Chinese Lesson Study in Italy: Developing Primary School Teachers' Competences in Mathematics and Language

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

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the implementation of a model of teacher professional development, inspired by Chinese Lesson Study (CLS) in Italian schools. Since mathematics and language are two major areas in OECD PISA and also in the national assessment in Italy, our purpose is to explore how the adapted CLS model could be used to develop teachers in mathematics and language. Based on previous studies, we have developed procedures and tools adapted from CLS for conducting LS in Italy (Bartolini et al., 2017). Thus, this study aims to examine the feasibility of having the same meta-structure and analytical tools in the mathematics and language lesson studies.

Mathematics and language education refer usually to different research communities, although there is at least a common point: text comprehension is required in both fields, as usually mathematical problems are given in textual forms. In this study a collaborative group of scholars from the field of mathematics education and of language education has been working for some years in order to produce a shared perspective on CLS. Although the subject-based teaching and learning theories may be peculiar such as variation pedagogy in mathematics (Huang & Li, 2017), the overarching theoretical perspective is socio-constructivist (Israel, 2017; Bartolini, Bussi, & Mariotti, 2008). In this context, CLS has been considered a kind of methodological framework to foster the collaboration among teachers and researchers: a group of teachers collaboratively design a research lesson, the lesson taught by one of the teachers and observed by the others, and the collective analysis of the observed lesson facilitated by researchers, and revision of the lesson plan. The research question concerns the possibility of having the same meta-structure and analytical tools in the mathematics and language lesson studies.

This study examines two paradigmatic examples of LS: one for mathematics and one for language comprehension. Qualitative methods are used to compare the structures of the lesson plans, the lesson observations, and post-lesson analyses, in order to find similarities and differences. Data include: the lesson plans created during the whole process, the transcripts of the design sessions; the transcripts of the observed lessons; the transcripts of the revision sessions; and students’ individual protocols in the lesson and post-lesson tasks.

In spite of the content differences, there is a common structure that can be exploited in pre-service teacher education and in-service teacher development in both mathematics and language contents.

This study makes a unique contribution to adapting the Chinese LS approach in Italy and exploring the tools that could be utilized during LS in mathematics and language education.

Authors

• Maria G. Bartolini Bussi, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia

• Chiara Bertolini, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia