Enhancing teachers' noticing around mathematics teaching practices through video-based lesson study with peer coaching

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Suh ◽  
Melissa A. Gallagher ◽  
Laurie Capen ◽  
Sara Birkhead
Keyword(s):  
Professional Learning ◽  
Mathematics Teaching ◽  
Lesson Study ◽  
Teaching Practices ◽  
Peer Coaching ◽  
Student Thinking ◽  
Video Annotation ◽  
Release Time ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Study Teams

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine what teachers notice in their own enactment of eight high leverage practices as well as the patterns of interactions between the teachers and their peers when participating in video-based lesson study.Design/methodology/approachEach teacher taught and uploaded video from one lesson to a platform, which allowed video annotation, for their lesson study team. There were nine lesson study teams. This study used a qualitative design to examine the teachers' comments on their own videos as well as the patterns in the comments between peers on lesson study teams.FindingsTeachers noticed both positive instantiations as well as opportunities for growth in their enactment of: using and connecting mathematical representations, posing purposeful questions and supporting students' productive struggle. Analysis displayed a pattern of exchanges where peers coached, validated, empathized and pushed each other beyond their comfort zone as critical peers.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough not all lesson study teams were made up of school-based teams and the teachers shared short recordings of their teaching, this research contributes to the understanding of how adapting lesson study by using video can help teachers notice their instantiation of teaching practices and peers can support and push one another towards ambitious instruction. Future research could extend this work by investigating the impact of video-based lesson study on teachers in isolated areas who may not have professional learning networks.Practical implicationsVideo-based LS may help to overcome barriers to the implementation of lesson study, such as the challenge of scheduling a common release time for lesson observation and the financial burden of funding substitute teachers for release time.Originality/valueThe current realities of COVID-19 creates an opportunity for mathematics educators to reimagine teacher professional development (PD) in ways that push the field forward. In light of this disruption, the authors propose an innovative model of utilizing video-based Lesson Study (LS; Lewis, 2002) with peer coaching to offer PD opportunities with methodological considerations for both mathematics researchers and teacher practitioners. The authors document and analyze a collection of online LSs that were taught by a focal teacher and recorded for the peers in the LS group. Video-based LS PD structure allowed the authors to examine how they can leverage this online model of LS to analyze student thinking and learn about teaching rich tasks in an online environment using eight teaching practices. Through their paper the authors will detail the necessary features of online LS specifically using a video annotation tool like Goreact and how video can be used to enhance the professional learning of the mathematics teaching practices (MTPs; NCTM, 2014) and the noticing of student thinking (Jacobs et al., 2010; Sherin and van Es, 2009; van Es and Sherin, 2002, 2008). In addition, the authors will document the norms that were established in the online LS community that impacted collaboration of LS teams and developed strong peer coaching relationships. The online LS PD design also supports collaboration of teachers from varying contexts, promotes professional growth and demonstrates how educators might leverage peer coaches as social capital within their schools to develop teachers along the professional continuum.

scholarly journals Making sense of international variations in lesson study and lesson study-like practices

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 201-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brahm Norwich
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Lesson Study ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Group Problem Solving ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Learning Practices ◽  
Learning Development ◽  
Definition Of

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine variations within lesson study (LS) practices and their connections with related traditions: teacher research/enquiry approaches, professional development models, professional learning communities and group problem-solving approaches. Questions are addressed about the relationships between different professional learning approaches in terms of definitions and frameworks. Design/methodology/approach Academic databases and website sources were searched in a purposive way to identify 20 practices associated with these traditions for comparative analysis. Findings A conceptual framework consisting of eight dimensions was constructed to account for the variations within and between these professional learning traditions: for instance, about the settings in which the practices take place, the purposes of the practices and the specific procedures involved. By illustrating how specific practices fitted within this framework it is concluded that the variations within the LS tradition are wide enough to make it difficult to identify a set of necessary and sufficient features of LS to distinguish LS practices from the other non-LS professional learning practices. Reasons are also given for considering whether a polythetic type of definition of professional learning/development practices might be constructed. Research limitations/implications The possibility for a more systematic review of professional learning approaches for the construction of a conceptual framework is discussed. Practical implications Ways in which this kind of conceptualisation can be useful in promoting clarity about professional learning practices and in developing these practices are discussed. Originality/value The originality of this paper lies in the construction of a conceptual framework to analyse similarities and differences within and between various professional learning traditions.

