UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Faculty of Education © Peter Dudley, 2010 Lesson Study: How and why it improves teaching and learning so powerfully Peter Dudley

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGEFaculty of Education

© Peter Dudley, 2010

Lesson Study:How and why it improves teaching and learning so

powerfullyPeter Dudley

Lesson Study MLD Project Launch Exeter

25 - 26th November 2010



Aims

• To find out what Lesson Study is

• To learn about how it works

• To understand this in the wider context of teacher professional knowledge & learning

• To understand something about why it works – and what makes it distinct from other forms of professional learning



Two traditional professional learning environments

Teachers Centre

Operating Theatre



Discussion activity – critique

1. Work in fours and allocate each A,B,C,D.

2. A – Boxes sheet – B - Booklet p.5. 6 & 7.

3. C p.8, 9 & 10 D – p11, 12, 13.

4. Read and make notes, questions, reflections (5 minutes)

5. Each feeds back to the group for 2 minutes – and each takes turns to make the notes

6. Agree 3 points as a group or feedback



Latest research – what makes the most difference?

5

School Leadership and Student Outcomes: Identifying What Works and Why Best Evidence Synthesis, by Viviane Robinson, Margie Hohepa, Claire Lloyd (The University of Auckland), published by the New Zealand Ministry of Education 2009.

Promoting and participating in professional learning about teaching and learning is the most effective thing school leaders can do, to have the greatest impact on pupils’ learning, progress and attainment.

Leaders who promote and participate in teachers’ professional learning:

• have a focus on teaching and learning are able to support improvements in the quality of teaching and learning because they build up a shared understanding of what is working and why, what needs to be improved and how to do this, including freeing up time for CPD• help to generate a collective, constructive approach to problem solving as part of an effective school improvement strategy• encourage teachers to use ‘smart tools’ that help to improve teaching and learning.



What forms of professional learning make the most difference to pupil learning?

• Classroom Collaborative Professional Learning– EPPI reviews (2003,4,5)– LH2L (2005)– TDA State of the Nation Report (2009-10)

• Evidence that Lesson Study results in:– Raised expectations for underachieving pupils– Improved understanding of their needs– Improved PCK of techniques which will work for them– Lasting changes in practice



‘We must place ourselves inside the heads of our students colleagues (as they assess, plan and teach) and try to

understand as far as possible the sources and strengths of their conceptions’

While bearing in mind the nature of teacher practice

knowledge…



Improving schools requires us all to understand what teachers believe and think – ‘it is as simple and as complex

as that’ – Fullan

But…….Teachers’ knowledge, beliefs and practice do not always coincide

Classrooms are complex working environments

Teacher practice knowledge is 90% tacit

….and ‘expert’ knowledge is different again!



Pedagogical Content Knowledge• Common content knowledge

– e.g. knowing how to calculate (x) x (y)

• Specialised content knowledge– e.g. subject and knowledge/skill unique to teaching – how

and why the place value system works– self conscious SK

• Knowledge of content and of students– Combines knowing about students and knowing about

mathematics‘Ability to hear and interpret students emerging and incomplete

thinking as expressed in the ways that students use language’(Ball, Hoover-Thames & Phelps, 2008)



LearningParticipation or Construction

• Learning happens through: – joining in, – social interaction– talk,



Learning in a Community of Practice involves:

• Learning in the place where the work is being done

• Negotiation of meaning

• Reification

• The agency of boundary workers

Classrooms

Knowledge + Structured, unfettered, accountable talkStandard tools (lesson plans, observation proforma, video, pupils’ work)

Subject leads, D/Hs principals, (Leading Teachers)..pupils…

Lave and Wenger, 2002



What makes LS distinct?

• Drawing on external (researched) evidence of what works well

• Multiple perspectives – slow down the classroom • Joint ownership – reduces ‘ego involvement’• Case pupils - sharpen the focus• Eliciting practice to share with others – ‘meta’

level re-articulation stabilises new knowledge.



Determining the focus of a Lesson Study

Curricular content to be taught

Teaching approach to be developed, refined or innovated

Pupil learning to be improved/ developed.

Jointly plan,

teach/observe analyse, share

Focus on pupils’ learning (not teachers’ teaching)



• Important issues emerged from the Lesson Study pilot:– the formal involvement of

pupils in Lesson Study– the nature of teacher

learning in the pilot study– school leadership of

Lesson Study

‘..you view the video afterwards and you see what you're doing and sometimes you don’t even know you're doing it, you do it automatically and you can like

think, ‘Oh I've done that wrong, I can like improve on that later on,

next lesson maybe’ or something’. (JG Project Y9

pupil)

‘..they see that learning is a process that they can have an impact on, that changes, that’s

dynamic and from that they begin to take ownership of the whole

learning process, they take responsibility for it and also they're helped. It's amazing

because … they're engaging with us, in helping us to help them to learn. Incredible stuff

really, incredible stuff’. (PM Project teacher)



Case pupils• Represent typical learner groups• Are a focus for planning, observation, analysis

discussion• Resonate with teachers’ use of ‘steering groups’

in day to day teaching (Clark & Peterson, 1986)

• Deflect the attention from the teacher (less ego involving)

• Focus attention on the specifics of what is/not being learned by particular kinds of learner

• Create micro – level accountability



Draft findings (PD phase 2 research)



Categories of teacher talk

Disputational /

Qualificatory

Cumulative

ExploratoryOrganisational

Dudley, 2010 forthcoming adapted from Mercer 1995

Understanding Structuring



Relationships of Exploratory Talk Interaction Functions to

observed teacher learning

Exploratory Talk

Hypothesise

Develop

Suggest

Summarise

(Accept)

Rehearse

Propose

Reason

Observe

Justify

Challenge

Reflect

Knowledge Generating Interaction Sequence



Observing case pupils helps to change long held beliefs

• ‘Yeh I went round and filmed a few things and what really came out was if you have paired pupils up correctly it is really helpful. A (a case pupil) was with K (another case pupil). And K was explaining. And K was getting it slightly wrong. And as he was explaining it to A he realised he was going wrong. And he explained it again. So K not only got it clear in his head because he was having to explain it to A. A learned from K too. So you're right.’ (Dudley, P,. forthcoming)



Knowledge from Research Lessons

• Focuses on PCK• Is mainly communicated, hypothesised – co-constructed

through ‘rehearsal’ simulation• Replaces previous pupil assessments and pupil

knowledge (during post lesson analysis discussion)• Is complex and detailed and jointly owned• Evaporates quickly • Can be ‘captured’ longer term by coaching-on,

presenting to others or public teaching / open house



Common fields of knowledge reference

Knowledge of the child

Knowledge ofpedagogy

Knowledge of curriculum

Learning opport-unities

Motiv-ation

Feedback

Optimum pupil and teacher

learning

Explicit PCK gained from K.G.I.S. &

simulation

Knowledge gained from research lesson observation, notes, pupil work etc

Knowledge gained from

pupil interviews after the

research lesson

Dudley, 2010 forthcoming adapted from Dudley, TES, 2008



Shift from individual ‘ego involvement’ in research lesson to joint ownership

Individuals as stakeholders in the research lesson

Group ownership of the research

lesson

This opens up the disposition to take risks, to accept challenge, to adjust own thinking and eventually beliefs - in order to make the joint endeavour succeed.

And THIS is what builds ‘learning community’!

Documents

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Faculty of Education © Peter Dudley, 2010 Lesson Study: How and why it improves teaching and learning so powerfully Peter Dudley