Lesson Study as a Means to Investigate Teachers' Use of U.S. Elementary Science Curriculum

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

Abstract

Purposes

This paper describes the role of curriculum study during lesson study. Grounded in multiple elementary science-focused cases, we describe how teachers reviewed curriculum materials, evaluated their contents, and drew from them when designing their research lessons. We further describe how teachers departed from these curriculum materials in either their original research lesson designs or in subsequent iterations. Discussion and implications focus on the intersection of curriculum materials and lesson study.

Perspectives

A central goal of current science education research is determining mechanisms for delivering instruction that is equitable and robust for all students (Windschitl & Calabrese-Barton, 2016). Curriculum materials and lesson study are two mechanisms that can be useful study for contributing to this agenda. Curriculum materials are a component of the “collective professional resources” that teachers draw from when designing research lessons. The professional literature needs to attend more thoroughly to the ways teachers use these resources while working together to design instruction for students (Windschitl & Calabrese-Barton, 2016).

Research in mathematics lesson study demonstrated that curriculum materials are a necessary component in supporting teachers’ collaborative learning (Lewis, Perry, Friedkin, & Roth, 2012). There are similar goals in science and mathematics instruction, rendering applications from mathematics education and lesson study research into science education reasonable, yet they are not identical. This paper addresses this gap through its focus on curriculum materials in lesson study contexts.

Modes of inquiry

Both authors participated in several lesson study teams as coaches. In keeping with the principles of participant observation, the authors assisted these teams with interpreting curriculum resources and following lesson study processes. Authors/coaches attended each lesson study meeting, the research lessons, and the post-lesson discussions to gather data about teachers’ use of curriculum.

Evidence

Evidence is drawn from field notes constructed through participant observation, the lesson study teams’ research lesson proposals, and the original curriculum sources the teams consulted when building their research proposals. Evidence sources were compared with one another, both within and across lesson study teams.

Findings

The curriculum materials were useful during early phases of the lesson study cycle (Takahashi & McDougal, 2016), and while constructing their research proposal. Curriculum materials were consulted to support the construction of background content knowledge. However, these materials did not make the rationale for particular teaching moves clear. Lesson study teams’ rationales were developed through consultation with other professional literature, such as Taking Science to School, Ready, Set, Science, and The Framework for Science Education (NRC, 2007; 2012).

Scholarly significance

The Next Generation Science Standards have been adopted or adapted in 40 states. They articulate a substantially revised vision of elementary science instruction. New curriculum materials are currently in development to support these standards. Therefore, research that better articulates how these materials are used, particularly in lesson study, can contribute to broadening our understanding of lesson study to content areas beyond mathematics and improve science education’s awareness of critical features of these materials to support teachers’ learning and practice.

Authors

• Sharon Dotger, Syracuse University

• Jessica Whisher-Hehl, Onondaga-Cortland-Madison BOCES