Strategies and Tools for Teaching Mathematics Through Inquiry: Preservice Elementary Teacher Lesson Study

• In Event: 49.088 - Roundtable Session 17
  In Roundtable Session: 49.088-14 - Preservice Teacher Development Through Lesson Study in Two Cultures: Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to identify the roles strategies and tools play in preservice mathematics teachers with inquiry-based mathematics lessons. Using lesson study as course design to bridge coursework and field experiences, we investigated how the teachers collaboratively planned and taught inquiry lessons with critical strategies and tools.

Perspectives

Many issues in mathematics education in the United States have been well documented: students perform poorly compared to international peers in developed countries, race and social class remain dominant predictors of academic achievement, fewer students are pursuing mathematics as undergraduate majors or careers in STEM-related fields, and qualified mathematics teachers are scarce (Boaler, 2008; Darling-Hammond, 1998; Gutierrez, 2002; Martin, 2009; NCES, 2003; Reardon, 2011; Schmidt, McKnight, & Raisen, 1997; Schoenfeld, 1992, 2002; Stevenson & Stigler, 1992; Tate, 1997). Furthermore, the population of diverse learners is rapidly increasing, and teachers must effectively work with them (Nieto & McDonough, 2011) and implement equity-focused strategies and structures in their mathematics classrooms (Gutierrez, 2010; Rousseau & Tate, 2003).

Methods and Data Sources

Nineteen U.S. elementary preservice teachers participated in this study. Their mathematics teaching methods course incorporated lesson study as a course design where teachers collaborated to plan and teach inquiry-based lessons. Data sources include focus group interviews and lesson study meeting and teaching videos. We used a multiple-method, mixed-analysis design to analyze data both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Findings

We define strategies as big concepts that guide planning, teaching, and reflecting on their practice, and tools as the actual supports and actions that operationalize strategies in practice. While the teachers identified the strategies at the beginning of the lesson study, they were rarely specific as to their uses in classrooms. In general, they were uncertain and unprepared and did not mention concrete tools.
Lesson study grounds teachers’ attention and actions for supporting student learning (Murata, 2011). The teachers in this study made connections between planned and taught lessons using actual student thinking. During lesson planning, the teachers often agreed on the strategies they wanted to use, but were unclear about the required tools, that invited extended discussion on what individual strategies mean.

When the use of strategies and tools are closely connected to student data, the teachers felt prepared to teach inquiry lessons. They could visualize how the strategies can work and gave a clearer sense for how student thinking can be attended to and developed. Their sense of preparedness is developed in anticipating how their teaching was connected to student thinking, and that was reflected in teaching.

Scholarly Significance

The study informs of the critical roles strategies and tools play in preservice teachers learning to teach. A concerted focus on student learning relates strategies and tools in ways to support their quest to teach inquiry lessons

Authors

• Aki Murata, University of Florida

• Mallika Scott, University of California - Berkeley

• Tia C. Madkins, The University of Texas at Austin

• Denny Gillingham, University of California, Berkeley

• Hee-Jeong Kim, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Anna McGee, University of California - Berkeley

• Jody Siker, University of California - Berkeley

• Aaron Hobson, University of California - Berkeley