Julius P. Encallado
Bachelor of Secondary Education – Mathematics
M3217 Pedagogical Inquiry in Mathematics
Synthesis Paper: Feasibility of Lesson Study
With the rise of different issues and concerns in regard to mathematics education here in the
Philippines, there is a need to advance teachers’ professional development that addresses the issues
in Mathematics education. As an innovative way to address these issues, lesson study was conducted
first in Japan and later on adopted by some foreign countries—as it offers promising positive results
towards professional development of the teachers in general. On the other hand, can a lesson study
also be an effective way to address the problems in Mathematics Education in our context, considering
the unbalanced availability of resources in different schools here in the Philippines.
Along with the current K to 12 curriculum in the Philippines, the teaching methodologies of
teachers need to adopt these changes. Hence, a real-time professional development of teachers is
vital, since, teacher’s quality has a great impact to the efficiency and effectivity of the learning
experience. However, the current professional development training for mathematics teachers was
claimed to have a challenge in applying as it fails to consider classrooms’ local contexts (Arnigo, et al.,
2018, Bonghanoy, et al., 2019 & Lomibao, 2016). As claimed by numerous researches, conducting a
lesson study is highly effective to enhance the quality of mathematics teachers and beneficial on the
part of the teachers, consequently, it was rapidly adopted worldwide as it promotes teachers’
professional development. In addition, utilizing lesson study approach as a transformative and schoolbased continuous professional development training, it uncovers issues inside the classroom and
identifies valuable pedagogical practices solely applicable to each classroom’s context through shared
reflections and collaborative effort of the teachers in a dialogic process (Bonghanoy et al., 2019,
Lomibao, 2016, Mhakure, 2019 & Warwick et al., 2016). As Mhakure (2019) presented that a lesson
study is site-based, practice-based, learner-centered, collaboration-based and research-based and so,
can be considered as an effective tool for CPD activities specially in disadvantaged areas. Lesson study
subsequently improved different aspects of teachers in teaching practices, understanding on the how
students learn, managing learners’ misconceptions and widened their knowledge about mathematics
teaching (Arnigo, et al., 2018, Lomibao, 2016 & Bonghanoy et al., 2019). Therefore, these
improvements in both teachers’ and students’ lenses constitute to the dimensions of professional
knowledge in view of the international standards in Southeast Asia Regional Standards for Mathematics
Teachers (Lomibao, 2016).
Lesson study can be a great tool to improve the quality of mathematics teachers here in our
context. Based on the current situation and culture of professional development training in the
Philippines, viewing a professional development as teacher-centered approach, it undermines the sole
purpose of such activity—to improve the teaching practices and strategies that promotes learnercentered approach. We have a lot of disadvantaged areas here in our country, thus, through the use of
lesson study, local teachers will become ‘glocal’ teachers. Through conducting lesson study in each
school here in the Philippines, it can provide more authentic professional development exercises to
teachers and creates meaningful teaching-learning process through contextualized teaching
methodologies. Therefore, lesson study is completely feasible in our context to address issues in
mathematics education as it provides promising advantages.
References
Arnigo, J., Lim, E., Manalo, M., Pacheco, V., Secosana, B., Sy, A., & Elipane, L. (2018). Utilizing Lesson
Study in Teaching Circles. Advanced Science Letters, 24(11), 1-5. Retrieved March 14, 2021
Bonghanoy, G. B., Sagpang, A. P., Alejan, R. A., & Rellon, L. (2019). Transformative Professional
Development for Mathematics Teachers. Journal on Mathematics Education, 10(2), 289-302.
Retrieved March 14, 2021
Lomibao, L. S. (2016). Enhancing mathematics teachers’ quality through Lesson Study. 5(1590), 1-13.
doi:10.1186/s40064-016-3215-0
Mhakure, D. (2019). School-based mathematics teacher professional learning: A theoretical position on
the lesson study approach. South African Journal of Education, 39, 1-8.
doi:10.15700/saje.v39ns1a1754
Warwick, P., Vrikki, M., Vermunt, J. D., Mercer, N., & Halem, N. (2016). Connecting observations of
student and teacher learning: an examination of dialogic processes in Lesson Study
discussions in mathematics. ZDM Mathematics Education(48), 555–569. doi:10.1007/s11858015-0750-z