Katha 2014: Lesson Study Part 2

Minutes of the workshop transcribed. Speaker Dr. Allan Canonigo

 KATHA 2014: Day 5 

Revisiting Lesson Study

Mr. Allan Canonigo

NISMED, UP Diliman

August 9, 2014

Minutes of the Workshop

1. Review. The speaker reviewed the teacher-participants on their understanding of the Lesson Study based on the previous lectures and some raised the definition of Lesson Study as a strategy to improve research teaching, doing research on one lesson/objective, and where observers or experts would be invited for the evaluation of their respective lesson studies. In conclusion, the speaker clarified that Lesson Study is a systemic cycle towards improvement of teaching.

2. Discussion of Lesson Study Misconceptions. The speaker also clarified some points raised by the participants. 1) Lesson study is not a teaching strategy technique. He pointed out that we can never make Math easy for the students. However it becomes more difficult when teachers can’t think of ways on how to improve the student performance on math. Teachers should not say that why their students do cannot get the formula or the problem right because it would provide more stigma to the students on math. 

3. Ways on Studying Math using Own Content. The true meaning of lesson study lies in the will power of the teachers to become better one where its effect and application would be long-term. 

3.1. Research in Lesson Study. Lesson study involves studying and planning together the teachers’ respective lesson studies for a particular strategy to implement and improve on. This is to improve the student performance which should be learner-centered. Teachers should be anticipating how students are learning and not how to teach the study/topic; that is, they should improve the thinking skills of the students.

3.2. Student-thinking. Why do these certain solutions work for some of the students? This should be anticipated and appreciated and considered by the teachers; that is, they should not limit the students to one solution only.

3.3. Observer Invitation. The trick in this strategy is to observe the teacher, not dictate what he or she should do. Learning from one another should be done as equals, not as bosses or subordinates; otherwise it would not be an effective lesson study. They should work together and try to change the culture of the Filipinos where ego is implemented every time there is a teacher invitation because of unpreparedness.

3.4. Preparedness. The teachers should encourage the students to think critically. There is this teacher culture where the fear of the teacher to explain the many solutions generated by the students overpowers the catalyst for better critical thinking of the students. They should help the students out for the lesson study improvement and claim that there is always a room for improvement. After the lesson study implementation, post-learner/discussion, suggestion and recording sessions should be done.

4. Lecture Proper: Activity. The speaker divided the participants into elementary and high school group and by district. He focused on the Understanding by Design (UPD), a part of the K to 12 goals in Math where problem solving involves critical thinking in the students. The speaker related the topic in real life where reality is without any easy solutions or formula. Problems are best solved by looking for answers and struggle is part of the equation. 

4.1. Reflection. The speaker gave three questions to the participants to answer and reflect and discuss them. 1) What kind of lectures at school you want to see implemented in your own class? Provide evidence. The participants said they want the students to be critical thinkers, problem solvers, competent and independent and active learners in math. 2) What kind of lectures is implemented at school? Students are dependent, frustrated and stigmatized by math, poor study habits and poor comprehension of the problems. 3) How do you think would you be able to bridge the gap between the aspirations and the reality of this particular dilemma? Efficiency of the lesson study, developing critical questions and applying the 3Es: Explore Experiment and Experience. Some teachers raised issues on the number of students, teacher mood, insignificance of the attendance and zero critical thinking in exams. 

4.2. Teachers learn in lesson study. The teachers should focus on how students learn and observe them in the right path. They have to analyze and observe students and use this information on revising student lesson study and learning.

5. Reasons for Lesson Study. This is for teaching improvement, instructional materials improvement, professional learning community and finally scholarly inquiry due to research.

5.1. Professional Research Study Equipment. The lesson study should be devised based on the words that work best for both the teachers and the students. There should always be someone to evaluate you because it is very hard to evaluate oneself because there are not wider perspectives. The long-term goal was discussed by the speaker based on his experiences in Cabanatuan City workshop. He said that sample teaching for problem solving or content is important, where you first teach the problem, solve it in different ways and use the problem critique.

