What Do Lessons Tell Us About Teachers’ Learning
From Lesson Study?
Betsy King, Catherine Lewis, Aki Murata & Rebecca Perry
Lesson Study Group at Mills College
Oakland, California
http://www.lessonresearch.net
This material is based upon work supported by the National
Science Foundation under Grant No. 0207259. Any
opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations
expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do
not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science
Foundation.
Lesson Study
Planning
Phase
Research
Lesson
Post-Lesson
Activities
Lesson Study
Planning
Phase
• Collaborative planning
• Discuss goals for students & content
• Study available units & lessons
• Build from an existing lesson
Lesson Study
Planning
Phase
Research
Lesson
• 1 teacher teaches; others observe/ collect data
• Designed to bring to life a particular
goal/ vision of education
• Record lesson - video, audio, student
work, observation notes
Lesson Study
Planning
Phase
Research
Lesson
Post-Lesson
Activities
• Formally debrief lesson
• Discuss how lesson brought goals to life
• Revise and re-teach if desired
Case 1: Overview
• 5-day summer workshop
• 14 participants from 8 sites
• Elementary and middle school teachers
& administrators
What Happened
• Initial planning group (“IPG,” 3 members)
pre-planned series of 3 grade 5 lessons
based on Investigations
• Whole group (14 members) helped revise
plans, collect data, discuss lessons
• 1 IPG member “guest taught” the 3 lessons
to a class of 5th graders over 3 days
Data
• Video and transcriptions of 3 lessons, 3
debriefs, and 13 hours of planning
meetings
• Written reflections (twice daily) in
response to prompts, e.g, what is
mathematical discourse and how does it
promote math learning? What are the
important ideas in teaching volume?
• Lesson plans
• Follow-up emails with IPG
Identified “Learning Threads”
Topics in mathematics and its teachinglearning that surfaced more than twice
Examples:
• When and how to define mathematical
vocabulary
•Volume is not counted but measured: Moving
students from counting to multiplicative view
is important
More Examples of Learning
Threads
• Base times height provides a better basis for
generalization to other prisms than does length
times width times height
• Need to focus on the mathematical purpose of
the lesson, not just the activities
• Blackboard can provide a written record of the
lesson
When & How to Define
Mathematical Vocabulary:
Natural History of This Learning
Thread
I: Prior to First Lesson
• IPG added definitions and academic
vocabulary activity to Investigations
IPG Additions
• Teacher defines “volume” at outset
• Teacher leads class to list descriptors of
rectangular prisms and introduces term
• “Length” “width” and “height” defined by
teacher, linked to student informal
vocabulary
Altered Lesson Plan Surfaced
Differences in Thinking
If use the term “rectangular prism”, must
define it precisely. This can’t be done in
10 minutes; takes 2-3 lessons
VS.
Don’t want to spend too long defining it, but
want to expose students to the term
“rectangular prism”--if it’s said enough
times students will get the idea
Examples of Pre-Lesson Views
• “The fact that we call it a prism…It’s just
like me calling you by your name….I
don’t need to know where your name came
from”
• “If it were daily conversation, we could
use “prism”, but since this is a
mathematics lesson we need to use terms
very very carefully…all the terms…should
be defined
“Front-load” Vocabulary for 2nd Language
Learners
“We’re dealing with a lot of second language
students… So when we’re given the
opportunity to use some academic
language, I think it’s … best…to go ahead
and use it. If we were to called this a box
or a shape…we are missing out on an
opportunity to use the academic language
and call this a rectangular prism so that
they hear that word, are associating it with
this particular shape.”
Lesson 1: A Compromise
• Instructor did not define or use “rectangular
prism” or “volume”
• But spent much lesson time on activities
designed to:
- Elicit descriptors of rectangular prisms
- Elicit students’ informal terms for height,
width, and length and map to these 3 terms
Lesson 1 Debrief
• Only 5/27 students wrote about 3
dimensions
• Members concerned that lesson did not
move students toward understanding of 3
dimensions and volume
•
-
Different ideas about why:
Inadequate vocabulary development
No classroom foundation for discourse
Nature of task (3 dimensions not needed)
Reflections After Lesson 1
“Consistency necessary with new
vocabulary. Confusing for
students/teacher to use same word to
describe different thing.”
“Do students need to be able to clearly
define length, width, and height to find
volume and understand the concept?”
Final Reflections:Elements You
Will Incorporate in Practice
“I’m going to focus on being more conscious
of when, how I introduce vocabulary”
“The difference between learning vocabulary
vs. learning the concept/the meaning”
3 Months Post-Workshop
IPG revises unit and teaches in own venue
Problem revised so all 3 dimensions need to be
discussed
Students who write about 3 dimensions
-Summer workshop: 18%
-Revised unit: 52%
Changed View of “Frontloading” Vocabulary
“This is primarily a reading strategy that was
assumed to work in mathematics. Contrary
to this, we have found that if we begin by
teaching the mathematical concept with
informal vocabulary first and after the
concept is grasped we explicitly add the
academic vocabulary that this works much
better in terms of students being able to use
the vocabulary and retention…”
An IPG member’s summary of talk to math conference
A Different View
“I still take issue with [Japanese
colleague’s] resistance to the
vocabulary development aspects of the
lesson. I still feel very strongly about
the need for EL students to review and
see academic language as often as we
can offer it to them”
-Another IPG member, 7 months after workshop
Implications for Lesson Study
• Discussion of written lesson plan
surfaced differences in thinking
• Changes occurred over time, not in
the course of a single lesson cycle
• “Model” curriculum provides rich
starting point
Implications for Research
1. Participants learned different things
-Some things could be specified in
advance, others not.
Implications for Research
2. Teachers continued to experiment
after workshop
Does PD foster structures, motivation,
habits of mind for continued learning
from practice?
Implications for Research
3. The Nature of “Research-Based
Practice”
Definitions and vocabulary development
added because of research on 2nd
language learners
Need practice-based opportunities to test
and qualify “proven” research
findings
Please Evaluate Resources
Table 2: History of Learning Thread
Discussion Excerpts