Chinese Lesson Study in the United States: Improving Core Instructional Practice in Mathematics Teaching

• In Event: Chinese Lesson Study: Theories, Practices, and Its Adaptation

Abstract

Chinese lesson study (CLS) has been in practice for over one century (Chen & Yang, 2013) and a few studies have shown its effect on improving mathematics teaching, student learning, and implementing new curriculum in China (Huang et al., 2016; Yang, 2009). A case study showed that CLS could help teachers develop a deeper understanding of mathematics teaching practice (NCTM, 2014) and change their views about teaching in the US (Prince, 2017). This study aims to examine how U.S. teachers could improve core instructional practices in teaching mathematics for problem solving through Chinese lesson study on a larger scale in the US.

Core instructional practices and deliberate practices are two theoretical frameworks guiding this study. Core instructional practices refer to specific teaching practices that entail knowledge and doing with the potential for teachers to learn about students and teaching (McDonald et al., 2013). In this study, we investigated the core instructional practices, which are closely related to teaching problem solving. These core practices include launching cognitively demanding mathematical tasks; maintaining the cognitive demand of tasks during implementation; and providing opportunities for students to discuss their reasoning and solutions (Smith & Stein, 2011). Ericsson and colleagues (1993) defined deliberate practice as special activities developed for and repeatedly pursued by individuals with feedback from experts. Engagement in deliberate practice means that one is given a task with a well-defined goal, motivated to improve, and provided with feedback and ample opportunities for repetition, resulting in gradual refinements in performance (Ericsson et al., 1993). Although similar to Japanese LS structurally (Lewis, 2016), CLS regards repeated teaching of the research lesson and knowledgeable others’ input as necessary components of a LS (Huang & Han, 2015). In this way, CLS is a type of deliberate practice that could enable teachers to make continued improvements in teaching and develop core instructional practices.

This study adopted multiple-case study and survey methodologies. Each of three lesson study groups developed a research lesson on problem solving in algebra through CLS, which includes collaborative planning and repeated teachings/debriefings of the research lesson with support from experts. The data collected included lesson plans, videotaped research lessons and debriefing meetings, and an end-of-project survey. Case studies supported by survey data were utilized to describe how research lessons were improved and what teachers learned from lesson study.

A fine-grained analysis of the data revealed that the participants improved their strategies for teaching for problem solving, which included effectively launching tasks, strategically implementing tasks, and productively orchestrating students’ solutions to the tasks.
Further analyses revealed that the feedback from experts during debriefing meetings played crucial roles in making these changes. Moreover, participants learned how to implement these core instructional practices and changed their views about students’ learning.

The study uncovers the mechanisms about how teachers improve teaching and their expertise in teaching through CLS. The necessity and importance of the dynamic between repeated teaching and immediate feedback from knowledgeable others are highlighted. It also shows the feasibility of adapting CLS in the US.

Authors

• Rongjin Huang, Middle Tennessee State University

• Melanie Haupt, Middle Tennessee State University