Developing Rationale for Instructional Choices During Lesson Study: The Mock-Up Lesson

• In Event: Poster Session 9
  In Poster Session: Understanding Lesson Study From Different Theoretical Perspectives (Part 1)

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
This poster acquaints participants with the mock-up lesson and its potential contribution to the lesson study cycle. Artifacts including board and lesson plans, video clips and teacher reflections will be shared, along with a facilitation guide for mock-up lessons. Participant reactions to the benefits and challenges of a mock-up lesson will be solicited.

PERSPECTIVE & SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
During a lesson study cycle, the mock-up lesson occurs when the lesson plan is finalized and nearly ready for teaching (Figure 1). The research lesson instructor tries teaching the lesson, or key elements of the lesson, with lesson study team members taking on the roles of different students. By taking student perspectives, team members and instructor can notice elements of the lesson they might have missed in the planning.
The mock-up lesson provides a potential strategy to reduce the gap between the learning goals described in the team’s lesson plan and actual student learning during the research lesson (Takahashi, 2016). The relationship between writing a plan and teaching it—or knowing and doing—is not simple; one does not easily equate to the other (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999). Figuring out how to use what you know in teaching is complex; teaching requires specialized mathematical knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and time devoted to develop, test and refine teaching (Ball, 2006). It also requires the ability to reflect on learning, as learning is taking place (Schon, 1995).

METHODS/DATA SOURCES
Lesson study teams in two urban districts were introduced to examples of mock-up lessons (online reference blinded) and their subsequent work was documented through video and artifact collection. One mock-up lesson by a team from each district was coded using Smith & Stein’s (2013) framework (anticipating, monitoring, selecting, sequencing and connecting) to characterize instructional choices rehearsed and discussed by the lesson study team during the mock-up lesson.  One lesson (grade 5) focused on students’ use of prior area knowledge to build conceptual understanding of volume. The other lesson (grade 4), aimed to redesign the district curriculum on equivalent fractions to support student-initiated problem-solving.

RESULTS
Both mock-up lessons exhibited similar patterns of learning by teachers; teams gained insights into teaching moves and questioning strategies designed to keep the agency of the mathematics with the students; created concrete images of student learning through visual models and diagrams rehearsed on the board; organized and reorganized student solutions, strengthening the rationale for their choices; and connected different student solutions to the lesson learning goal.      

These two examples suggest that time be devoted during the lesson study cycle to rehearse aspects of the lesson plan using the mock-up lesson process. Further studies on the mock-up lesson are called for, along with a systematic way to document and share the wealth of knowledge for teaching mathematics that teachers make explicit during the mock-up lesson process.

Author

• Shelley Friedkin, Mills College