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21 – 30 of over 20000Geethamali Samaranayake, Kirthi Premadasa, Rajee Amarasinghe and Khyam Paneru
The purpose of this paper is to measure teacher change in attitudes and beliefs among college teachers and school teachers who participated in Lesson Study projects. The authors…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to measure teacher change in attitudes and beliefs among college teachers and school teachers who participated in Lesson Study projects. The authors investigate the answers to the question “Does the collective design of a single lesson contribute to noteworthy and lasting teacher change and student achievement?”
Design/methodology/approach
The authors surveyed a group of college and school teachers on several aspects central to the Lesson Study mission. The authors performed a formal statistical analysis of the survey results. The authors also utilized the analysis of student performance data of the same group of schoolteachers. These teachers come from a school district in the western USA and conducted Lesson Study as professional development.
Findings
The findings show significant and lasting change in attitudes and beliefs of teachers as a result of their Lesson Study experience. In addition, evidence suggests a strong connection between collaboration and teacher change. The authors also present evidence of the noteworthy influence that teachers who participated in Lesson Study had on a historically under-performing student population.
Practical implications
The findings show evidence of lasting and beneficial effects of teacher collaboration. The authors believe that our research is appealing to a vast audience and should inspire teachers toward collaboration.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the growing body of research on professional development of teachers by demonstrating the positive effects of Lesson Study on teachers in both college and school environments.
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Hui-Ling Wendy Pan, Jui-Hsuan Hung and Huilin Bai
Learning power is crucial in today's rapidly changing world, yet its application to teachers is under-explored. This study delved into the investigation of teacher learning power…
Abstract
Purpose
Learning power is crucial in today's rapidly changing world, yet its application to teachers is under-explored. This study delved into the investigation of teacher learning power and examined how it matters in the relationship between teachers' experiences in lesson study and the adoption of constructivist pedagogy.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional survey of 226 elementary, junior high, and senior high school teachers in Taiwan was conducted, and the results were analyzed using structural equation modeling.
Findings
The findings suggest that both participation in lesson study and teacher learning power were positively associated with the practice of constructivist pedagogy. Moreover, teacher learning power partially mediated the relationship between lesson study and constructivist pedagogy.
Originality/value
By incorporating the concept of teacher learning power and performing a mediation analysis to understand how it matters, this study has added to the expanding collection of works on lesson study explored from different perspectives and in various contexts.
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This study explores the perceptions of the leadership team on knowledge creation in lesson study (LS) using P. Gronn's concept of hybrid leadership.
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores the perceptions of the leadership team on knowledge creation in lesson study (LS) using P. Gronn's concept of hybrid leadership.
Design/methodology/approach
This study included teachers from a public elementary school in Japan that has been engaged in autonomous LS for several years. Teachers (n = 8) from the leadership team of the LS practice for four years (2016–2019) were interviewed for the study.
Findings
The findings are threefold. First, teachers in the leadership team most often referred to teachers' leadership practices as occurring in the phases of externalisation and combination, which are the important phases in the organisational knowledge creation process. Second, in the context of LS, the study found that teachers in the leadership team used three approaches to take the lead in knowledge creation, approaching the individual and the groups using tools. Third, using the concept of hybrid leadership helped detail the complexity of the leadership practices performed by the leadership team in LS.
Originality/value
This study focusses on teachers in the leadership team in LS, which has been an overlooked topic in this field of research. In many Japanese schools where LS has been practiced for many years, leadership teams have been set up with certain expectations. The findings of this study highlight certain leadership team practices that will contribute to the development of a sustainable LS.
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Latisha Reynolds, Amber Willenborg, Samantha McClellan, Rosalinda Hernandez Linares and Elizabeth Alison Sterner
This paper aims to present recently published resources on information literacy and library instruction providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present recently published resources on information literacy and library instruction providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2016.
Findings
The paper provides information about each source, describes the characteristics of current scholarship and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.
Originality/value
The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.
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Rongjin Huang, Angela T. Barlow and Melanie E. Haupt
The purpose of this paper is to examine how teachers improve core instructional practices in teaching mathematics for problem solving through lesson study (LS). The core practices…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how teachers improve core instructional practices in teaching mathematics for problem solving through lesson study (LS). The core practices included launching a task, implementing a task, and orchestrating students’ solutions.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted multiple case study and survey methodologies. Each of three LS groups developed a research lesson on problem solving in algebra through Chinese LS, which includes collaborative planning and repeated teachings/debriefings of the research lesson with support from experts. The data collected included lesson plans, videotaped research lessons and debriefing meetings, and an end-of-project survey. Case studies supported by survey data were utilized to describe how research lessons were improved and what teachers learned from LS.