scholarly journals Restructuring mathematics teaching | learning: Co-teaching as a designed approach to teachers' collaborative inquiry

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Raewyn Eden
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Learning ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Mathematics Teaching ◽  
Participatory Design ◽  
Collaborative Inquiry ◽  
Mathematics Learning ◽  
Student Thinking ◽  
Teacher Interviews ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Teaching Inquiry

<p>This study explores how participation in collaborative inquiry opens space for an expanded set of understandings and practices for mathematics teaching | learning. It examines the affordances of collaborative inquiry to promote, or constrain, teacher learning in the context of teachers’ day to day work.  Sociocultural perspectives underpin the study whereby professional learning is presumed to be situated in the social and cultural contexts of teachers’ work. A survey of the literature supports the assumption that persistent underachievement in mathematics for some groups of learners requires shifts in what teachers know and can do and reveals the importance of collaboration and inquiry for teacher learning.  The study involved a participatory, design-based approach underpinned by an authentic and appreciative inquiry stance. Design-based research was chosen for its proximity to practice and its focus on connections between the enactment of learning designs and outcomes of interest. The research was iterative and cyclical whereby the researcher worked with a group of four teachers in one New Zealand primary school to design, implement and refine an approach to teachers’ collaborative inquiry. A range of data were gathered during a 6-month collaboration, including from teacher interviews, classroom observations and three-weekly group meetings. The analysis took a pragmatic and multi-theoretical approach to examine what it meant to design and enact teachers’ collaborative inquiry. Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) was employed to capture the complexity of the teachers’ collaborative inquiry activity and to analyse and interpret the contradictions that arose.  A key finding was that a co-teaching inquiry approach fostered conditions that afforded teachers’ expanded access to and depth of engagement with new, and often dissonant, practice ideas. Through co-teaching, mathematics teaching | learning was restructured within three interconnected fields of practice: the teachers’ enacted practice, their talk about practice, and their noticing of student thinking within practice. The co-teaching inquiry activity was increasingly directed at a collective purpose; involved an interplay of risk and trust; supported shifts in teachers’ roles and responsibilities; and allowed teachers to constantly renegotiate the goals of their shared activity. The co-teaching arrangement disrupted practice whereby teachers’ actions served as minor interruptions to each other’s practice and thus became a resource for teacher learning. Opportunities to engage deeply with one another’s practice opened space for an expanded set of actions for each of the teachers in their own practice.  This thesis adds nuanced understandings of the interrelated roles of collaboration and inquiry in improving teaching. It contributes to the growing body of literature exploring co-teaching arrangements for teacher learning, in this case in the previously under-examined context of teachers’ collaborative inquiry for their ongoing professional learning. It offers insights into how co-teaching might support teachers to enact new and challenging pedagogies aimed at addressing the persistent and considerable challenges posed by an ethical imperative to promote mathematics learning for diverse (all) students. Participating in the co-construction of a design for their collaborative inquiry enabled teachers to restructure their work and expand the possibilities for their individual and collective practice. It allowed teachers to reconstruct their identities from the lone operator whose professional reputation needs protection from exposure of any weaknesses in their mathematics knowledge or practice, to a learner whose naïve questions and gaps in practice served as a resource for all in their learning.</p>

Challenging Malawian primary teachers' views on mathematics teaching and learning through lesson study

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Janne Fauskanger ◽  
Nina Helgevold ◽  
Mercy Kazima ◽  
Arne Jakobsen
Keyword(s):  
Mathematics Teaching ◽  
Lesson Study ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Primary Teachers ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mathematics Teaching And Learning ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Ongoing Project

