The Use of Lesson Study to Unpack Learning Trajectories and Deepen Teachers' Content Knowledge

• In Event: Poster Session 9
  In Poster Session: Understanding Lesson Study From Different Theoretical Perspectives (Part 2)

Abstract

Objective
The purpose of this session is to share a case study of one school team of kindergarten through sixth-grade teachers, their math coach, and university educators collaborating on Lesson Study focused on fraction understanding. We highlight a learning trajectory-based professional development (PD) routine and tools used during Lesson Study to deepen teachers’ and coaches’ understanding through the analysis of student work.

Theoretical Framework
Lesson Study empowers teachers and coaches and provides a collaborative structure that promotes reflection and critical dialogue about pedagogical content knowledge among colleagues (Lewis, 2002; Lewis, Perry, & Murata, 2006).  The focus on a single rich problem with teachers from multiple grade levels within a Lesson Study team  allowed for rich and meaningful vertical articulation and a deepening of the understanding of the mathematical learning progression (Suh & Seshaiyer, 2014).

Methods
Drawing from  the research base in mathematics education on learning trajectories, (LTs) (e.g., Clements & Sarama, 2004; Confrey, 2012; Simon, 1995; Sztajn, Confrey, Wilson, & Edgington, 2012), we asked teachers and coaches to  1) create a set of related tasks across the vertical grades that map a developmental progression within a specific mathematical domain; 2) collect and analyze evidence of students’ thinking and learning around a specific problem they posed during Lesson Study. Through these activities, teachers and coaches thought deeply how their students’ rational number thinking fit into an existing LT.

Research Questions:
1. What are the affordances of Lesson Study with vertical teams of teachers focused on understanding the learning progression of rational numbers?
2. How did the teachers adapt a benchmark problem using a relevant curricular learning progression?

Data Sources
The data sources included video clips from the research lesson debrief, student work, teacher reflections from the Lesson Study, transcription from a videotaped group presentation on the Lesson Study ,and researchers’ field notes written as memos.  We also asked teachers to reflect on Lesson Study process of developing and refining a research lesson.

Authors

• Jennifer M. Suh, George Mason University

• Padmanabhan Seshaiyer, George Mason University

• Terrie McLaughlin Galanti, University of North Florida

• Sara Birkhead, George Mason University

• Rachelle Farmer