Findings
A fine-grained analysis of the data revealed that the participants improved their strategies for teaching for problem solving, which included effectively launching tasks, strategically implementing tasks, and productively orchestrating students’ solutions to the tasks. Further, analyses revealed that the feedback from experts during debriefing meetings played crucial roles in making these changes. Moreover, participants learned how to implement these core instructional practices and changed their views about students’ learning.
Originality/value
The study uncovers the mechanisms about how teachers improve teaching and their expertise in teaching through Chinese LS. The importance of the dynamic between repeated teaching and immediate feedback from knowledgeable others is highlighted.
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Olga Khokhotva and Iciar Elexpuru Albizuri
The purpose of this paper is to report the findings from a case study of an action research project in the context of a secondary school in Kazakhstan where, for the first time in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report the findings from a case study of an action research project in the context of a secondary school in Kazakhstan where, for the first time in their teaching practice, three English as a Foreign Language teachers introduced student voice (Flutter and Rudduck, 2004) into their practice within the Lesson Study (LS) framework. The research aimed at conceptualizing Student Voice Space in LS as one of the valuable factors capable of triggering situations of disjuncture (disorienting dilemma, disruption) for teachers which could potentially lead to teacher’s transformative learning, educational beliefs change and improved practice.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts the qualitative research design and follows narrative inquiry methodology (Lyons and LaBoskey, 2002) with a series of narrative interviews (Bauer, 1996) as the main method of data collection within a single case study (Bassey, 1999) of an action research project. The data were analyzed as text following a general inductive approach (Thomas, 2003) where emerging themes were identified by means of data reduction.
Findings
The findings suggest that listening to student voice triggers teachers’ going through certain stages of Mezirow’s transformative learning theory including critical assessment of own assumptions, testing new options for behavior and reflecting critically on the teaching practice. Therefore, the authors suggest that Student Voice Space in LS is one of the important factors capable of triggering the teacher’s transformative learning. Moreover, it has an enormous potential not only to bring about positive changes in teachers’ practice but also challenge the ossified teachers’ educational beliefs, and thus, potentially, pave the way for a gradual change from “inappropriate beliefs” (Mayrhofer, 2019), or subconscious assumptions that lie in the core of teachers’ folk pedagogies (Torff, 1999), or taken-for-granted frames of reference (Mezirow, 2000) into true, justified or informed educational beliefs.
Research limitations/implications
Further analysis of teachers’ narratives is required to elicit and categorize reported changes (shifts, transformations) concerning specific teachers’ educational beliefs, and draw a more clear line between student voice and its impact on the research lesson planning and its modification in LS. Finally, a supplementary study utilizing classroom observation methods is needed to explore if student voice intervention results in tangible (actual) changes in teachers’ classroom practice and educational beliefs, rather than potential transformations that are mainly reported in this study.
Originality/value
Carried out in the largely overlooked by the academic literature context of the Reform at Scale (Wilson et al., 2013) in Kazakhstan and building on the original combination of theoretical lenses, the research contributes to the academic literature aiming at illuminating “the black box of teachers’ learning” in Lesson Study (in Widjaja et al., 2017, p.358) since it is one of the rare studies attempting to connect teacher learning, student voice and Lesson Study (Warwick et al., 2019). Additionally, approaching teacher learning in Lesson Study from the transformative learning perspective combined with the literature on teachers’ educational beliefs and student voice, this study contributes to the further development of a shared vocabulary for discussing teacher learning in Lesson Study.
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Donna R. McGhie-Richmond and Catriona de Bruin
The focus of this chapter is the role of technology in diverse students’ active learning and interconnectedness in inclusive classrooms. The discussion is guided by the inclusive…
Abstract
The focus of this chapter is the role of technology in diverse students’ active learning and interconnectedness in inclusive classrooms. The discussion is guided by the inclusive pedagogical approach in action (IPAA) framework, which is used as a tool for planning teaching and critical reflection. Inclusive education has previously considered the role of technology through the lens of Universal Design for Learning to inform how teachers plan instruction for students’ maximal accessibility, participation and engagement. We use the IPAA framework to build on and extend this by challenging teachers to also consider and incorporate technologies in innovative ways for students to collaborate with each other and build classroom relationships, as well as engaging with the curriculum on their own terms to make learning more meaningful.
