What is Lesson Study and How Can it Support the

Common Core State Standards?

St. Petersburg, Florida, December 8, 2012

Catherine LewisMills College

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 are

those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National

Science Foundation.

This material is based upon research supported by the Department of Education Institute for Education Sciences, Grant No. R308A960003. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the grantors.

Thanks to MSRI for funding substitute teachers for site-based participants.

How I encountered lesson study….

Good professional learning is_____________

Lesson Study Cycle

1. STUDY CURRICULUM & FORMULATE GOALS

Consider long-term goals for student learning and

development

Study subject matter, curriculum and

standards, focus the inquiry

2. PLAN

Select or revise research lesson

Write instructional plan that includes:

•Long-term goals•Anticipated student thinking•Data collection plan•How the lesson fits in the long-term learning trajectory•Rationale for chosen approach

3. DO RESEARCH LESSON

One team member conducts research lesson, others observe and collect

data

4. REFLECTFormal lesson colloquium in

which observers:

•Share data from lesson

•Use the data to illuminate student learning, disciplinary content, lesson and unit design, and broader issues in teaching-learning

•Document the cycle, to consolidate and carry forward

learning and new questions into next cycle of lesson study

“Build children’s mathematical curiosity, and their ability to notice and represent mathematical patterns…”

What qualities would you like students to have when they leave your mathematics program?

What is a gap between those ideal qualities and their actual qualities that you would really like to work on as an educator?

Choosing a Lesson Study Theme

Can patterns help us find an easy way to answer the question:

How many seats fit around any number of triangles, arranged in a

row as shown?

INPUT

Number of Triangle Tables

OUTPUT

Number of Seats

1 3

2 4

3

4

5

6

Questions About VideoQuestions About Video

1.Planning: What is similar and different from planning familiar to you?

1.Lesson: Practice collecting data on students.

1.Discussion: What do teachers learn? What agenda helps them learn?

Research Lesson 1•All students filled out chart correctly

but few could verbalize meaning of +2 pattern

Research Lesson 2•Chart eliminated, students solved

individual problems, shared findings•Students showed their counting

methods•Many students could verbalize

meaning of +2 pattern

Recap of “How Many Seats?” Lesson Study Cycle

Area of circle

Area of rectangle

Part of a set

Linear measurement

1 meter

1 meter

Linear Measurement Context

How Can We Describe the Blue Mystery Piece in Terms of One Meter?

Common Challenges in Understanding Fractions

• Seeing fraction as number (“I can’t put 2/3 on number line because it’s two different numbers”)

• Understanding the magnitude of the denominator (that 1/6 is smaller than 1/5)

• Knowing what is the whole (construct whole from a fraction)

• Seeing that fractions can be greater than one

How Linear Measurement How Linear Measurement Context Might HelpContext Might Help

Length helps students attend to magnitude of fractions (how much) rather than just count pieces (how many)

1 meter

Understanding Meaning of Denominator

Only 1 dimension (length) varies, making it easier to see that ½ is bigger than ¼

1 meter

1 meter

Understanding the Understanding the WholeWhole

Standard measurement unit gives clear, stable image of the “whole”

1 meter

Understanding 4/3 as 4 1/3’s

Length may support multiplicative image that 3 times 1/3 meter is 1 meter and x times 1/n meter is x/n meter

meter

Lesson Study Resource Kit

1. Mathematics tasks to solve and discuss (& related student work to analyze)

2. Curriculum inquiry: Japanese textbook, Takahashi lesson video, teachers’ materials

3. Lesson study materials (template for lesson plan, protocol for discussion, etc.)

4. Suggested teacher-led inquiry process to explore and use resource kit

Teachers Solve and Discuss Student Tasks

Problem 1

Estimate the answer to You will not have time to solve the problem using paper and pencil.

 

Discussion Questions:

How did you solve the problem, and how might students solve the problem?

Student responses to this task are provided at the end of this section (p. 14). Discuss why students chose each of the responses shown.

Teachers try a problem: Find the length of the mystery strip

Sample

• 11 States and 27 districts

• 13 Groups per condition (4-9 teachers per group, locally formed)

• 213 Teachers41% New to Lesson Study78% Elementary Teachers

• 1,059 Students (Grades 2-5)

Teachers’ Fractions Knowledge (Z-score)

Teachers’ Reflections

“The question of linear versus a “pie” understanding was really compelling for me. It’s a distinction in the concept of fractions that I hadn’t considered and I wonder what my own understanding of fractions would be like if I had been first introduced that way.”

Change in Students’ Fractions Knowledge (Absolute Score, N=1059)

Teachers’ Reflections

I've always understood how to work with fractions but didn't understand all of the "why's" behind the procedures…My students made many awesome discoveries because I learned how important a true conceptual understanding of unit fractions is to students’ overall understanding of other fraction concepts. [39-680]

Survey Item Examples

Expectations for Student Achievement“By trying a different teaching method, I can

significantly affect a student’s achievement” (7 items; α=.64 )

Using and Promoting Student Thinking

“I have some good strategies for making students’ mathematical thinking visible” (4 items; α=.68)

When Solar Energy Was Added to the When Solar Energy Was Added to the Japanese National Curriculum….Japanese National Curriculum….

• Hundreds of elementary schools applied for small grants as “designated research schools” on how to teach solar energy

• After about a year of experimentation, often in collaboration with university-based colleagues, schools brought to life their thinking in large public research lessons

Solar energy, contSolar energy, cont’’dd

• Thousands of educators saw these research lessons and questioned teachers about why they chose these approaches, what had worked and hadn’t

• Knowledge quickly spread about the science content itself, good teaching materials (what toys work and don’t to illuminate the principles), and student thinking.