PurposeThe aim of the study is to better understand how lesson study (LS) contributes to challenging teachers' views of mathematics teaching and learning.Design/methodology/approachThis study is part of a wider ongoing project aiming at improving primary mathematics teaching in Malawi through professional development (PD) of teachers using a LS model. The units being analyzed are teachers' written reflections and lesson plans. The analytical approach is qualitative content analysis.FindingsInitially, the participating Malawian primary teachers report traditional views of mathematics teaching and learning. After having participated in a LS cycle, they reported on the need to work on how to involve and create space for learners' participation in mathematic lessons and highlight the importance for learners to discover mathematics on their own.Research limitations/implicationsThis is a small-scale study due to LS being quite new in the Malawian context and the need to test before possible upscaling.Practical implicationsThe paper includes a description on how LS might contribute to challenging Malawian teachers' views of mathematics teaching and learning; this can be valuable information for others who are attempting to use LS in a similar context.Originality/valueThis paper fulfills an identified need to learn more about how LS might contribute to challenging teachers' views of mathematics teaching and learning worldwide.

Instructional Change Through Collaboration and Peer Coaching

2020 ◽  
pp. 118-145
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Adult Learning ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Learning Theory ◽  
Lesson Study ◽  
Peer Coaching ◽  
Adult Learning Theory ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Instructional Change ◽  
Learning In Context

This chapter explains the connection made between Japanese Lesson Study (JLS) and adult learning theory. For the purpose of further understanding the action research process and how it connects to teacher learning, Phase 3, learning in context with a peer coaching emphasis, will be discussed. This chapter will inform leaders as they develop their own system of professional learning for teachers.

Dialogic peer coaching as teacher leadership for professional inquiry

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Charteris ◽  
Dianne Smardon
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Leadership ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Peer Coaching ◽  
High Capacity ◽  
Comparison Method ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Individual Development ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Or Team

Purpose – Dialogic peer coaching as leadership can enable teachers to influence each other's professional learning. The purpose of this paper is to shift the emphasis from the role associated with the designated title of leader to the purpose and relevance of teacher leadership in the context of dialogic peer coaching. Design/methodology/approach – The research was undertaken as a small qualitative case study embedded in a school-based, teacher professional development project. Nine groups of peer coaches from five unrelated schools engaged in a formal process of collaborative inquiry over two years. Interview data from 13 volunteer teacher participants were analysed using the constant comparison method and themes determined. Findings – The study revealed that there was growth in teacher leadership capabilities as they become dialogic peer coaches to each other. Practical implications – Through their collaborative peer coaching dialogue teachers have the transformative space to articulate their thinking. They can engage in dialogic feedback where they are positioned as experts in their own practice. Social implications – The teachers in this study are positioned within communities of practice as co-constructers of knowledge and co-learners. On the basis of the findings the authors suggest that this can support the development of high capacity leadership in schools. This stance contrasts with a technicist approach to teacher professional learning in which teachers are situated as absorbers or recipients of knowledge constructed elsewhere. Originality/value – The research reported in this paper addresses three key elements of leadership: individual development; collaboration or team development; and organisational development. It outlines a means by which teacher leadership can be strengthened to address these elements in schools.

scholarly journals Restructuring mathematics teaching | learning: Co-teaching as a designed approach to teachers' collaborative inquiry

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Raewyn Eden
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Learning ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Mathematics Teaching ◽  
Participatory Design ◽  
Collaborative Inquiry ◽  
Mathematics Learning ◽  
Student Thinking ◽  
Teacher Interviews ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Teaching Inquiry

