Building a Knowledge Base for Teaching: Design and Test of Research-based Toolkits for Mathematics Lesson Study

Mills College, Oakland CA

Investigators

Abstract

The intent of this project is to rigorously investigate Lesson Study, an increasingly implemented form of professional development in which a group of teachers work together in a cycle of instructional improvement that integrates research and practice. The team studies existing curricula, plans a research lesson (meaning a lesson they will jointly study) that embodies their ideas about teaching in that domain and their long term goals for students development, have one team member teach the lesson while the others observe and collect detailed data on student responses, and collaboratively analyze the data and use it to reflect on the lesson, the unit, and teaching-learning more broadly. The proposed study grows out of the observation that in spite of the rapid spread of Lesson Study (LS) to more than 335 US schools and across 32 states, many LS groups do not draw on research-based knowledge in the process. Thus the project will develop and test two LS toolkits which are designed to help practitioners use and build upon research-based knowledge of mathematics teaching and learning. Research questions address improvement of learning, processes of learning with the toolkit, spread of research-based ideas about mathematics teaching and learning enabled by the toolkit, and evidence that the toolkit-supported lesson study can aid development of a knowledge base for teaching. Phases of the work include: a) toolkit assembly, formative assessment, revision, and tesing by expert and novice study groups; b) testing of revised toolkits and comparison with Lesson Study implementation without toolkits, c) testing of sustainability of the process, and d) data analysis and reporting in venues and forms that assure wide dissemination.