Theory and Practice of Lesson Study in Mathematics

Abstract

This paper constitutes an attempt to produce a critical commentary on this volume that is informed by a 'classroom action research' tradition, which originated in the work of Lawrence Stenhouse and others at the Centre for Applied Research in Education (CARE) at the University of East Anglia in England. It involved a series of projects, which engaged groups of 'teachers as researchers' in their classrooms, and stimulated the development of a research tradition that impacted across the UK and Europe and more widely in the latter part of the 20 th century. The paper begins with a summary of the main ideas embedded in this tradition of collaborative classroom action research, and then goes on to discuss in their light a number of themes and issues posed by contributions in this volume. These include the respective roles of academic experts and teachers in the lesson study process, the role of teachers in constructing accounts of lesson studies and creating 'knowledge platforms', the role of teachers as researchers in relation to curriculum development, the use of learning theories to inform lesson study, and the problem of globalizing lesson study methodology across cultures and systems.

Levering change: the contributory role of a mathematics teaching framework

“…-Teachers learning to use the MTF through participation in lesson study Between 2014 and 2016, we carried out a series of lesson study cycles in three different school clusters (see Adler & Alshwaikh, 2019). Project team members worked with a group of teachers in a cluster to plan, teach and reflect on lessons, deliberately using the MTF as a guide.…”

“…The initial planning session in the cycle focused on examining curriculum texts (curriculum guidelines, mandated lesson plans and textbooks) that combined with teachers' own experience in their teaching, and in the project, to refine an object of learning, and produce a first lesson plan. In Adler and Alshwaikh (2019) we focused in on teachers' take-up of exemplification and careful use of words in their lesson, and how this evolved through the lesson study cycle. We examined the evolving lesson plan and the discussions following its enactments that produced successive changes.…”

Distance Lesson Study in Mathematics: A Case Study of an Italian High School

“…Furthermore, an essential element of the Lesson Study is the cooperation between teachers, who see the LS as a teachers' professional development methodology as in the Japanese tradition (Huang et al, 2019). Cooperation has been facilitated by digital (material and social) resources.…”

“…Specifically, during the Lesson Study cycle, the teachers shared their resources and collectively worked to obtain some common documents, which will be new resources for their network. In response to RQ1, the experimented DLS had similar architecture to the traditional Japanese ones (Huang et al, 2019), as modified in the High School Italian experimentation (Capone et al, 2020), thus including the following essential features: time scheduling, LP, presence of observers in the teaching phase, and video analysis. The main documents of the DLS are a shared RMRS, the modified Lesson Plan, the observations grids, and a Debriefing document (see Table 4).…”

"Effective Continuing Professional Learning and Development: The Case of Mathematics Teachers in Malta"

“…[51] suggest different methodologies which are useful for mathematics teachers, such as the setting up of teacher-led Communities of Inquiry, where critical analysis of practice and of other issues central to teachers' work and lives can be discussed. Participation in Lesson Study, a PD model specifically focused on improving the teaching of mathematics through teacher group discussions, can be effective in bringing about such changes Huang [58]. This would allow teachers to make connections between research and practice, which can also be helpful for mathematics teachers Lewis [59].…”