<p>This study explores how participation in collaborative inquiry opens space for an expanded set of understandings and practices for mathematics teaching | learning. It examines the affordances of collaborative inquiry to promote, or constrain, teacher learning in the context of teachers’ day to day work.  Sociocultural perspectives underpin the study whereby professional learning is presumed to be situated in the social and cultural contexts of teachers’ work. A survey of the literature supports the assumption that persistent underachievement in mathematics for some groups of learners requires shifts in what teachers know and can do and reveals the importance of collaboration and inquiry for teacher learning.  The study involved a participatory, design-based approach underpinned by an authentic and appreciative inquiry stance. Design-based research was chosen for its proximity to practice and its focus on connections between the enactment of learning designs and outcomes of interest. The research was iterative and cyclical whereby the researcher worked with a group of four teachers in one New Zealand primary school to design, implement and refine an approach to teachers’ collaborative inquiry. A range of data were gathered during a 6-month collaboration, including from teacher interviews, classroom observations and three-weekly group meetings. The analysis took a pragmatic and multi-theoretical approach to examine what it meant to design and enact teachers’ collaborative inquiry. Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) was employed to capture the complexity of the teachers’ collaborative inquiry activity and to analyse and interpret the contradictions that arose.  A key finding was that a co-teaching inquiry approach fostered conditions that afforded teachers’ expanded access to and depth of engagement with new, and often dissonant, practice ideas. Through co-teaching, mathematics teaching | learning was restructured within three interconnected fields of practice: the teachers’ enacted practice, their talk about practice, and their noticing of student thinking within practice. The co-teaching inquiry activity was increasingly directed at a collective purpose; involved an interplay of risk and trust; supported shifts in teachers’ roles and responsibilities; and allowed teachers to constantly renegotiate the goals of their shared activity. The co-teaching arrangement disrupted practice whereby teachers’ actions served as minor interruptions to each other’s practice and thus became a resource for teacher learning. Opportunities to engage deeply with one another’s practice opened space for an expanded set of actions for each of the teachers in their own practice.  This thesis adds nuanced understandings of the interrelated roles of collaboration and inquiry in improving teaching. It contributes to the growing body of literature exploring co-teaching arrangements for teacher learning, in this case in the previously under-examined context of teachers’ collaborative inquiry for their ongoing professional learning. It offers insights into how co-teaching might support teachers to enact new and challenging pedagogies aimed at addressing the persistent and considerable challenges posed by an ethical imperative to promote mathematics learning for diverse (all) students. Participating in the co-construction of a design for their collaborative inquiry enabled teachers to restructure their work and expand the possibilities for their individual and collective practice. It allowed teachers to reconstruct their identities from the lone operator whose professional reputation needs protection from exposure of any weaknesses in their mathematics knowledge or practice, to a learner whose naïve questions and gaps in practice served as a resource for all in their learning.</p>

Teacher change through cognitive conflicts: the case of an art lesson study

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 383-395
Author(s):  
James Calleja ◽  
Laura Formosa
Keyword(s):  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teacher Change ◽  
Lesson Study ◽  
Lesson Plan ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Cognitive Conflict ◽  
Effective Teacher ◽  
Art Teacher ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Study Process

PurposeThe paper focuses on lesson study, which generally engages the collaborative work of a group of teachers, as implemented with a primary school art teacher who had limited opportunities for collaboration. Through lesson study, the teacher worked closely with a lesson study facilitator and an art education expert to plan a research lesson. The study explores how this collaboration generated cognitive conflicts and eventually teacher change.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents a case study using a thematic approach to data analysis. The lesson study involved weekly face-to-face meetings and daily online communications over a period of eight weeks. In an attempt to reflect upon and resolve conflicts, the teacher kept a journal in which the teacher wrote down lengthy accounts of the discussions with knowledgeable others, the teacher’s struggles and ways of resolving these. Data were complemented by the different lesson plan versions, the post-lesson discussions and a detailed report documenting the lesson study process.FindingsThe paper provides insights into the role that cognitive conflicts play for teacher change. Through ongoing communication, reflection and support to resolve conflicts, the teacher recognised more collaborative opportunities for professional development, freed from rigid lesson planning practices and reported a new conceptualisation to teaching.Practical implicationsDrawing on the literature about effective teacher professional learning, the paper offers implications for supporting teacher change.Originality/valueThis paper provides insights into how lesson study may provide conditions that enable teachers' cognitive conflict and facilitate their consequent resolution.

