Adapted Lesson Study in the First Weeks of Initial Teacher Education

Maarten Tas (mt317@le.ac.uk)

School of Education

www.le.ac.uk ECER 2014

Overview

• Background: critical partnerships• Lesson Study• Preparation for adapted lesson study for

pre-service teachers • Adapted lesson study for pre-service

teachers• Methodology and methods• Results• Improvements suggested• Conclusions & suggested changes• Cycle 2 – some notes

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Critical partnerships

• Self/peer support• Self/peer assessment• Effective collaboration• Collaborative presentations• Collaborative microteaching

• Issue: all in University Sessions

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Lesson Study

• Originated in Japan in the 1870’s• Group of teachers improving their

teaching and learning practice collaboratively

• Research and discuss approaches which could possibly make a difference

• A sequence of jointly planned lessons• One teacher teaches, the others

observe the pupils (not the teacher)• Joint reflection and readjustments for

next lessonECER 2014

Preparation for adapted lesson study for pre-service teachers• Day 1: homework for next day –

explanation• Day 2: explanation – self and peer

assessment (+ input from tutor)• Day 3: preparation for practical

demonstration (groups of 2)• Day 4: practical demonstration – self

and peer assessment (+ input from tutor)

• Day 4: formation of critical partnerships (4 per group)

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Adapted lesson study for PGCE students 1

• Day 4: 2 Critical partnership groups plan lesson with teacher from a local school

• Day 5: The lesson– Starter: 2 teaching – 2 function as

teaching assistant (TA) - 2 observing particular pupils as suggested by the teacher – 2 observing the teachers and TAs

- Main activity 1: same as above but rotation – teachers become TAs, etc.

- Main activity 2- Plenary

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• Day 4 Week 2– Group reflection of the lesson from Week

1– Teacher gives the groups of 8 students

all the resources for the lesson, including intended learning outcomes. They then need to prepare the lesson

• Day 5 Week 2– Teach and observe the lesson as Week 1

Adapted lesson study for PGCE students 2

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• Day 4 Week 3– Group reflection of the lesson from Week

2– Teacher gives the groups of 8 students

the intended learning outcomes and some ideas for practicals

• Day 5 Week 3– Teach and observe the lesson as Week 1

and Week 2

Adapted lesson study for PGCE students 3

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Methodology & methods• Social interactionist approach (Blumer, 1969;

Strauss, 1993) – the pre-service teachers(female n = 12; male n = 5) develop their understanding of the classroom environment through collaboration with each other, tutors and teachers

• Action Research approach – two cycles of developing Adapted lesson study

• Mixed methods:– Questionnaires (Likert Scale and Open questions); – Reflective journals;– Videos

T-test, power analysis, descriptive statistics and theme analysis of qualitative data

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Questionnaires - stats

T Test

 

Test Value = 0

t dfSig. (2-tailed)

Mean Difference

95% Confidence Interval of the Difference

Lower UpperAverage 1 25.621 16 0.000 3.0703576 2.816315 3.324400

Average 2 39.887 16 0.000 3.5778547 3.387702 3.768008

Power analysis

Cohen's d 1.16288

Effect size 0.50264

< 0.1 = trivial effect

0.1 - 0.3 = small effect

0.3 - 0.5 = moderate effect

> 0.5 = large difference effect

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

0.923 17

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Results 1 Lesson Planning

Mea

n le

vel o

f co

nfid

ence

(m

axim

um =

5)

Use a

pro

-form

a fo

r les

son

plan

ning

Plan

for a

star

ter

Plan

for a

pup

il lea

rning

activ

ity

Plan

for a

plena

ry

Plan

for g

ood

beha

viour

0.000.501.001.502.002.503.003.504.00

BeforeAfter

‘Makes you aware of what you need to work on before you go into the classroom’

‘I found it helped me a lot with lesson planning and I went into school knowing some key areas I need to focus on’

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Results 2 Teaching

Mea

n le

vel o

f co

nfid

ence

(m

axim

um =

5)

Teac

hing

a st

arte

r

Teac

hing

a m

ain

activ

ity

Teac

hing

a p

lena

ry

Questioning

Dealin

g with

ans

wers

Asses

sing

the

lear

ning

con

tinuo

usly

Differ

entia

tion

0.000.501.001.502.002.503.003.504.00

BeforeAfter

‘Quite a few of us had not had the chance to actively plan and teach a lesson, and lead a class in a school environment before the course, even though we had observed in classroom environments. The Adapted Lesson Study allowed us to gain this valuable experience before our placements began, in a relatively low-risk, collaborative environment, well-supported by an experienced and helpful teacher’.

