Catherine Lewis

How Should Research Contribute to Instructional Improvement? The Case of Lesson Study

Lesson study, a Japanese form of professional development that centers on collaborative study of live classroom lessons, has spread rapidly in the United States since 1999. Drawing on examples of Japanese and U.S. lesson study, we propose that three types of research are needed if lesson study is to avoid the fate of so many other once-promising reforms that were discarded before being fully understood or well implemented. The proposed research includes development of a descriptive knowledge base; explication of the innovation’s mechanism; and iterative cycles of improvement research. We identify six changes in the structure and norms of educational research that would enhance the field’s capacity to study emerging innovations such as lesson study. These changes include rethinking the routes from educational research to educational improvement and recognizing a “local proof route”; building research methods and norms that will better enable us to learn from innovation practitioners; and increasing our capacity to learn across cultural boundaries.

Beyond Fourth-Grade Science: Why Do U.S. and Japanese Students Diverge?

Between 4th and 8th grade, American students fall behind on international norms, whereas Japanese students continue to perform well. This paper brings diverse perspectives to bear on japanese late-elementary science education, in order to elucidate its instructional features and the broader educational system features that enable deep, coherent instruction.

What Is Improvement Science? Do We Need It in Education?

The theory and tools of “improvement science” have produced performance improvements in many organizational sectors. This essay describes improvement science and explores its potential and challenges within education. Potential contributions include attention to the knowledge-building and motivational systems within schools, strategies for learning from variations in practice, and focus on improvement (rather than on program adoption). Two examples of improvement science in education are examined: the Community College Pathways Networked Improvement Community and lesson study in Japan. To support improvement science use, we need to recognize the different affordances of experimental and improvement science, the varied types of knowledge that can be generalized, the value of practical measurement, and the feasibility of learning across boundaries.

Improving Teaching Does Improve Teachers Evidence from Lesson Study

The authors comment on the article by Morris and Hiebert in three ways. First, they add thoughts about why improvement efforts often focus on teachers, rather than teaching. Second, they offer evidence from U.S. lesson study research that focus on teaching can improve both students’ learning and teachers’ learning. Finally, they suggest that the instructional products and common assessments advocated by Hiebert and Morris are not sufficient, and that they need to be accompanied by practice-based, collegial learning in which teachers build shared knowledge and commitments for the hard work of improvement. Their research indicates that lesson study focuses on teaching, but improves teachers as well, increasing mathematical knowledge and beliefs that support instructional improvement, as well as improving student learning.

Learning to be adolescent : growing up in U.S. and Japanese middle schools

The organization of middle schools and the practices of middle school teachers in Japan and the United States differ dramatically Gerald K. LeTendre demonstrates in this compelling comparative study. Based on his long-term observations in Japanese and American schools and on analyses of curricula and classroom practices, the author describes what teachers, administrators, and counselors in each country believe about adolescent development. He explores how these beliefs are put into practice and how they affect adolescent development.In both nations, LeTendre observes, school personnel are extremely concerned with volition: the developing willpower of young adolescents. But while both Americans and Japanese believe that nurturing a young persons ability to use his or her will is crucial, they take very different approaches to dealing with expressions of will. LeTendre also finds conflicting expectations and theories about adolescent development within each system, and he investigates how these can lead to confusion and contradictory rules.

Facilitating curriculum reforms through lesson study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to briefly describe the role of lesson study in implementation of national curriculum reforms in Japan, identifying key features that may be of interest to policy-makers in other countries. Design/methodology/approach – Literature review, observation, and artefact collection were used to study the role of lesson study in educational reform in Japan. Findings – One key characteristic of implementation of national curricular reforms in Japan is that lesson study allows primary and secondary schools, universities, district and prefectural offices, and subject-matter associations to collaborate in implementation. Some key features of the lesson study-supported system of implementation of curricular reform in Japan includes: the ability of school-based lesson study groups to leverage regional and national subject-matter expertise; school learning routines that enable systematic study, refinement, and dissemination of practice (e.g. kyouzai kenkyuu, public research lessons...

A Lesson Is Like a Swiftly Flowing River: How Research Lessons Improve Japanese Education:

n recent years, Japanese elementary school teachers have succeeded in making a basic change in their approach to teaching science. They have shifted from ’teaching as telling’ to ’teaching for understanding’, and they accomplished this as they taught their classes and continued with their usual professional duties. How did they achieve this remarkable change? As we investigated the question over the past three years, Japanese teachers repeatedly pointed to the impact of ’research lessons’ (kenkyuu jugyou) as central to individual, schoolwide, and even national improvement of teaching.

A US lesson study network to spread teaching through problem solving

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the design and initial implementation of a lesson study network in the US intended to support implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Design/methodology/approach – Participant observation and artifact collection document the development of the teaching through problem solving (TTP) network over a 14-month period. Findings – The TTP network draws heavily on Japanese practices (e.g. lesson study) and Japanese materials (e.g. coherent, focussed mathematics curriculum) to support changes envisioned in the US CCSS related to students’ mathematical practices and dispositions. The reasons for choice of these key Japanese features are explicated, and teachers’ initial reactions described. Research limitations/implications – The design shows promise for combining teacher “ownership” with implementation of high-quality approaches designed by others; and allowing instructional innovations developed in Japan to flow into US practice. TTP in mathemat...

A Randomized Trial of Lesson Study with Mathematical Resource Kits: Analysis of Impact on Teachers’ Beliefs and Learning Community

We report on a randomized, controlled trial of an intervention that had a significant impact on teachers’ and students’ mathematical knowledge: lesson study supported by mathematical resource kits (Lewis & Perry, under review). In lesson study, teachers engage in collaborative study-plan-act-reflect cycles centered around classroom research lessons. This report focuses on outcomes related to teachers’ beliefs and learning community, potentially important mediators of teachers’ continued effort to improve instruction. Groups of 4–9 educators (87 % elementary teachers) were randomly assigned to the intervention (lesson study with fractions resource kit) or one of two control conditions; resource kits were mailed out to groups, who locally managed their lesson study in scattered locations across the USA. HLM analyses indicate that the intervention significantly increased two of the six measures of teachers’ beliefs and teacher learning community–Expectations for Student Achievement and Collegial Learning Effectiveness. When examined as mediators of knowledge change in the overall sample, increases in Collegial Learning Effectiveness and Professional Community both significantly predicted teachers’ gain in fractions knowledge and increase in teachers’ collegial learning effectiveness significantly predicted students’ gain in fractions knowledge. Findings suggest the power of lesson study supported by mathematical resources to impact teachers’ beliefs likely to support teachers’ continued learning from practice over time. Findings also suggest the potential of scale-up strategies that couple high-quality mathematical resources with practice-based learning strategies such as lesson study, as a solution to the conundrum of faithful implementation of high-quality materials versus teacher “ownership” of professional learning.

Learning from the Key Tasks of Lesson Study

In lesson study, teachers engage in cycles of inquiry in which they collaboratively plan, observe, and discuss classroom lessons. In addition to improving the teaching of a particular topic, lesson study is designed to build the skills, habits of mind, tools, and culture for teachers to learn daily from colleagues, students, and curriculum materials. This chapter describes the five core tasks within the lesson study cycle: developing the research theme; solving and discussing a mathematics task to anticipate student thinking; developing a shared teaching-learning plan; collecting data during the enacted research lesson; and, conducting a post-lesson discussion.