Lesson Study and the Power of Continuous Improvement Theorizing in - PDF document

The Local Context: Curriculum and PD Reforms in Singapore “Lesson Study and the Power of Continuous Improvement – Theorizing in • Major curriculum reforms, 1997- 2006: Light of a Singapore Case” – Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN, 1997) – Innovation & Enterprise (I & E, 2004) – Teach Less Learn More (TLLM, 2005) Yanping Fang & Christine Lee National Institute of Education, Singapore • In contrast to an international trend of accountability and control for teacher development in recent years, Singapore has encouraged choice and ownership for schools and teachers to plan and make decisions for their PD workshops and courses. Presentation at the Second Annual Learning Study Conference, 30 Nov – 2 Dec, 2006, Hong Kong Institute of Education Challenges of Professional Development in Challenges Professional Development in Deepening Deepening Process of Educational Reforms Singapore Schools Singapore Schools Training FATIGUE � For teachers: Too many initiatives to learn about and to apply � For school leaders: Hard to manage the distribution of resources (funds) and time allowed for training Teacher’s and school leaders’ MANY ROLES � Teachers’ roles: classroom teaching and management duties, administrative tasks, CCA responsibilities, membership of committees, school duties, etc � School leaders’ roles: CEOs, visionary mentors, coaches, ���� entrepreneurs, human resource developers, curriculum Rich Professional Development Opportunities leaders, etc. Source: MOE, Singapore Lesson Study in Singapore – Our experience Challenges of Professional Development in Professional Development in Challenges with one local primary school in 2006 Singapore Schools (continued) Singapore Schools (continued) • Right in time but facing daunting challenges TRANSFER of learning � Professional Development = teacher learning = practical application? • Funded by Center of Research on Pedagogies and Practices, National Institute of Education � Degree of transfer and application of teachers’ learning into practice could be limited • Invited to the local school by the Principal – Strong leadership support … Teams and Research Lessons in Two Lesson Learning Points from Cycle 1 Study Cycles (Feb-April & July-Sept, 2006) • Deep understanding of LS procedures from learning by doing SWS SEED SAIL • Productive school-university partnership 3 rd Grade Math : 2 nd Grade Social 4 th Grade Social Long Division with Studies integrated Studies: Map • Struggled but coped well with the resource-intensive Remainder with language arts: Reading nature of lesson study My Neighborhood • Teachers’ positive attitudes towards collegial collaboration when they ventured multiple and competing 2 nd Grade English 1 st Grade Math: 3 rd Grade Math: demands besides regular teaching work. Language on Writing: Introduction to Equivalent Fractions My Hobby Multiplication • Courage of the research lesson teachers in teaching the collectively planned lessons was highly laudable.

