Lesson Study in Singapore

Assumption English School - Structure of Lesson Planning Meeting

2012-02-13T04:09:00.000-08:00

Gallery participants get to have a glimpse into the types of lesson study discussion that can take place during TTT.

We discussed how the main parts of the lesson have or not, the potential to engage students. In particular, we tried to identify features of a ask that can engage students. The team came up with tasks that have an element of mystery, tasks that have the ability to give students with a sense of achiement and satisfaction, and tasks that a accessible to all.

We also prepare observers for the research lesson. We set up 'hypothesis'. We should attempt to look out for evidence of engagement, and catalysts of engagement.

We also discussed common practice in mathematics teaching - use of worksheet etc- and critically question if some of these common practices an derail our efforts to engage students .

Kong Hwa School - Beginning the Lesson Planning Process

2012-02-09T07:23:00.000-08:00

The professional learning team comprising primary three teachers met with me today to begin their lesson planning. The school's research theme is engaging students. The team has decided to focus on a unit on word problem solving involving addition and subtraction. By the time this unit is taught, students would have completed addition and subtraction entirely as well as all the basic multiplication facts 1x1 to 9x9.

In this meeting I model the lesson planning meeting discussion. Today we elect the first part of the lesson where the team decides to use concrete materials to role play the situation embedded in the word problem. The team has identified the target task and will construct a simpler version of the target task for use in the first part of the lesson.

The discussion structure is as follow:

1. Get the team to segment the entire lesson and focus on the part to be discussed in this hour. Today the focus in on using concrete materials to model the situation in a word problem.

2. Have team members discussed why this act-it-out strategy has a potential in engaging students. What are the features of such a strategy that has potential in engaging students?

Four features were raised by the team

a. "easy to handle" - tasks that are easy to access has a potential to engage ( especially ) students aversed to word problems. During the research lesson teachers may want to see for themselves the effects of the introductory task on student engagement.

b. "could try and try" - will this have a potential to engage students in making repeated attempts at a complex tasks?

c. "includes elements of comprehension" - could this way of introducing the task makes students more comfortable in trying to understand the tasks.

d. "provide opportune for students to make connections"

I am interested to see during the research lesson how this way of introducing complex word problems engage students in making sense of the meaning of the situation in the problem. What is the role of the act-it-out situations in helping students engage with the situation n the problem to enhance their understanding of the problem?

Research Lesson on Graphs of Linear Functions

2012-01-30T19:00:00.000-08:00

A group of teachers in Kranji Secondary School, as part of Ministry of Education Partner Schools Programme, are exploring ways to make the 21st Century Competencies a reality in the classroom.

Yesterday, I had the good fortune to facilitate a post-lesson discussion for a mathematics lesson on graphs of linear functions.

The lesson was to use technology to help students learn how a linear graph changes as the values of m and of c in y = mx + c change.

I learn something through my observations. I would like to share two of them here. I also learn many things by listening to teachers who shared their observations. Again, I will share two of them here.

Observation 1: Language. The six boys I observed used word like "goes upwards" and "tilt" to describe the graph. Three of them described the graph as "moves upwards". Even the more careful student wrote "when looked from left to right, slants upwards". I learn that students tend to be at a decriptive level in the learning of graphs. If they stay at this level, the main purpose of learning graphs is lost. We learn graphs so that we have a good way to represent relationships between quantities - so that we are able to make predictions or generalizations, among other things. Why didn't any of these students use language that are indicative of their appreciation that it is about relationships? I wonder if any students said or wrote when x increases, y increases when they describe a graph of y = mx + c when m > 0?

Reflecting on the I See.I Think. I Wonder. tool, the use of language indicates that the six students are at I See. Can a teacher move them to the next level by asking: Why do you think the shape of the graph is such?

I wonder how the graph looks like if the value of c increases / decreases / remain unchanged but the value of m becomes positive.

