Maitree Inprasitha

Lesson Study: Challenges in Mathematics Education

Classroom Innovations through Lesson Study is an APEC EDNET (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Education Network) project that aims to improve the quality of education in the area of mathematics. This book includes challenges of lesson study in the world, for example, in Japan and Singapore. Lesson study is one of the best ways to improve the quality of teaching. It is the model approach for improvement of teacher education in the world, and mathematics is the most appropriate subject for sharing the results of lesson study. This book focuses on teacher education and mathematics education, and on curriculum implementation and reforms.

Algebraic Reasoning in Early Grade: Promoting through Lesson Study and Open Approach

The objective of this study is to analyze what characteristics are of early grade students’ algebraic reasoning in context of open approach and lesson study. Ethnographic study was employed to conduct in this qualitative study. The study was carried out in one mathematics classroom which is a case study of this study and it is the case of classroom which has been using open approach and lesson study since 2006. The 3 teachers are as a member of school lesson study team participated the study as informant and so were 10 students from the class. The data were collected through 9 consecutive lessons by observation with audio-video tape recording, interview, students’ written works and daily field notes. The lessons were designed by carrying into 4 steps of open approach: posing problem, students’ self-learning, whole class discussion and comparison, and summing-up by connecting students’ emergent mathematical ideas. All activities were guided by Thai version of 1st grade Japan mathematics textbook. The results showed that characteristics of first grade students’ algebraic reasoning are as follows: 1) using algebraic expressions to represent addition situation and posing situation to represent given expressions, 2) constructing and using a tool to find problem results more easily, 3) extending solutions to another domain of number, 4) using various representations to justify their ways of thinking, and 5) reasoning about relations among numbers. The algebraic reasoning occurred under the condition that teachers and students had connected among 3 worlds oriented to Inprasitha’s approach: real world, semi-concrete world, and mathematics world.

Professional Development Models for Whole Number Arithmetic in Primary Mathematics Teacher Education: A Cross-Cultural Overview

The goal of the chapter is to explore and discuss teacher education in different parts of the world and to emphasize the commonalities and differences not only in the panellists’ countries, but in a broad perspective. By looking at differences in the parts and processes of different educational systems, we can learn from each other and develop a more integrated perspective on teacher education. Most research studies in the field of primary mathematics teacher education at the international level focus on curricula within teacher education and on the knowledge a primary teacher needs for teaching well. WNA provides a context for developing understandings and constructing arguments that adhere to the practices and norms of more advanced mathematics. Two key issues frame the chapter: ways to increasing and deepening teachers’ mathematical understandings and developing tools that support their mathematics teaching. Examples from seven countries are accompanied by brief information about the organization of primary teacher education in each of them.

Aspects that Affect Whole Number Learning: Cultural Artefacts and Mathematical Tasks

The core of this chapter is the notion of artefact, starting from the discussion of the meaning of the word in the literature and offering a gallery of cultural artefacts from the participants’ reports and the literature. The idea of artefacts is considered in a broad sense, to include also language and texts. The use of cultural artefacts as teaching aids is addressed. A special section is devoted to the artefacts (teaching aids) from technologies (including virtual manipulatives). The issue of tasks is simply skimmed, but it is not possible to discuss about artefacts without considering the way of using artefacts with suitable tasks. Some examples of tasks are reported to elaborate about aspects that may foster learning whole number arithmetic (WNA). Artefacts and tasks appear as an inseparable pair, to be considered within a cultural and institutional context. Some future challenges are outlined concerning the issue of teacher education, in order to cope with this complex map.

Transforming Education Through Lesson Study: Thailand’s Decade-Long Journey

The development of teaching and the teaching profession is an issue countries around the world have been struggling to solve for many centuries. Lesson study, a Japanese way of professional development of teachers, dates back nearly 140 years, in 1872 the Meiji government invited foreign teachers to teach Japanese teachers about “whole class instruction” (Isoda 2007). Ironically, in 1999, Stigler and Hiebert brought back to the U.S. the same idea on how to present whole class instruction, “If you want to improve education, get teachers together to study the processes of teaching and learning in classrooms, and then devise ways to improve them” [Stigler 2004 cited in Fernandez and Yoshida 2004]. Although the education reform movement around the world calls for effective reform tools or even ideas like Japanese lesson study, transferring those tools/ideas to other socio-cultural setting in other countries is not easy and always complicated. Thus, education reform movements sometimes support but sometimes hinder movement of society. Taking Japan as a case study, Japan has undergone the movement of society from agricultural to industrialized, to information, and knowledge-based society during the two centuries since the late 18th century to the present. Not visible to outside people, an evolution in the approach to school has taken place in Japan, which supports the movement of society, which has not occurred in most developing countries, including Thailand. Thailand has looked to Japan for ideas and has been implementing lesson study since 2000 but with a unique approach to adaptation. Thailand’s experience with lesson study has been shared with APEC member economies over the last six years and has been deemed “quite a success” in improvement of teaching and learning of mathematics.