Trials and Errors & Improvements in cycle 2 Learning points from Cycle 2 • Planning was driven by personal habits and focused squarely on • All the major improvements proposed at the end of cycle lessons. Use UbD (Understanding by Design) to build unit-view in 1 have been effected in Cycle 2, which produced very mind, visualize the assessment outcomes before planning, deepen their curriculum knowledge through curriculum analysis; structured research lessons; • Teachers share the consensus about learning more from • Subject matter knowledge needs to be deepened. Earlier involvement of subject experts in guiding planning and teaching; cycle 2 than from cycle 1; • Need to constantly check to align lesson goals are with unit goals • School leaders feel strongly about teachers’ increased and long-term school goals collaboration and awareness of curriculum and student learning • Need to use pre- and post-tests and student interviews more systematically to get a firmer grasp of student prior knowledge and • Among all that reported in the end-of-year survey, the misconceptions. most prevalent learning is in pedagogical content • Teachers’ observation and note-taking skills need more structure knowledge (learning about student misconceptions, and guidance. planning with students’ needs in mind and build resources …) • Use “blackboard writing and arrangement” to organize teaching • Time still poses as the most daunting challenge for • Need to obtain sustained leadership support in realigning school initiatives and providing more support for lesson study in Cycle 2. schools and researchers … Focal Tasks for researchers – With only one year’s experience, we feel strongly about lesson study’s power in numerous ways – such as concentrate on student learning and drawing on various resources – However, the urgency does not seem to lie in analyzing data to identify teacher learning although learning of various levels and kinds has obviously taken place – We urgently need a set of lenses or tools to help us articulate the power of lesson study and inform our analysis and design for scaling up within the pilot school and build sustainability. Levels of tools and Lesson Study as Mediating tool mediations Mediating Tool Tools/ Artifacts per levels of activities Children’s learning Principals & & development teacher teams Object Outcome Subject Object Outcome Subject School Vision & Goals Rules Community Division of labor Rules Community Division of labor Principals, teachers, students, Norms & Roles of regulations researchers, experts, policy Participants An Activity System makers,, parents School as a Lesson Study Activity System (Engestrom, 1987; Cole & Engestrom, 1993; Jonassen & Roher-Murphy (1999 ) Adapted from Engestrom, 1987; Cole & Engestrom, 1993. Mediations as major building blocks • In our design for scaling up lesson study • In Vygotsky’s work, “the construct of mediation – intervention, of primary interest is how to especially semiotic mediation – played a central sustain our effort by building up a culture theoretical role” (Wertsch et al, 1995, p. 20).. of doing lesson study into teachers’ daily • “Drawing selectively on insights of both work lives. So a valuable site of inquiry will Vygotsky and Leont’ev, the notions of ‘mediating constitute tools and artifacts used and means’ and ‘mediated actions’ have emerged created in the lesson study process and today as essential building blocks in the how they are used in mediating the formulation of sociocultural research” (p. 21) aggregate actions and behaviors of the participants.

Tools, artifacts, mediations and culture… Nature of Mediations Mediation through tools and artifacts: Tools and artifacts “are interwoven with • is active in nature; each other and the social lives of human beings they mediate in a seemingly infinite • has “ transformatory capacities”; and variety of ways. Considered in aggregate, • is both “ empowering and constraining ” given the they constitute the unique medium of human inherent limitations of any form of tools and life, the medium we know as culture.” (Cole, artifacts from a developmental point of view. 1995, p. 191) (Wertsch et al, 1995, p. 24) Hierarchical Structure of Tools and Mediations • Tertiary artifacts are imaginative artifacts that Cole (1995) adopted Wartofsky’s (1979) “three-level hierarchy of artifacts” (p.194) to assist him design the artifacts in his “constitutes a relatively autonomous ‘world’, “an Fifth Dimension . arena of non-practical, or ‘free’ play or game activity”. Cole regards his Fifth Dimension as a tertiary artifact. • Primary artifacts directly involved in the production of an activity or activity system, such as hammers, needles, “In modern psychological jargon, modes of computers and in our case, the white board, paper and behavior acquired when interacting with tertiary pencil, teaching instruments, etc. artifacts can transfer beyond the immediate contexts of their use” (p. 195). • Secondary artifacts or cultural models constitute the representations of the primary artifacts and how the • Lesson study is a tertiary tool to mediate artifacts are used. In lesson study, examples include curriculum, textbooks, standards, worksheets, problems, teachers’ professional learning in the workplace. theories and so on . “Secondary artifacts play a central role in preserving and transmitting modes of action.” (p.195) Levels of tools and Lesson Study as tool mediations Mediating Tool per levels of activities Resources for preserving Children’s learning Principals & engaged pedagogical reasoning and action & development teacher teams Object Outcome Subject ---Tool improvement and mediations School Vision & Goals Two examples of analysis to inform our analysis and design Rules Community Division of labor Principals, teachers, students, Norms & Roles of regulations researchers, experts, policy Participants makers,, parents School as a Lesson Study Activity System Adapted from Engestrom, 1987; Cole & Engestrom, 1993. Tool 1 Study curriculum Outcome Subject Object 1 1 Example One: 1 Tool 2 Within and across routine activities Plan of one lesson study cycle Subject Object 2 Outcome 2 1 Tool 3 Teach & Research Object 3 Outcome Subject 1 3 Tool 4 Reflect & Improve Outcome Subject Object 4 4 1