Note to self: Try to learn in oter research lessons if consistent use of a thinking routine such as I See. I Think. I Wonder. will affect students' use of language which is reflective of their level of understanding.

Observation 2: Technology. I was surprised that 14-year olds who are so adept at figuring out all things technological took some time to figure out a fairly straight forward software such as the graphing software they were using.

I See students struggling to figure out a relatively simple software. I Think this is unusual given that I have seen many kids and definitely teenagers capable of figuring out things on a cell phone or on a laptop screen. I Think too much instructions on how to use the software can be not a good thing. I Wonder if it is sufficient have the students open the software and tell them, please show the graph of y = 2x + 1 using the software; go figure out.

What I Learn by Listening to Other Observers (1) The class was entire engaged but even when some student is interested to pursue a point further, the partner was not entirely interested. Even when two students had contradicting findings, they were happy to let it go without questioning their findings. I learnt after listening to three observations that as a teacher I need to distinguish between superficial engagement and deep engagement.

(2) One observer was wondering about what if we use a "more progressive" worksheet. Combining what she shared and my own observation, I learn the limitation of the use of a standard worksheets in a 21st CC classroom.

I am interested what she envision a "more progressive" worksheet would look like.

What would I do if I were to teach the same lesson? I would start by asking the students to log on to Ace Learning and go to I.Tools. I would then say go figure out with the help of your partner how to show the graph of y = x + 2. Now, what if you change the value of the coefficient of x (the number in front of x) to other positive values? What do you see? Why? I wonder what happens if the coefficient of x is negative. What do you see? Why is the value of y decreasing when the value of x goes up?

Now work with your friends to (1) see what happens when the value of the constant changes (2) think of an explanation for what you see.

To conclude the lesson, I wonder why the graphs are always straight lines in this lesson. I wonder how the values of y changes when the value of x increases if it is not y = x + 1 but instead it is y = x^2 + 1 that is what if the x is now the square of x? I wonder what will happen? Is it right? Someone says the value of y increases more for the same increase in x. Can you show using the graph.

I wonder what happen if the equation is y = 2^x + 1?

Kranji Secondary School

2012-01-19T18:40:00.000-08:00

Kranji Secondary School is one of Ministry of Education Partner Schools on implementing the 21st Century Competencies initiative. Together with Dunman Secondary School, they are helping teachers develop the knowledge necessary for such transformational learning. Both schools are in Marshall Cavendish Institute's newly-crafted programme that combines workshop-style learning (familiar to Singapore teachers) with authentic setting professional learning (fairly new in Singapore). If we want teachers to be facilitators, they themselves should be familiar with this style of learning. Most of us, as students, would have rare opportunities to learn with teachers who are facilitators. I am glad these schools have sort of feel that lesson study - where teachers learn through facilitation - should be blended with workshop-style professional learning.

The research theme, or learning goal, for the teachers is to develop confident learners with high achievement. The first meeting in which teachers studied two lesson plans in English Language and Mathematics for Secondary 2 written by their colleagues.

The goal is to prepare teachers to be able to have an image of desired behaviours in such classrooms. What do I hope teachers gained from the session? I hope they re-think about what is commonly practised now and how we can enhance student learning. We spoke about the use of an anchor task to get to deep thinking- too may little tasks tend to get students to be engaged at superficial levels. We spoke about teaching at metacognitive level as opposed to at cognitive level - teach to make good thinking a habit.

The English lesson is on persuasive language and the mathematics lesson is on linear graphs.

Students will learn to identify use of language in different ways as they explore videos of advertisements. Students should learn how advertisement persuade us by playing on our emotions, how it prey on our beliefs and how it appeal to our logic. The plan calls for using numbered heads. I wonder if thinking routines can be used in a more substantial way.

In mathematics, students learn to see how the coefficient of x and the constant affect the appearance of the graphs. Students explore the graphs of different linear functions on a software. The plan did not explicitly identify a thinking routine. I wonder if see-think-wonder can be used here and regularly in other mathematics lesson.