Going the distance: a lesson study on deriving the distance formula

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Von Christopher Gulpric Chua
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Mathematics Teachers ◽  
Lesson Study ◽  
Mathematical Concept ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Distance Formula

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine the challenges that Filipino Mathematics teachers face while developing students’ ability to derive the distance formula; allow teachers to collaboratively formulate a lesson designed to address the challenges they have identified from their own practice; and determine how successful the lesson was and how it can be improved so that other teachers dealing with similar difficulties may be able to implement it. The teacher-participants employed Lesson Study (LS) as an approach to improving pedagogical practice. Data were based on the pre- and post-lesson discussions and individual reflection papers of the teacher participants. Design/methodology/approach An action research methodology through LS approach was employed by the teacher participants. Data were based on the pre- and post-lesson discussions and individual reflection papers of the teacher participants. Findings Based on the post-lesson discussion, the teachers agreed that the process of creating a lesson that seeks to develop the students’ ability to derive formulas are crucial to building understanding of the underlying mathematical concept. Also, teachers’ participation in LS was found to have been insightful as it developed in them a greater appreciation towards establishing a professional learning community that is directed towards examining problems that concerns majority of the teachers involved. Originality/value Research in Philippine education has recently seen the increasing interest in LS as a potent pedagogical practice. Nonetheless, papers that report on LS practice in the local context remains to be lacking. This study contributes to the development of this research area and raises the need for Filipino Mathematics teachers to engage in both LS and action research to generate knowledge from their experiences.

Perceived professional knowledge and competence of mathematics specialists and its development in China

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 321-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rongjin Huang ◽  
Jianyue Zhang ◽  
Ida Ah Chee Mok ◽  
Wenjun Zhao ◽  
Yuanfang Zhou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Mathematics Teaching ◽  
Lesson Study ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Professional Knowledge ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Teaching Research

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore what professional knowledge and competence (PKC) that knowledgeable others, namely, mathematics teaching research specialists (MTRS) in China, need to know, and how they may develop their PKC. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts mixed methods. A survey on PKC with 549 MTRS is utilized to examine MTRS’ perceived held and ideal PKC and perceived effective ways of developing their PKC. The responses to the open-ended questions on the survey were used to identify additional dimensions of PKC and ways of developing PKC. Multiple techniques of quantitative data analysis were employed to feature the characteristics of PKC and structure of the survey, and the relationship between background variables and perception of PKC. Collectively, this study paints a rich and comprehensive picture about Chinese knowledgeable others’ knowledge and competence, and its development. Findings The data analysis reveals that the participants appreciated the six-dimension model of MTRS’ PKC. They were confident with their PKC in general, but varied in different aspects. The factor analysis showed the six-dimension model could be further clustered into two components: knowledge about mathematics teaching and learning and competence in mentoring and educational leadership, and knowledge about content, assessing student learning, and use of technology. The participants perceived their learning through multiple ways including: learning through reading, attending specific training programs, attending and mentoring teaching research activities both school-based and across regions, observing and debriefing lessons, sharing within online learning communities. All these venues jointly contribute to developing MTRS’ PKC. Originality/value This is the first empirical study on MTRS’ PKC and its development in China based on such a large sample. The findings of this study not only contribute to an understanding of knowledgeable others in Chinese lesson study and providing suggestions for support of their development, but also provide implications for studies of practice-based mathematics teacher-educators globally.

scholarly journals Teacher professional learning through lesson study: teachers' reflections

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 397-412
Author(s):  
Alison Fox ◽  
Val Poultney
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Staff Development ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Lesson Study ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Teacher Reflections ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Development Literature ◽  
Subject Departments

PurposeThis study examines the experiences of five teachers working in two English secondary school subject departments after being given the opportunity to engage with Lesson Study (LS) to increase student performance in their subject areas. This study aimed to reveal the drivers for the teachers' engagement in LS, and how this experience of Joint Professional Development (JPD) might be contributing to their learning as teachers.Design/methodology/approachThis study applies an analytic approach to evidencing teacher learning, based on the work of Knud Illeris, offering this as a methodological contribution to the field of professional development literature.FindingsFindings reveal that, despite all the teachers developing a passion for learning through LS, there are constraints on its sustainability and impact which can be attributed to the teachers' broader contexts and which affected them differently. The constraints centre on tensions between priorities and agendas within and beyond the school, related largely to budgets and visions of staff development.Research limitations/implicationsThis focused study on two subject departments engaging in LS limits its generalisability in terms of findings. However, the study offers a practical research application of a model of learning for analysis of teacher reflections on collaborative learning experiences.Originality/valueUnderstanding individual teacher reflections on LS experiences is under-represented in the literature, in particular studies providing insights into conditions conducive and constraining to JPD.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document