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Lesson Study:
A Student-Centered Professional Development Opportunity for Teachers
Agnes Tuska
In the past, most professional development opportunities for teachers were offered in a lecture format, where an expert provided information with little or no active audience engagement. In this scenario teachers could not observe how the strategies presented in the lectures really worked in the classroom or how they affected students.
Not much was known about what was going on in the typical classroom for research analysis or for professional development purposes. One important study that was part of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS 1999 Video Study; see National Center for Education Statistics, 2003) videotaped and analyzed 100 typical lessons in each of the seven participating countries (Australia, Czech Republic, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United States). The analysis of the lessons showed great differences in the practices and learning goals among the nations, and revealed correlations between certain national characteristics of the lessons and the mathematical achievement level of the nation's students. For example, 61% of the Japanese lessons contained instances of deductive thinking, but there were no such instances in the recorded lessons in the United States. In the United States, students worked on homework in 25% of the videotaped lessons, while there was no such instance in the videotaped Japanese lessons. The use of seatwork also showed great differences: In Japan, 41% of seatwork was spent on practicing procedures, 15% on applying concepts, and 44% on inventing/thinking. The respective percentages in the United States were 96%, 4%, and 1% (National Research Council, 1999). The Japanese students scored significantly higher than the American students on the achievement test.
These days there are several projects throughout the world with the goal of recording and analyzing classroom practices. In the United States, public release videos are promoted as part of professional development opportunities to teachers (see at www.lessonlab.com). International comparisons allow us to identify practices we want to change, discover alternative ways that may align better with our learning goals, and examine teaching in our own countries with a fresh eye by highlighting the most common practices. Some practices are so widespread in a country that teachers take them for granted and cannot even imagine other alternatives.
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A Student-Centered Professional Development Opportunity for Teachers