The Japanese Lexicon: Embedding Values in Practice

• In Event: 66.054 - Unpacking the Technical Vocabulary of Middle School Mathematics Teachers Internationally

Abstract

Objective
The Japanese team sought to identify shared terms used by teachers for describing and discussing teaching and learning in the classroom. The practical goal was to inform the practice of teachers, teacher educators and researchers by using the lexicons from other countries as a mirror on one’s own practice and also as a window into cultural differences.

Perspective
The Japanese tradition of Lesson Study has created a teaching community in which discussion of mathematics lessons is an integral part of professional practice (Fernandez & Yoshida, 2004; Author, 2016). Within the discourse of Lesson Study, particular lexical terms have specific significance.

Methods and Data
As with other national teams in the Lexicon Project, the Japanese Lexicon team members took part in the video viewing process to identify the terms used by Japanese middle school mathematics teachers. The Japanese team consisted of two researchers, two experienced teachers and two doctoral students. The Japanese Lexicon was constructed following a similar procedure to that employed by the other Lexicon Teams.

Structural Characteristics – Analysis
Key pedagogical terms were identified as organising referents around which the Japanese Lexicon was configured.

These key terms included:
¥ Hatsumon: Asking a key thought-provoking question
¥ Kikan-shido: Instruction between desks
¥ Neriage: “Kneading up” ideas in a whole-class discussion
¥ Yamaba: The highlight or climax within the lesson
¥ Matome: Summing up key points
Through participation in lesson study, even beginning teachers learn these terms together with values attached to them. It must be emphasized that these pedagogical terms are used in the discourse in a particular context embedded in a whole system, to describe particular aspects of teaching.

Results/Conclusions
One of the most distinctive results to emerge from the documentation and analysis of the Japanese Lexicon was the recognition of the central importance of the lesson plan as a critical vehicle for teachers’ use of their professional lexicon. The establishment of a nationally standardised format for lesson planning was seen to have a normative effect on both the pedagogical options available to Japanese teachers and the substance and structure of the Japanese Lexicon.

The Japanese Lexicon contained 76 terms or phrases and these could be classified as:

¥ General phases of lessons
¥ Structured problem solving phases
¥ Organization of the lesson
¥ General teaching strategies
¥ Explicit reference to the values related to mathematics
¥ Other terms

Characteristic of the relationships among terms within the Japanese Lexicon were the multi-layered intentions of Japanese teachers as these were inferred by the Japanese team and represented in the constituent elements of the Lexicon. Similarly distinctive were the values implicit in many of the identified terms, such as Ha-Ka-Se (efficient, simple, clear) and Minomawari (connecting mathematics to the real world).’

The Japanese team also noted an evident evolution in the lexicon towards terms referring to more explicit intervention by teachers, particularly when “teaching between desks” (Kikan-Shido).

Scholarly Significance
One of the most distinctive features of the Japanese Lexicon was the value-laden nature of many of the terms and phrases. It is significant that other lexicons were less explicit.

Authors

• Yoshinori Shimizu, University of Tsukuba

• Yuka Funabashi, Nara University of Education