brief listing of five different types of mathematical literacy is provided. The definition used by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is selected andsome brief remarks are provided on this program. PISA items are presented in the form of word problems. If a country such as Australia or Indonesia wants to improve their PISA results then it would demand that some class time is devoted to the development of the abilities of younger students to handle word problems before they turn fifteen and are subjected to PISA. To support classroom teachers, Newman (1977, 1983) defined five specific mathematical literacy levels as crucial to performance on mathematical wordproblems: reading, comprehension, transformation, process skills, and encoding. Newman's Error Analysis (NEA) provides a framework for considering the reasons that underlay the difficulties students experience with mathematical word problems and a process that assists teachers to determine where misunderstandings occur. NEA also provides directions for where teachers could target effective teaching strategies to overcome them. There is a brief discussion of strategies to assist students improve theirmathematical literacy.

Brain research has shaken our ideas of the structure of the brain and how the brain works. Gone are the ancient ideas of comparing the brain to a machine. Neuroplasticity describes the remarkable ways in which the brain adapts and transforms itself as a result of a change in stimuli. Cognitive exercises have been designed and trialled that improve memory, problem solving abilities, and language skills in aged subjects and in children, as well as reversing the aging process by twenty to thirty years in some adults. Since the decline of behaviourism as a major theoretical influence upon mathematics education, there have been a number of learning theories emphasising thinking and the influences of the social and cultural contexts. Although, brain research is in its infancy, the question arises as to what does brain research add to mathematics teaching and learning in addressing student needs and developing their potential?