Both lessons have great potential - one main task, collaboration, tehnology. I wondered aloud if the teachers may unwittingly introduced 'contaminants' by planning or doing too much in a way that students will be distracting from deep thinking and busy themselves completing what is expected. Both lessons have one main tasks, but I have seen too many such great plans fell through because we are not aware the need to keep the task lean so that students can get to the depths of thinking about the core goal (persuasive language elements, two main factors influencing a linear function).

I also wondered aloud if both lessons have been planned and later will be delivered with the main aim of having students develop enduring qualities i.e.. those beyond content.

Hiroshima International Conference

2012-01-16T04:33:00.000-08:00

Hiroshima International Conference 26th – 28th January 2012, Hiroshima Japan

Organized by Graduate School of Education, Hiroshima University and funded by Ministry of Education in Japan. We would like to thank Ministry of Education japan for funding the trip for our six Singapore educators which is led by a teacher trainer, Peggy Foo (from Marshall Cavendish Institute). Team members include science and mathematics teachers from government schools and one special school.

Chair: Koyama Masataka (Professor of mathematics education)
Vice-chair: Isozaki Tetsuo (Professor of science education)

Conference Theme
Lesson Study in Science and Mathematics
Four East Asian Nations International Conference on Improving Mathematics and Science Teachers’ Teaching Competency by Lesson Study

Objective and Aim
The objective of this conference is to share and discuss ideas for improving the teaching and learning of mathematics and science at lower secondary school level (age 13 – 15 in Japan) in order to develop students’ thinking and representing ability in mathematics and science. At the same time, this conference aims to raise awareness among the mathematics and science educators and researchers on the role of Lesson Study for teacher professional development in their teaching career.
We want to share the state-of-the-art of Lesson Study of mathematics and science at lower secondary school level in four Asian countries of China, Korea, Singapore and Japan, and to discuss issues and challenges related to the teacher professional development through Lesson Study of mathematics and science in these countries.

Invitees
China: Wang Xiaoqin, Pan Sudong, Jing Zejin, Qui Yecheng, Xu Ping, Liu Da,
Shi Jun, and Zhang Renli
Korea: Kim Beom-ki, Lew Hee-chan, Kim Tae Sun, Lee Jaechon, Park Jae Hwan,
Kim Won Jung, Kim Jung Hee, and Cho Young Chang
Singapore: Peggy Foo Pei Chie, Lim Eik Kheng, Soh Poh Suan, Poh Yong Beng,
Seow Jun Jie, and Vanessa Neranjani d/o Muhundan
Japan: Ohtaka Izumi and Fujii Toshiakira

PROGRAM
Day 1 Thursday 26 JAN: Registration, Opening Meeting, School Visit,Sightseeing, and Welcome Dinner

10:00～11:00　Registration
11:00～12:00　Opening Meeting
12:00～13:00　Lunch
13:00～13:30　Bus from Mielparque to Hiroshima Higashihara Junior School

Hiroshima Higashihara Junior School
13:30～15:00 School Visit to observe mathematics/science lesson followed by short discussion

15:40～15:50　Boat from Miyajima-guchi to Miyajima Island

Miyajima Island
15:50～17:30　Sightseeing in Miyajima Island
17:30～18:00　Boat from Miyajima Island to Aki Grand Hotel

Aki Grand Hotel
18:00～20:00 Welcome Dinner

Day 2
Friday 27 JAN: School Visit and Workshop

8:00～9:30 Bus from Mielparque to H. U. Attached Fukuyama Junior School

Hiroshima University Attached Fukuyama Junior School
9:30～11:00 School Visit to observe mathematics and science lessons
9:30～10:00　Pre-session
10:00～11:00　Lesson Observation

11:00～11:30 Bus from the school to Fukuyama New Castle Hotel

Fukuyama New Castle Hotel
11:30～12:30　Lunch (Restaurant)