Solar energy, cont’dSolar energy, cont’dA teacher observing a public research lesson asked about three student strategies she saw:•moving a solar cell closer to a light source•adding a second light source•using a magnifying class to “concentrate” light

“I want to know whether the three conditions the children described – ‘to put the solar cell closer to the light source,’ ‘to make the light stronger’ and to ‘gather the light – would all be considered the same thing by scientists. They don’t seem the same to me. But I want to ask the teachers who know science whether scientists would regard them as the same thing.”

Using Lesson Study, Japanese Teachers:

•Develop and share their practice-based knowledge about how to teach new standards

•Shifts policy from “pushed in” by administrators to “pulled in” by teachers, who actively experiment with ideas, bring them to life in the classroom

•Allow policymakers to do “formative research” on policy

Using Lesson Study, Japanese Teachers:

•Changes the national conversation as well, so that policy is talked about in the context of actual, shared classroom practice seen by policymakers

•Allow policymakers to do “formative research” on policy

Lesson Study has grown and prospered since 2000

www.svmimac.org

SVMI provides a mini-grant to a LS team at a school or district.

Many teams attend a 5-day summer institute on Lesson Study.

All teams participate in Fall orientation.

Teams research, design and plan a lesson (often building off existing lessons).

Teams try out initial lesson designs in classrooms. Team members observe student thinking.

Teams use the student data to revise and polish the lesson.

When research lesson is refined the team conducts exchange lessons with another team in the project (often from a different district).

All teams engage in the Annual Public Lesson Open House

Teams report to schools and instruction improves.

SVMI’s Lesson Study

Project Model

Which is a 4 X 5 rectangle? What was Which is a 4 X 5 rectangle? What was each student thinking? (During each student thinking? (During

lesson by Akihiko Takahashi, 2002)lesson by Akihiko Takahashi, 2002)

Lesson Inspired Teachers to Lesson Inspired Teachers to Develop and Spread “Re-Develop and Spread “Re-

engagement”engagement”

““Re-engagementRe-engagement”” strategy to revisit and reconsider strategy to revisit and reconsider student thinkingstudent thinking. Spread across:

• At least 7 districts • Elementary and secondary classrooms• Subject areas (math, language arts, etc.)• School-foundation boundary

How Does Lesson Study Fit With Your Ideas About Good Professional Learning?

40

• Begins with answer

• Driven by expert

• Communication trainer -> teachers

• Relationships hierarchical

• Research informs practice

• Begins with question

• Driven by participants

• Communication among teachers

• Relationship reciprocal

• Practice is research

TRADITIONAL LESSON STUDY

By Lynn Liptak, Paterson School #2, New Jersey.

Professional Development

Teachers’ Activities to Improve InstructionTeachers’ Activities to Improve Instruction

copyright Catherine C. Lewis 2005 41

Choose curriculum,write curriculum, align curriculum, write local standards

U.S. JAPAN

Plan lessons individually

Plan lessons collaboratively

Watch and discuss each other’s classroom lessons

42

? InstructionalImprovement

VisibleFeatures of Lesson Study

•Planning•Curriculum Study•Research Lesson•Data Collection•Discussion•Revision•Etc.

How does lesson study improve instruction?

43

Visible Features of Lesson Study

Plan Teach Observe Discuss Etc.

Key Pathway

Lesson Plans Improve Instructional

Improvement

44

InstructionalImprovement

VisibleFeatures of Lesson Study

•Planning•Curriculum Study•Research Lesson•Data Collection•Discussion•Revision•Etc.

How Does Lesson Study Improve Instruction?

Pathways

Teachers’ Knowledge

Teachers’ Beliefs

Teachers’ Community

Teaching-Learning Resources

Policies, Routines that Support Learning

Tad Watanabe Tad Watanabe –Professor, Department of Mathematics, –Professor, Department of Mathematics, Kennesaw State University, Georgia)Kennesaw State University, Georgia)

“10 years ago, I probably knew only one way of deriving the area formula for circles….”

Building Knowledge Through Lesson StudyBuilding Knowledge Through Lesson Study

Other ways learned from lesson Other ways learned from lesson study activities…study activities…

From Hironaka et al., 5B, p.91

Other ways….Other ways….

48

California Standards Test in Mathematics: Mean Scale Scores, Grades 2-5, School and District

3-year net increase for school more than triple that for district (F=.309, 845df p<.001) (Lewis, Perry, Hurd, O’Connell, Phi Delta Kappan, 2006, 88:4)

School-wide Lesson Study

49

Schoolwide Lesson Study School in U.S.

50

Successful Lesson StudySuccessful Lesson Study

• Allows teachers to develop knowledge and beliefs to support improvement– allows teachers to develop their minds and hearts

• Changes relationships among teachers. “Changes the talk around the water cooler” at a school so that teachers become more willing to share difficulties

The opportunity to focus on two to four students’ learning was incredible…You feel like you are in a true research mode.

Elementary Teacher, California 

52

TeachersTeachers’’ Reflections Reflections

Until lesson study we never discussed the value of the content being taught. We discussed the different ways students learn (multiple intelligences), how the brain works, how to differentiate an inclusion class.

Never had those discussions involved a discussion of how to develop problem-solving techniques, how to develop a particular concept …what to expect for outcomes, and how to adjust the lesson to meet student needs.

Secondary Teacher, Massachusetts

TeachersTeachers’’ Reflections ReflectionsThe lesson study has taught me: We

must never assume that all students understand. It was observed several times that even our "good" students did not have full understanding….Lesson study is staff development in its purest form. Rich discussion occurs. Team members are allowed to be creative, curious, self-motivated participants. The team building was incredible.”

Elementary Teacher, NY #562

Thank you!Thank you!

Catherine Lewisclewis@mills.edu

Videos, articles, more information at:

www.lessonresearch.net