What Do Secondary Mathematics Preservice Teachers Learn About Teaching From Lesson Study During Student Teaching?

• In Event: Lesson Study Variation Across Contexts

Abstract

We have used lesson study with our secondary mathematics preservice teachers for more than ten years. The first experience for them is in their methods class where they co-plan a high-level task lesson and then implement the lesson in a student-centered, university math class. They debrief the lesson and then pairs of students revise the lesson and reteach it in different sections of the same university math class. They debrief again after all the reteaching to discuss whether the changes in the revised lessons mattered. As these preservice teachers continue on to student teaching, the lesson study process continues. They participate in two cycles of lesson study with a team. They meet for a planning session and then the preservice teacher implements the lesson while the rest of the team observes and collects data. There is a debrief after the implementation and the preservice teacher then revises the lesson before submitting it as part of their final preservice teaching work product.

Preparing preservice secondary mathematics teachers is of vital importance. The need for mathematics teachers who teach for understanding and use research-based teaching practices is in high demand and is necessary for improving student performance. Lesson Study provides opportunities for preservice teacher growth through lesson planning, discussion, and collaborative planning. It also focuses on skills and practices needed to be effective mathematics teachers and it helps develop a way of thinking about planning, teaching and their own learning that they can continue to use as they transition into full-time secondary mathematics teachers.

We were guided in our data collection by the following questions. How were the lessons that were planned change between the initial lesson and the revised lesson? What do student teachers learn through the research lesson process?

Qualitative methods were used. We audiotaped the lesson planning meetings and the debriefs after the lesson were taught. First Coding of the transcripts followed (Saldaña, 2009), and then Second Coding enabled us to develop themes and categories. We also collected each preservice teacher’s reflections on the lesson study process and their initial lesson plans and their revised lesson plans. Since we wanted to know what changes occurred between the initial lesson plan and the revised lesson plan, we analyzed them by the constant comparison method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). When changes were noticed between lesson plans, open coding was used (Corbin & Strauss, 2008).

There were substantial changes between the initial lesson plan and the revised lesson plan, particularly around student anticipations. In regard to preservice teacher learning, there was unanimous agreement that the lesson study process contributed to increasing their own learning, especially about the importance of lesson planning.

Lesson Study is a powerful form of professional development where teachers are making choices about what they want to learn. In this study, the preservice teachers demonstrated that they were learning. Expanding on the results of the study, we hope that the discussion of lesson study in teacher education will be enhanced.

Authors

• Mark Koester, Metropolitan State University of Denver

• Tayna Camargo, Metropolitan State University of Denver