13:00～16:30　Workshop in Two Groups Mathematics Group Moderator: Koyama Masataka Science Group Moderator: Isozaki Tetsuo
13:00～14:30　Lessons from China, Korea, and Singapore
Mathematics
Shi Jun (China)
Kim Jung Hee (Korea)
Lim Eik Kheng (Singapore)
Science
Zhang Renli (China)
Kim Won Jung (Korea)
Vanessa Neranjani d/o Muhundan (Singapore)

14:40～16:00　Discussion and Sharing Ideas for Improving Lessons
16:00～16:30　Summary

Day 3
Saturday 28 JAN: Symposium on Lesson Study and Reception

7:00～7:45 Breakfast (Mielparque)
8:00～8:30 Walk from Mielparque Hiroshima International Conference Center

Hiroshima International Conference Center (HICC)
9:00～17:00　Symposium on Lesson Study

9:00～91:00 Opening Session
9:10～10:00　Plenary Lecture
Kiyohara Yoich (Japan Ministry of Education)
Strategies for mathematics and science education in Japan
10:15～13:15　 Symposium on Theme 1 (Science Education)
Improving Science Teachers’ Teaching Competency by Lesson Study: A critical analysis of lessons for improving students’ PISA Science Literacy
Moderator: Isozaki Tetsuo (Japan)
Speakers:
Ohtaka Izumi (Japan)
Pan Sudong (China)
Kim Beom-ki (Korea)
Poh Yong Beng (Singapore)

14:00～17:00　 Symposium on Theme 2 (Mathematics Education)
Improving Mathematics Teachers’ Teaching Competency by Lesson Study: A critical analysis of lessons for improving students’ PISA Mathematics Literacy
Moderator: Koyama Masataka (Japan)
Speakers:
Fujii Toshiakira (Japan)
Wang Xiaoqin (China)
Lew Hee-chan (Korea)
Peggy Foo Pei Chie (Singapore)

Lesson Study Meeting at Assumption English School

2012-01-16T03:46:00.000-08:00

The school employs the gallery method where all the other learning teams observe the mathematics learning team do their lesson study meeting. In the MCI Lesson Study Porgramme, our lecturers model the facilitation process for critical meeting. This is the firts critical meeting when the learning team have met to craft their research theme and are about to embark on selecting the unit / lesson to be studied.

In such a meeting, facilitators should help team members build mental models of their object of study. For example, the learning team has identified their research theme to be "engaging students in mathematics learning" which is based on the school's focus on engaged learning. In the meeting, the facilitator asked various team members to share what they expect engagement to look like. In the end, the various mental models are either a process-type image of student engagement (e.g. to be able to see where is the starting point to learn algebra and where the ending pint is - perhaps academically weak students are not engaged because their starting pint is so removed from where teachers typically start) or prodict-type image (e.g. engagement as reflected by achievement scores.

In this meeting, facilitators should also help team members prepare for subsequent lesson planning meetings. For example, there are at least a few directions the team may take. (1) using real-life situations to engage students (2) using model drawing to engage students (the textbook also suggests this approach) (3) using the CPA vApproach that Singapore tecahers are familiar with (4) using counter-examples to engage students.

A team member also alerted the team to the PETALS Framework that Singapore teachers already have when thinking about engaged learning.

Introduction to Lesson Study

2012-01-12T11:10:00.001-08:00

For the relevant readings, please see the previous blog entry.

LSP101 Introduction to Lesson Study

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Tampinese Junior College and Nanyang Primary School.

Introduction to Lesson Study

2011-12-27T06:13:00.000-08:00

This presentation was made at Assumption English School, Westview Primary School and Fairfield Methodist Primary School in December 2011. Nanyang Primary School and Temasek Junior College also had this course in January 2012.

LSP101 Lesson Study

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Readings on Introduction to PLC

Readings on Introduction to Lesson Study

Lesson Plans from Lesson Study in Japan

2011-12-03T03:54:00.000-08:00

Professor Akihiko Takahashi has kindly shared the translated lesson plans of two research lessons at Matsuzawa Elementary School (1 December).