6. Professional Development. The speaker started with a chart differentiating the traditional and research based lesson studies: traditional approaches include getting the answer, expert observation, trainer-teachers and hierarchical way of teaching, while research based studies include posing the question first, engaging the participants, implementing the teacher training and a reciprocal way of teaching method. 

6.1. Differences. There are differences in lesson planning, curriculum planning, demonstration where a different fate lies: reinvention learning, learning centers, continuous improvement and usefulness loop.

6.2. Research Lesson Planning Questions. The teachers should first decide the topic, today’s lesson, the plan, the activities, and the fact on how the students would understand the topic on hand. It is important that the teachers should know the knowledge of the children beforehand they teach the lesson because there might be miscommunication of sequence of the lessons.

6.3. Problems. Problems posed by the teachers include the explain ability of the lessons, no cooperation from other teachers, sustainability, government support, fund for books and other resources, funding for the experts and incentives for the students. Most of all the problem lies in the time for the teachers to work together. Questions were also raised on the teaching competency of the teachers, the spiral loop concept where teachers build on by activating previous knowledge on prior topics in math. The topics should also be connected and finally researchers helped by teachers can be done by etic realizations and suggestions. 

Katha 2014: Lesson Study as a professional development model

Minutes of the workshop transcribed. Speaker Sir Levi

KATHA 2014: Day 3:

LESSON STUDY as a professional development model

Mr. Levi

Minutes of the Workshop

Mathematical knowledge should be redefined and reconceptualize for the students to be able to grasp its essential components and comprehend and appreciate at the same time the field that has been long way conditioned to be stigmatized. The speaker first presented the Characteristics of Mathematical tasks in the cognitive level of a low level task, compared to a high level task.  The speaker proposed a task analysis and problem set for the participants by letting them think of high-order mathematical questions and problems for their students.

During the evaluation of the task, the teachers said that their main goal is to retain the most basic concept in the students’ mind and develop their critical thinking. One of the teachers presented a dilemma where learners tend to think that Math is already difficult as it is. The speaker presented a solution: LAS; that is, this is to imbibe the students to Love All Subjects and impose it as a school policy. Another teacher explained that there is a difficulty in the basic operations in the students. Another raised the issue of planning the lesson study for the day, if the topic should be one by one or by integration. The speaker explained that it would be better if the teachers first give the problem set to the students to reflect on before presenting the lesson for the day. One teacher said that students also tend to forget the lesson of the previous session, and the speaker explained that this is because the students are honed to memorize the topic instead of understand its basic concept. It would be better, furthermore that the teachers let the students discover the solutions and conclusions to the previous problem sets so that they will be able to remember the lesson better.

More solutions to the problems presented by the teachers during the evaluation include letting students discover multiple solutions to the problem set, make math learning fun for them and give them small incentives once they improve on their skills.

The speaker also presented general truths regarding Math teaching and lesson study: 1) Heterogeneous classes are very hard to handle. This is to mean that not all students will be able to grasp the basic concept all at once. 2) Teachers are forced to fit to the basic and traditional curriculum standards, which will be very hard to penetrate especially because improving lesson study is exactly the opposite method of the traditional lesson study planning. 3) Student attitude is typically reluctant with low confidence over a problem set because of the conditioned stigma and the deemed difficult problem sets. This is one problem that should be specifically addressed. 4) Teachers have no guts or the opportunity or the time to do proper mathematical teaching.

The speaker proceeded to discuss the Problem Set Analysis, which would help scaffold the lessons for the slow learners and be expanded for the advanced students. He proposed that there should be collaborative groups for the students, outline expectations and identify one lesson topic for each group, identify exercises with potentials, access the difficulty of the questions and illustrate samples of deep and challenging problem sets to the students. Given the traditional books in school, the teachers may revise the textbook questions to problem task analyses. The may also discuss concepts of different math topics without really using jargons and technical terms. Finally, it would be effective for the teachers to let the students arrive at the conclusions of patterns and discovery of solutions. That is, they have to let the students make sense of the problem, reason abstractness, and construct their own concepts.