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Kara Plank, Karen L Sanzo and Jay Paredes Scribner
This study aims to understand how to develop, support and utilize professional learning community (PLCs) to build organizational capacity to support teacher learning and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to understand how to develop, support and utilize professional learning community (PLCs) to build organizational capacity to support teacher learning and collaboration. Although literature highlights the importance of leadership in creating a PLC, there is little research on specific actions leaders can take to create an authentic, sustainable PLC.
Design/methodology/approach
We employed a multicase study approach at three school sites within the same district. Our research was guided by the following questions: (1) How are learning communities developed and sustained in school settings?; (2) What is the role of administrators in cultivating learning communities?; and (3) What factors contribute to and hinder the success of learning communities?
Findings
Despite being in the same school district, the three schools’ PLCs operated differently. The schools displayed characteristics of PLCs, with minimal implementation of all components. Developing a professional learning community at all three sites began with implementing structural factors and mandating specific activities such as weekly grade-level planning. Social factors were much more complex to control by administration, affecting the fidelity of learning and collaboration within the PLCs.
Originality/value
Although the literature highlights the importance of leadership in creating a PLC, there is little research that supports specific actions leaders can take to create an authentic, sustainable community of practice. In addition, there is limited literature supporting how administrators use PLCs to build organizational capacity and support teacher learning. Our study contributes to building the empirical knowledge base related to these two areas.
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Elaine Wilson and Assel Sharimova
The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of processes in operation during the implementation of a reform programme in Kazakhstan culminating in the widespread adoption…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of processes in operation during the implementation of a reform programme in Kazakhstan culminating in the widespread adoption of Lesson Study (LS).
Design/methodology/approach
The study is positioned within a critical realist theoretical perspective, drawing on Archer’s social theory to focus on the social world of the school while changes to classroom practice are being made. This is a case study using process tracing methods to analyse how school actions and interactions are used during the change process resulting in widespread implementation of LS.
Findings
Three key mechanisms for implementing the structural changes are identified; increasing teacher’s pedagogical knowledge, collaborative working structures and active collective inquiry. The capacity to change practice is underpinned by reflection on classroom interactions and in having the necessary skills and available time to analyse the effect on pupils’ learning. Engaging in reflexive deliberation is dependent on having access to new knowledge, together with the opportunity to collaborate in supportive groups.
Originality/value
This study provides an insight into what changes were made and why these support the spread of LS in Kazakhstan, drawing on Archer’s social theory and using theory building process tracing methods to delve deeper into the empirical fingerprints left during the intervention. LS is an important structural factor which is still supporting change in Kazakhstani classrooms.
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Xingfeng Huang, Mun Yee Lai and Rongjin Huang
This study aimed to explore how a group of Chinese primary mathematics teachers learned through conducting an online cross-cultural lesson study between China and Australia.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to explore how a group of Chinese primary mathematics teachers learned through conducting an online cross-cultural lesson study between China and Australia.
Design/methodology/approach
An expansive learning theory was adopted to examine teachers' learning through collective activities across different activity systems. Multiple data sets including videos of research lessons, debriefings and audios of interviews were collected. From the expansive learning perspective, based on a fine-grained qualitative data analysis, various contradictions (as driving forces of learning) were identified and the ways of resolving the contradictions (as enactment of learning) were located to feature teacher learning throughout the online lesson study process.
Findings
Teachers' expansive learning includes enhancing teachers' MKT and Mathematics TPACK, developing instructional design skills and capabilities in addressing challenges occurring in the virtual environment were identified.
Research limitations/implications
Theoretically, the study illustrated how expansive learning theory could be utilized to examine teacher collaborative learning in the online cross-cultural lesson study. Practically, this study showed that reiterative cycles and experts' facilitation are crucial to expansive learning for linking research to classroom practice. However, this study did not focus on student learning in the virtual environment. Australian teachers' reciprocal learning through the online lesson study also requires further exploration.
Originality/value
Both online lesson study and cross-cultural collaboration are innovative. The expansive learning lens are creatively used to examine the complexity of teacher learning in such a novel environment.
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