These are good examples of lesson study type lesson plans.

Art work by a student in Matsuzawa Elementary School, Japan. Teachers from one Singapore school and pricipals and vice pricipals from one schools cluster visited the school's open house to celebrate the end of their two-year school-based lesson study.

APEC-Ubon Ratchathani Lesson Study Symposium

2011-11-06T10:17:00.000-08:00

The APEC Lesson Study group inlcude participants from these countries

Australia, Brune, Chile, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, USA and Vietnam.

Several non-APEC countries also took part such as South Africa.

Lesson Study in SingTeach

2011-11-01T14:38:00.001-07:00

Read more here

Singapore Math Institute offered by Marshall Cavendish Institute often includes a lesson study component. The photograph show Filipino educators studying a lesson in Cannosa Convent Primary as part of SM Institute in Singapore in October 2011.

IMPULS by Tokyo Gakugei University

2011-10-16T23:31:00.000-07:00

http://www.impuls-tgu.org/event-3.html

IMPULS International Seminar on Lesson Study
- Key elements and effective support of school-based lesson study-

On behalf of Project IMPULS (International Math-teacher Professionalization Using Lesson Study) I would like to invites you to the IMPULS international seminar on lesson study, November 30 & December 1, 2011.

Project IMPLUS is a newly established project funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology of Japan.
The Project is housed in the Mathematics Education Department of Tokyo Gakugei University, Tokyo, Japan. The director of the project is Professor Toshiakira FUJII and the project members include all the faculty members in the mathematics education department, Professors Koichi NAKAMURA, Shinya OHTA, and Keiichi NISHIMURA. Dr. Akihiko Takahashi of DePaul University joined the project as a specially-appointed professor. Ms. Naoko KATSUMATA, a former Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) officer also joined the project as a project staff.
The purpose of the project is two-fold. First, as an international center of Lesson Study in mathematics, Tokyo Gakugei University and its network of laboratory schools will help teacher professionals from throughout the region learn about lesson study and will thereby prepare them to create lesson study systems in their own countries for long-term, independent educational improvement in mathematics teaching. Second, the project will conduct several research projects examining the mechanism of Japanese lesson study in order to maximize its impact on the schools in Japan.

This international seminar is designed for lesson study researchers and practitioners to discuss and learn about the key elements of effective school-based lesson study and how to support schools in using this form of lesson study as part of a system for long-term, independent educational improvement in mathematics teaching.
This seminar will consist of two parts. One day will be a seminar with leading lesson study researchers from Japan, the U.S. and Singapore to discuss school-based lesson study. The second day will be an immersion experience through the participation of a half-day research open house given by a local public school in Tokyo. The research open house is the end of a two-year school-based research project and all the classes at the school will have public research lessons on mathematics, addressing the school’s research theme, so that the seminar participants may observe the results of the school’s two year efforts to improve their teaching practices in action.

Learning from Teaching a Research Lesson

2011-09-14T10:02:00.000-07:00

Every now and then I am reminded of how lucky it is to be a teacher. The insights that we get and the access to students' thoughts that sometimes even their own parents do not have make the job of teaching so much fun.

I taught a 30-minute lesso with a group of Primary 1 children as part of a lesson study symposium in Singapore. The research theme is to develop confidence amongst students.

Based on my role as the research teacher and listening to the observations of the participants present at the research lesson, I now see a differntiated way to deal with different students. With struggling ones, the concrete materials and the structured guided practice was a great help. There awas a case of a child who struggled with the lesson at the start. However, after I showed him how he could use the cubes and egg tray I gave them, and after several examples, he was able to perform subtraction without concrete materials by the end of the 30 minutes.

For the students who are better in the skill, I develop their confidence by repeated questioning their method. As they grew more confident, some were increasingly more passionate in defending their methods.