The speaker followed the discussion with Performance Scores. This topic includes the rubrics, descriptions of benchmarks and evaluation of the level of proficiency of the student in their mathematical skills. The speaker presented this lesson study by providing problem sets to the teachers in five ways:

1) Comparing Numbers by 100 000. This activity may be discussed using number cards and use elements of surprise as well. This can be applied to Grade 2 and above. This activity identifies and enhances the learning capacity of the students and at the same time scaffolding the lesson plan to avoid curriculum congestion, which is a number one problem in the traditional curriculum. It would also be better if the teacher uses the lesson plan as part of the puzzle for the lessons of the week; that is for integrated learning.

2) Exploring Numbers with 10 000. Teachers may use guide questions to scaffold and extract patterns and similarities from students based on their own concepts. The teachers should also let the students generalize and find their own solutions and patterns. This may be applied to different topics in subtraction, place value and addition as well, which can all be integrated into one lesson study for the week.

However one teacher raised the issue of the complexity of the integrated lesson study which he thought would confuse the students just as much as the teacher would be confused especially on his lesson study for the week. But then the speaker pointed out that was exactly what the old curriculum had been inhibiting the teachers and students to think in high order critical thinking,no integration and connections on the topics in mathematics.

3) Looking at Multiplication Errors. Teachers may give out questions for the students and applying the technique of Cuisinaire Rods; that is, using fractions, grouping the students by problem sets and letting them come up with their own generalizations.

4) Fractions as Percentages. Teachers may apply paired grouping in this lesson study and draw models to illustrate fractions to integrate with percentages (using proper and improper fractions). This may also be the time to scaffold terms used previously.

One teacher raised a question on the structure of the lesson plan and how to apply the lesson proper. The speaker said that the ultimate end product of lesson study is assessment and evaluation of the student’s knowledge in the different math problem sets presented for the day. This he said is termed as the problem-structured approach.

5) Average and Making Connection. Teachers may illustrate integration of the topics in math to both cater slow learners and advanced students; also by using extension questions. Teachers may also use pattern mobiles by using cut-out shapes of the different topics in math for the week.

Finally the speaker left the participants with an activity on formulating high level tasks for their classes for one week, by using the lesson study problemstructured approach, guide questions, multiple choice questions and report on its implementation.

Katha 2014: Singapore Math and PSA

Minutes of the workshop transcribed. Speaker Ms. Pauline Mangulabnan.

KATHA 2014: Day 2: 

PSA Japan

Ms. Pauline Mangulabnan

De La Salle University Manila

July 26, 2014

Minutes of the Workshop

1. Introduction. The speaker first presented a photo of a classroom with students for the teacher-participants to interpret it in different ways. She explained that teaching plans should not produce monotonous teaching, but should be a one-to-one teaching with one-to-one assessment per student. This should end with a post-lesson discussion in class.

2. Lesson Study. Lesson Study is a professional development model where the teacher practice their research in Japan (called jugyou kenkyuu). This is a collaborative effort where research is put into practice and the lesson study is a partnership of theory and practice. It is also a collaborative effort and a systemized cycle in teaching.

2.1. Lesson Study Cycle. The lesson study cycle should start with a identifying a goal or a problem. This is a Japanese way of teaching students to achieve a motivation for each student for advancement in their learning. This is also a transition for primary to secondary learning which is a number one dilemma according to one of the teachers who raised the issue.

For Mathematics, the teachers should let the students enjoy the fun of discovering and achieving knowledge through their own unique methods. The speaker said it should be remembered that there are 6 years of elementary schooling and another 3 years of transition middle schooling and this should be addressed properly and in the most efficient way possible. The grade levels in Grade 1 for example, should be able to master addition, by Grade 4 arithmetic equations, by Grade 6 Division and Multiplication.

