Virtual Lesson Study Model for Teacher Professional Development in Science

• In Event: Virtual Lesson Study Model for Teacher Professional Development in Science

Abstract

Presentation summary
Lesson Study is a well supported method of fostering collaboration and best practices for aligning science classrooms with the NGSS student centered pedagogy. The driving research question for this study is “Can lesson study be done in a virtual environment?” and the hypothesis is that “lesson study can be implemented in a virtual classroom environment and still maintain the goals of the in person lesson study.” Objectives of the study include: modifications to lesson study for virtual implementation, opportunities for professional learning communities to collaborate despite the inability to physically meet and resources/tools to develop Professional Learning Communities (PLC) through virtual lesson study.

The Theory of Didactic Situations will be utilized as the theoretical framework for the presentation as it represents a systemic theoretical model, designed to describe teaching and learning developed within the lesson study phenomena. The Didactic Theory provides a lens of experimental and application-oriented lesson study paradigm grounding the research within this domain.

The design of the study is a mixed methods study using quantitative data from teacher surveys and qualitative data from teaching video around student learning. The quantitative data was subject to basic statistical analysis. The qualitative data was captured from zoom recordings of lesson study sessions and is transcribed. At each site digital data was collected for analysis which included the completed team observation template, data analysis/reflection template, midway and final surveys, lesson plans with handouts, student work samples, video of zoom session, video of synchronous teacher components, and researcher notes.

Results are from the surveys of four mentor teachers, four pre-service teachers and six non-mentor classroom teachers (five teams in total). Commonalities between both groups include the 100% recommendation of the virtual study. All teachers referred to the success of the collaboration in the lesson development and the insights presented from the real time implementation and lesson revisions. The continuum of teacher learning was evidenced in the data by the fact that all participants had different takeaways from the lesson indicating the ability of the lesson study model to differentiate learning for each participant regardless of their experience in science education.

The virtual lesson study component will help fill a gap in the body of work surrounding lesson study. While the virtual processing of lesson study has been tried in mathematics through video, the entire process of lessons study has not been reported in a virtual format. The shift as a result of Covid-19 has allowed for a unique pilot on virtual lesson study using NGSS standards to the support of development of teachers. This virtual pilot study was a success and should be considered as a tool for PLC development and teacher learning in rural districts where in person meetings are difficult due to long distances or in regions with high density populations, where time to travel is hindered by traffic.

Authors

• Anita T Kreide, Discovery Learning Partners

• Virginia Vandergon, California State University - Northridge