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Results 3 Pupil focus

Mea

n le

vel o

f co

nfid

ence

(m

axim

um =

5)

Helping pupils as TA

Observing pupils with focus

3.50

3.60

3.70

3.80

3.90

4.00

4.10

4.20

4.30

BeforeAfter

‘Showed how pupils react to having a new teacher’

‘On reflection I think I should have gotten involved earlier on to help the practical along’

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Results 4 Observation, Reflection and Collaboration

Mea

n le

vel o

f co

nfid

ence

(m

axim

um =

5)

Obser

ving

teac

hers

with

focu

s

Reflec

tion

on te

aching

Wor

king

with a

noth

er te

ache

r0.000.501.001.502.002.503.003.504.004.50

BeforeAfter

‘Able to see others teaching, and through this improve my practice’

‘You get to identify areas of the teaching standards which need improving, and work towards these in the next lesson’

‘Collaborative teaching with peers which led to the development of a supportive network’

‘It is helpful to get feedback, to have an idea of strengths and weaknesses before I began teaching’

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Improvements suggested by pre-service teachers

• Extra time to prepare for the lesson• Less teachers in the classroom• A little more of it – three sessions

was great, four would have been wonderful!

• I didn’t fully understand what we were supposed to be doing as teaching assistants

• I didn’t really understand the significance or relevance of having to observe pupils

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Conclusions

• Adapted lesson study help pre-service teachers to get a better idea about:– Planning;– Teaching;– Observation;– Working with peers and other teachers;– Reflection

• Some don’t get the relevance of observing pupils and the role of a teaching assistant

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Suggested changes

• Groups of 3-4 rather than 6-8 in one class

• Less roles within one lesson:– Focus on observing pupils– Focus on role of teaching assistant – Teaching with peer

• More focus on the learning of pupils• Teacher will predict the learning of

key pupils• Focus interview with key pupils after

lesson

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Cycle 1 Cycle 22.7

2.8

2.9

3

3.1

3.2

3.3

3.4

3.5

3.6

3.7

Before After

Confidence

(1-5

)

The increase of confidence after the Lesson Study cycles

The confidence of the group of the second cycle higher, even before intervention.Experience of the tutors from the first cycle?

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Some ideas and conclusions• Effect size high, but likely to be not just

due to the intervention• Although the confidence seems rather

high at this stage in ITE they have still limited understanding of what is needed in the classroom

• Good experience to refer to in later reflections

• Lesson Study for assignments• Third cycle more support from classroom

teacher and deeper reflection at UoL sessions

• Teachers involved seem to benefit a lot from this collaboration

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Literature

• Blumer, H. (1969). Symbolic Interactionism; Perspective and Method. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

• Chokski, S. & Fernandez, C. (2004). Challenges to importing Japanese lesson study: Concerns, misconceptions and nuances. Phi Delta Kappan, 85(6), 520-525.

• Lewis, C. (2002). Lesson study: A handbook of teacher-led instructional change. Philadelphia: Research for Better Schools Inc.

• Lewis, C., & Tsuchida, I. (1997). Planned educational change in Japan: The case of elementary science instruction. Journal of Educational Policy, 12(5), 313-331.

• Strauss A.L. (1993). Continual permutations of actions. Hawthorne, New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

• Tas, M. & Forsythe, S. (2014). Critical Partnerships: Collaborative Reflection and Commitment to Group Development in Teacher Training. Manuscript in Preparation.

• Wiggins, G.& McTighe, J.(1998). Understanding by Design. Alexandria: ASCD

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