There should also be a collaboratively developing lesson time and teacher meeting for a prelesson preparation. That is, there should be a dryrun of the lesson study plan for the other teachers to be able to evaluate each others’ methods and further improve their lesson study. This also follows that the implementation of the lesson plan may include inviting other teachers for observation and assessment, which all results to collaborative effort.

2.2. Research Lesson. Research lesson involves a very specific and detailed lesson study where students must be very engaged in the lesson of the day. Students must also be assessed and there is an importance of teacher intervention. Teachers must devise activities and lesson for the students and let them discover the solution. 

3. Implementation. Implementation of the PSA and Lesson study plan include post-lesson plans and collaborative efforts on school-based institutions.

3.1.Postlesson Plan. There should be a debriefing of the lesson discussion and revising the traditional cycle. There should also be future directions and research trajectories. There must also be detailed lesson plan with collaborative efforts, where teachers also become researchers to be able to create a formative assessment for the students.

3.2. Process of Lesson Study. Training teachers is a number one must in the process of the new lesson study. Research should also be developed in educational institutions and demonstration of extra-curricular studies for the students. Steps on the lesson study include analogies on experiment, practice, observation, seminars and research. The teachers should also look into the context of classroom and society development. The hierarchy includes the lesson study which is deeply ingrained in classroom performance. Teachers should be in full power on knowledge (bottom to top model) and initiatives must come from the teachers themselves. 

Research also informs lesson studies, where the lesson study plan for the day should also be considered as part of the teachers’ research. Questions were raised on the collaborative efforts and multiple or integrated topics and how to write the study plan. The speaker explained that this should be the way to go because the monotonously traditional lesson study that has been imbibed in the cultural education in the Philippines for many years has been the core problem in the first place.

3.3. Replicability of LS in the Philippines. A video on Japanese teaching was shown to the teachers where the there is an induction teaching for the teachers. In Japan, there is teacher collaboration for 10 years. There is mandatory training and voluntary leadership trainings for lesson studies in Japan to achieve the advocacy of practical learning in the country. Constructive criticisms are required for teacher observation for improvement of the lesson study.

3.4. Lesson Study Steps. First is the lesson study planning, that is, how the lesson is presented in class and how students can learn in par with the objectives of the teacher for the day. There should be a set selection of subjects and appropriate test materials which may be unique. There should also be specific steps for lesson plans and questions should be raised for the students to answer. Teachers may seek advice from their principals and other teachers.

Lesson study is also observed by other teachers and students themselves. It is a fact that the student’s mind is unpredictable and reveals that collaborative interaction between the teacher and the student is a must.

Reflections of the lesson study include overview of the lessons, constructive criticisms from other teachers and suggestions of concrete opinions for lesson improvement. This develops a keen eye on the part of the teacher to improve his lesson study in classrooms.

4. Implementation Structure. The speaker presented the participants with a math activity on filling in the blanks on a problem set by pairs. This is to make math more enjoyable both for them and for the students themselves. The teachers should also be more open to others’ opinions and suggestions. They should also explore new methods on how to approach the lesson to engage as many students as possible. This should result to the enjoyment of both the students and the teachers. Again, lesson study is equivalent to research study for the teachers.

5. Problem Solving in Mathematics. Assessment practices should be implemented to develop a conceptual understanding of the topic in math. There are stages of the Structured Problem Solving: 1) posing the problem; 2) autonomous problem solving 3) whole class participation 4) summing up 5) exercises and finally 6) evaluation that there are no perfect solutions.

6. Final Activity. The speaker gave a final activity for the participants by pair on how to assess a problem set. There are theories on learning: 1) behaviorism, or assessing learning via change of behavior, that is, the knowledge is incremented; 2) cognitivism or assessing the order of thinking and takes time to assess the knowledge of the student and 3) social, or the change in participation. The speaker also gave the participants homework on dividing fractions and how to come up with different explanations and solutions.