Improving Elementary Mathematics Content Courses Through Modified Lesson Study

• In Event: Poster Session 9
  In Poster Session: Understanding Lesson Study From Different Theoretical Perspectives (Part 2)

Abstract

In Fall 2016, a group of four mathematics teacher educators began a project aimed at developing a comprehensive set of lessons made up of mathematical tasks that address known areas of conceptual difficulty for preservice teachers (PSTs) in elementary mathematics content courses and deepen their understandings of key mathematical ideas for teaching elementary mathematics, following the Continuous Improvement framework proposed by Berk & Hiebert (2009), which is a form of modified lesson study. Our use of the framework is ongoing; each semester, we isolate three specific lessons and implement the following cycle: (1) design a task that targets a particular student misconception or deepens understanding of a particular mathematical idea, (2) develop hypotheses about anticipated student responses to the task, (3) collect data in the form of student work, responses to formative assessments, and recordings of classroom discourse, and analyze these data sources for evidence of the desired student learning outcomes, and (4) record this information and use it to revise the task for use in subsequent semesters.

For this poster, we will demonstrate our implementation of the Continuous Improvement framework to a lesson on growing visual patterns, a topic with which PSTs have difficulty, especially in using a variable to represent the index when constructing an algebraic expression that describes such a pattern. Following the phases of designing a task outlined by Liljedahl, Chernoff, & Zazkis (2007), we designed, implemented, and revised the class activity. After one cycle of the teaching, the collected data were analyzed and the lesson plans were revised based on the result of analysis intending to improve our teaching and students’ learning. In the poster, we will show how the four mathematics educators continuously worked together to make teaching decisions in our pre-service teacher classes and the effects on teaching and learning.


References
Berk, D. & Hiebert, J. (2009). Improving the mathematics preparation of elementary teachers one lesson at a time.
Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 15(3), 337-356.
Boaler, J. (2015). Mathematical mindsets: unleashing students’ potential through creative math, inspiring messages, and innovative teaching. John Wiley & Sons.
Liljedahl, P., Chernoff, E., & Zazkis, R. (2007). Interweaving mathematics and pedagogy in task design: A tale of one task. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 10(4-6), 239-249.
Warren, E. & Cooper, T. (2008). Generalising the pattern rule for visual growth patterns: Actions that support 8 year olds’ thinking. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 67, 171-185.

Authors

• Su Liang, California State University -San Bernardino

• Cody Patterson

• Priya Vinata Prasad, The University of Arizona

• Raquel Vallines Mira