Lesson Study Symposium : Deepening Our Practice 13 September 2011

2011-09-13T16:38:00.001-07:00

Lesson Study Symposium : A Da Qiao Primary School 30th Anniversary Event

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Opportunity to Attend Lesson Study Open House in Tokyo

2011-09-02T08:09:00.000-07:00

IMPULS International Seminar on Lesson Study: Key Elements and Effective Support of School-based Lesson Study

Are you attending WALS2011 in Tokyo? If you are you should consider this seminar.

On behalf of Project IMPULS (International Math-Teacher Professionalization Using Lesson Study) I would like to invite you to the IMPULS International Seminar on Lesson Study, November 30 & December 1, 2011. Venue: JICA Research Institute, Tokyo.

Project IMPLUS is a newly established project funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology of Japan.

The Project is housed in the Mathematics Education Department of Tokyo Gakugei University, Tokyo, Japan. The director of the project is Professor Toshiakira FUJII and the project members include all the faculty members in the mathematics education department, Professors Koichi NAKAMURA, Shinya OHTA, and Keiichi NISHIMURA. Dr. Akihiko Takahashi of DePaul University joined the project as a specially-appointed professor. Ms. Naoko KATSUMATA, a former Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) officer also joined the project as a project staff.

The purpose of the project is two-fold. First, as an international center of Lesson Study in mathematics, Tokyo Gakugei University and its network of laboratory schools will help teacher professionals from throughout the region learn about lesson study and will thereby prepare them to create lesson study systems in their own countries for long-term, independent educational improvement in mathematics teaching. Second, the project will conduct several research projects examining the mechanism of Japanese lesson study in order to maximize its impact on the schools in Japan.

This international seminar is designed for lesson study researchers and practitioners to discuss and learn about the key elements of effective school-based lesson study and how to support schools in using this form of lesson study as part of a system for long-term, independent educational improvement in mathematics teaching.

This seminar will consist of two parts. One day will be a seminar with leading lesson study researchers from Japan, the U.S. and Singapore to discuss school-based lesson study.

The second day will be an immersion experience through the participation of a half-day research open house given by a local public school in Tokyo. The research open house is the end of a two-year school-based research project and all the classes at the school will have public research lessons on mathematics, addressing the school’s research theme, so that the seminar participants may observe the results of the school’s two year efforts to improve their teaching practices in action.

Tentative Seminar Agenda
Day 1: Wednesday, November 30
Place: JICA Research Institute
10-5 Ichigaya Honmuracho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8433
http://jica-ri.jica.go.jp/about/access.html

8:30 Registration and Coffee
9:00-9:30 Opening Remarks
About the Project and the Purpose of the Seminar
Toshiakira Fujii (Japan)
9:45-10:30 What kind of support makes school-based lesson study effective?
Catherine Lewis (USA)
10:45-11:30 School-based lesson study in Singapore
Christine Lee (Singapore) President of WALS
11:30-12:30 Lunch
12:30-1:15 How Japanese school administrators support their teachers in conducting school-based lesson study
Akihiko Takahashi (Japan / USA)
2:00-3:00 Short Presentations and Panel Discussion
Short presentation: Maitree Inprasitha (Thailand)
Panelists: Ban Har Yeap (Singapore), Catherine Lewis (USA), Christine Lee (Singapore)
& Toshiakira Fujii (Japan)
Moderator: Akihiko Takahashi (Japan / USA)
3:15-4:00 Q & A Session with the Panel
4:00-4:30 Preparation for the school open house visit
Akihiko Takahashi (Japan / USA)
5:00-7:00 Reception & Networking

Day 2: Thuesday, November 30
Afternoon at the schools (details will be announced later)

The registration fee of 5000 yen includes:
• Simultaneous English translation of the selected research lessons and talks during the school open house,
• English translation of the school’s research report with all the lesson plans
• Reception on November 30.

