The development of research supervisors’ pedagogical content knowledge in a lesson study project

Abstract

In this study, we aimed to identify how the learning activities elicited in a lesson study project contributed to self-perceived change in supervisors' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Lesson study is a method which combines both professional and educational development. During a lesson study project, teachers collaborate in a team and develop, teach, evaluate, and redesign a research lesson. During the 4-month lesson study project described here, four supervisors designed a protocol for research supervision meetings aimed at enhancing undergraduate students' learning. During the project, they experimented with open questioning and giving positive feedback instead of giving instruction and explanations. A mixed-methods design was used in this study. Data on the supervisors' learning activities and PCK were gathered using learner reports, video-recordings of meetings, and exit interviews. The analyses of these data showed that the lesson study project contributed to the development of the supervisors' PCK on instructional strategies and student understanding. The learning activity that contributed most to these changes was reflecting on their own practice and that of their students.

The development of teachers' knowledge in a lesson study

“…Previous research by Verhoef et al (2014), Widjaja et al (2017 and Agricola et al (2022) has already shown how the IMTPG (Clarke and Hollingsworth, 2002) can be useful to analyze lesson study processes. This study adds to that body of knowledge by highlighting the importance of the knowledge shared and constructed by the group of teachers and by underlining the key role of tasks and representations used in mathematics teachingtwo notions that emerge in this study but which were very much in the background of previous studies.…”

“…(2014), Widjaja et al. (2017) and Agricola et al. (2022) has already shown how the IMTPG (Clarke and Hollingsworth, 2002) can be useful to analyze lesson study processes.…”

“…They analyzed teachers' growth in the participants' knowledge of lesson planning, concluding that the teachers had developed in several dimensions, namely in teachers' collaborative planning skills, attention to students' mathematical thinking, use of whole-class discussions and collaborative practices for teacher inquiry. Another study by Agricola et al (2022), which also used the IMTPG, aimed to identify how the learning activities conducted in a lesson study contributed to how university supervisors perceived changes in their pedagogical content knowledge. The results showed that the lesson study contributed to the development of the supervisors' knowledge of instructional strategies and student understanding.…”

Examining teachers' learning through a project-based learning lesson study: a case study in China

“…, 2017; Verhoef et al. , 2015; Agricola et al. , 2022), this study employs a networking strategy to tease out the complexity of teachers' collective learning process in LS settings.…”

“…In contrast to the majority of prior research that utilizes a single theoretical lens (such as IMTPG) for understanding teachers' learning in LS (Widjaja et al, 2017;Verhoef et al, 2015;Agricola et al, 2022), this study employs a networking strategy to tease out the complexity of teachers' collective learning process in LS settings. Without Bannister's framework, it would be difficult for the researchers to understand how learning occurs in a group of teachers when participating in specific activities within DP in LS.…”