Studying Classroom Teaching as a Medium for Professional Development Proceedings of a U.S.-Japan Workshop (2002) / Chapter Skim
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Small Group Discussion
Small Group Discussion
Pages 111-136
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From page 111... ...
Group ~ Report Coordinator: Michelle Manes, Project Director, Education Development Center Group IT Report Coordinator: Denisse Thompson, Associate Professor, University of South Florida
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From page 112... ...
Sargeant Reynolds Community College Video Small Group Discussion Highlights SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION
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From page 113... ...
One view is that perhaps that question is easier to answer for Japanese teachers than for teachers from the United States the national curriculum in Japan defines the content teachers need to teach and therefore defines at least the minimal level of content they need to understand. One example of this from the workshop discussions: It was striking to participants from the United States that all of the Japanese teachers in the room were familiar with Deborah Ball's "coin problems," and that there was general agreement that these were "sixth grade problems." That degree of agreement about content at each grade level simply does not exist in the United States.
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From page 114... ...
However, a teacher in the group reminded us that elementary school teachers are generalists, saying, "You can't make every elementary teacher into a math professor and a historian and a literature professor. Elementary teachers have to teach everything." The closest we could come to consensus was to agree on the requirement of knowing the content of their own course and one course on either side, along with some particular pieces of mathematicslike the base 10 system in deep ways.
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From page 115... ...
The Japanese teachers explain this by saying that the high school teachers graduate from the mathematics department; they like math and have an easier time teaching it. Yet they also said that exploration of mathematics content by the teachers may be part of lesson study but is not always.
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From page 116... ...
The Education Development Center has a project called Lenses on Learning focused on designing materials and videos to help administrators look at teaching practice and understand what they should look for in a mathematics classroom. In discussing the two main types of teacher professional development presented in the workshop, participants identified clear positives and negatives in both approaches.
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From page 117... ...
One point made in the workshop is that Japanese teachers do not spend the same amount of time on a regular lesson as on a study lesson. So is it true that study lessons are "showcases" with little relation to a regular class, or does going through the process of carefully planning some lessons affect how a teacher presents all lessons?
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From page 118... ...
Not until Tuesday did it become clear that Japanese teachers might participate in several lesson study groups throughout the year on a regular basis to discuss a variety of instructional materials and content; participation in a long term lesson study occurred much less frequently. From the discussions and from additional information provided by Tad Watanabe, it appears that lesson study is a practice that occurs typically at K-6 schools.
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From page 119... ...
Teachers use their knowledge of mathematics to consider real-life problems and examples that people need for everyday life. Japanese K-6 mathematics education seems to focus on "mathematical literacy," so that Japanese teachers attempt to begin a lesson with a context that children might encounter; this was evident in the fourth-grade lesson in which the teacher dealt with large numbers related to size and costs.
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What are the advantages and potential prohiems of different approaches? RESPONSE A number of issues arose regarding the various professional development approaches presente(1 at the seminarresearch study lesson, video case record, written cases, and professional development in general.
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From page 121... ...
e(lucators agree(1 that there was a need to stu(ly mathematics for teaching and not just mathematics for mathematicians. The three different professional development approaches seen at this workshop facilitate the integration of content with methods.
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From page 122... ...
One issue that arose is that all the various approaches to professional development depend on the teachers' knowledge of mathematics and how this knowledge can be used to help students. If teachers do not know enough mathematics, they cannot take the ideas very far.
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From page 123... ...
In the hands of a skilled facilitator, the approaches discussed in the workshop can provide a framework for professional development because of their focus on how children learn mathematics. The facilitator needs to be explicit in helping teachers make connections to the larger K-12 curriculum in order to understand how the mathematical ideas fit together and to provide the forward and backward look into curriculum that appears to be a hallmark of the Japanese materials.
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From page 124... ...
first days, Takaski Nakamura, Nanette Seago, Yoshishige Sugiyama, Zalman Usiskin, Makoto Yoshida Report Coordinator; ~ ~ Translator; ~ ~ HIS. ICME Travel Group The group spent time un(lerstan(ling the three methods or approaches to professional development in Japan and the United States that were presented and discussed in the workshop: lesson study, video records, and written cases studies.
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From page 125... ...
The journal can be used by others to understand what the teacher was trying to accomplish in her lesson. The three phases of video records for professional development are design, enactment or GROUP 111 facilitation, anti analyzing or reflecting.
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From page 126... ...
Lesson Summary All three approaches for professional development have strengths and weaknesses. Many study lessons are transcribed, which is very time-consuming.
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From page 127... ...
Every five years teachers go back to the education center for continued professional development. In the United States, 33 states require a small amount (minimal)
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From page 128... ...
The extent to which individual teachers engage in formal lesson study sessions is quite limited. Thus, many elementary teachers might do so only a few times a year at their school.
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From page 129... ...
. There is a tremendous range in the type of experience afforded by such lesson study sessions, depending on grade level, context, and purpose.
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From page 130... ...
b. Opportunities for getting expert advice; this may come via an ongoing or occasional liaison with a faculty at a university or by means of other specific opportunities (e.g., at lesson study sessions at the ward, prefectural, or national level)
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From page 131... ...
Observations of lesson study sessions indicate that teachers devote considerable attention to (a) clearly articulating the specific intellectual goal of the lesson (it is noteworthy that the goal is often phrased as an abstract goal of achieving understanding of a concept rather than the mastery of a skill or technique)
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From page 132... ...
On the whole, the development of deep conceptual understanding of the concepts that teachers teach seems to come from this continuing process of careful lesson planning and implementation, followed by reflection about its effectiveness, informed by constant analysis of student ideas. Few research mathematicians seem to be involved in school mathematics education.
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From page 133... ...
In the final analysis, this effect may be as valuable as any other effect of the process of lesson study. RESEARCH ISSUES In the short time span of the workshop, it was (difficult to get an idea of the extent to which individual teachers implement on a day-to-day basis the practices exemplified in the lesson study sessions.
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From page 134... ...
, Mark Saul ~ ~ * , Keiichi Shigematsu, Yoshinori Shimiz~, Lucy West, Susan Wood Report Coordinator; ~ ~ Translator; ~ ~ HIS.
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From page 135... ...
To help students gain mathematical satisfaction, the teacher must sum up the mathematical objective of the lesson in which the teacher moves from naive student solutions to those that are more sophisticated. Japanese teachers like whole group discussion, not the oneto-one discussion between student and teacher.
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From page 136... ...
RESPONSE The advisor's role in lesson study is to identify key points to improve the lesson and teaching, to identify the most valuable things mathematically and pedagogically even in a disastrous lesson. In lesson study, the quick feedback from and to the teacher is very powerful.
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