Purpose: In this paper, we present how experiences gained from a theory informed lesson study -learning study -in regard to a specific learning goal can be shared and used by other teachers in new contexts.Design: A group of teachers worked together in a cyclic, iterative process of planning, evaluating and revising teaching. The aim was to provide possibilities for grade 2 and 3 students to become familiar with negative numbers. The teacher group draw the conclusion that the students needed to be able to differentiate some aspects of negative numbers. The conjecture was put to the test in a follow-up study with five new teachers and eight classes. One lesson was taught based on the empirical findings in the learning study.Findings: The results suggest that teachers' collaborative work have possibilities to produce knowledge about critical aspects of learning that can be communicated and adopted in new contexts. The teachers in the follow up study were able to make sense of the results from learning study and incorporate the critical aspects in their teaching in a way that enhanced students' learning.Originality: It is demonstrated that teacher collaboration in learning study can create knowledge that goes beyond the border of the local context. Keywords: Lesson study, sharing instructional products, negative numbers, variation theory, knowledge production. Article classification: Research paper IntroductionThere are extensive reports on the effectiveness of lesson study for teachers' improvement of teaching skills, how they learn to reflect, on changes in motivation and capacity to improve instruction and the development of content and pedagogical content knowledge (e.g. Lewis, Perry and Hurd, 2009). Furthermore, it is reported that Lesson Study can promote the establishment of learning communities and teacher collaboration, a culture of mutual accountability, shared goals for instruction and a common language for analyzing instruction (e.g. Chichibu and Kihara 2013;Hunter and Back, 2011;Toshiya and Toshiyuki, 2013). To us, with these purposes, lesson study will be restricted to a model for professional development only, not as a system that can generate new and relevant knowledge recognized as a legitimate knowledge source for professionals.Hiebert and Morris (2011) take lesson study further when they promote it as a system for "the creation of shared instructional products that guide classroom teaching" (p. 5). 'Instructional products' should be designed with a specific learning goal in focus and detailed enough to guide classroom instruction. An instructional product is the current answer to common and shared problems on teaching and learning. It is tentative, changeable and thereby open to improvement. Therefore, such 'local theories' embedded in the instructional product must be communicated, shared and improved by other teachers in other contexts. In this way, they could be tested and verified under new and local conditions. However, it has been questioned whether this is possible. In a review of practiti...

This dissertation is about developing our knowledge of teaching and student learning through examining teaching that has been designed and implemented with in a learning study. Applying an interdisciplinary approach, this research builds knowledge of how teaching can be designed and implemented for young students with different prior knowledge of mathematics. The focus is on inclusive education and, in particular, on inclusive learning environments. Teaching and learning about whole numbers for students in grades 2 and 3 were studied.The empirical material, mainly comprising videotaped lessons and the results of identical knowledge tests that the students completed before and after the lessons, was collected in a learning study and used in two steps. First, the teaching characteristics were analysed at a collective level, mainly based on test results used to measure learning outcomes, i.e.,students’ ability to expand their number range from natural to whole numbers. The extent to which the teaching characteristics were transferable to new teaching contexts was also investigated. Second, an interdisciplinary approach was followed, applying knowledge and theories from special needs education and mathematics education. Examining teaching characteristics in relation to outcomes, the research perspective expanded from the collective to the individual level, emphasizing participation and learning among students with different prior knowledge according to test results. Notably, at a collective level, teaching was characterized by being based on the identification of critical aspects. Analyses of teaching outcomes at the individual level revealed a mixed picture of student learning and participation in the learning study lessons. Concerning one studied lesson, an analysis of student test results revealed considerable diversity in student achievement, indicating that some students learned what was intended while others did not. However, test results from another lesson indicated that all students progressed in learning about whole numbers. During this lesson, the teacher-guided mathematical discourse incorporating several routines seemed to be central to facilitating student participation as well as change in the discourse on whole numbers.The main conclusion is that the interdisciplinary research approach helped foster deeper insight into teaching design and its outcomes regarding individual students’ learning and participation. In addition, the findings emphasize the importance of teachers taking responsibility for inviting the students into the mathematical discourse in relation to the access aspect of participation, and then, through challenging questions, facilitating progress to the collaborative aspect of participation.

PurposeThe aim of this study is to investigate achievement profiles in mathematics when integers are taught in a learning study in grade three (to children 8–9 years old) and to explore to what extent students with such profiles participate in inclusive teaching and learning practices.Design/methodology/approachData from a previous learning study are re-analysed, supported by a framework that enables the investigation of inclusive practices. In the present study, inclusion and achievement are viewed as interrelated, meaning that student achievement must be incorporated in the definition of inclusion. The analysis is based on documentation of a video-recorded lesson and on identical tests conducted before and after the lesson.FindingsThe general framing of the learning study indicates an inclusive practice, while pre- and post-test achievement together with data from the lesson reveal a mixed picture concerning student achievement and inclusion. The analysis of the pre- and post-test results for the 16 students in the class indicates considerable diversity in student achievement, resulting in four achievement profiles. The main conclusion is that some students gained from participating in the learning study lesson while others did not. The extensive analysis of four students' participation, one for each profile, shows that differences in student achievement are related to the extent to which students participate in inclusive teaching and learning practices.Originality/valueWhile previous research on learning studies has mainly considered average student achievement, this study focuses on individual variation in achievement and the reasons for it, a matter largely neglected in previous learning study research.

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