Registration procedure
• Visit Lesson Study Alliance website to register for the conference. We accept payment by major credit cards. Confirmation of the registration will be sent by e-mail. Deadline for registration is Sunday, November 25, 2011. Because of the nature of lesson study process, we may limit the number of participants BEFORE November 25.

Click Here to Register Now!
http://lsalliance.org/impuls_lesson_study_seminar_registration

• Cancellation: Cancellation notices must be submitted by November 25, 2011 for a partial refund of 4500 yen. No refunds are available for cancellations after November 25.

Akihiko Takahashi, Ph.D.

Project IMPULS (International Math-teacher Professionalization Using Lesson Study)
Tokyo Gakugei University
4-1-1 Nukuikita, Koganei,
Tokyo, JAPAN zip184-8501
Tel&Fax :81-42-329-7549
http://www.impuls-tgu.org/

APEC-Ubon Ratchathani International Symposium 2011

2011-07-28T02:39:00.001-07:00

APEC-Ubon Ratchathani International Symposium 2011:
Innovation on Problem Solving Based Mathematics Textooks and e-textbooks
2-6 November 2011, Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand

Conference date
1 November, 2011 Arrival Day
2 November, 2011 APEC-Open Ceremony & Lesson Study Session:
2-5 November, 2011 Keynote Speakers, Specialist Sessions & Panel Discussion
5 November, 2011 Afternoon Depart Ubon Ratchathani for Cultural Visit
6 November, 2011 Cultural Visit in Laos (Jampasak)
7 November, 2011 Back to Ubon Ratchathani
Important Days
July 27, 2011
First Announcement
August 25, 2011
Deadline for accepting APEC specialists nominated and supported by each economy.
This is for preparing accommodation in the university.
October 1, 2011
Deadline for submission of the conference paper (8-12 pages)

Further Information and Contact Persons
For Singapore participants, please contact country specialist at yeapbanhar@gmail.com

Project Website: http://www.crme.kku.ac.th
Contact Persons about the conference
General Chair: Maitree Inprasitha (Project Overseer), Khon Kaen University
Local Chair: Utith Inprasit, Ubon Ratchathani University

Lesson Study in Action at Northbrooks Secondary School

2011-07-24T00:48:00.001-07:00

Lesson Study in Action by Academy of Singapore Teachers

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Lesson Study Across Levels

2011-03-22T07:05:00.000-07:00

See Marshall Cavendish Institute's Facebook for details

At this moment, I am working with lesson study teams in Kong Hwa School - one on Mathematics and one doing English. They are doing their research lessons this week. Pathlight School has completed one cycle - on word problems in mathematics for fifth graders. Pathlight School is an autism-oriented school. Two other teams are starting their lesson study this term at Pathlight School - secondary ,maths and primary four science. Junyuan Secondary two teams (Biology and History) are well on their way in their lesson planning which they do once a week during the one hour they have for professional learning. Sembawang Secondary School's three mathematics teams have just started the process. Two kindergartens are in the process and one of them will be having their research lesson next week. These are PCF Kindergartens Geylang Serai at Balam Road and PCF Kindergarten at Towner Road.

Lesson Study Programme Junyuan Secondary School

2011-03-09T17:14:00.000-08:00

I am working with a history team and a biology team. In the first meeting, they clarified their professional learning goal (research) theme. The hsitory team is interested to improve students' attitude in a way that it translates into better performance. The biology team is interested for students to articulate their thoughts better in written form.

In the second meeting, the history team discussed the emphasis on personalities and the use of emphathy for students to learn about Stalin. The biology team has gone to thinking about teaching students to develop a thought structure when dealing with information such as data.

Open Lesson at Junior High School Attached to Tsukuba University

2011-02-19T03:47:00.000-08:00

I had a chance to teach a reserach lesson in a Japanese junior high school. It was for a graduating class waiting to sit for their final examinations next week. Thus, I chose a general problem that allows for review of several concepts.

The problem was to use the geoboard to form polygons with (a) no dots inside the polygon and (b) 4 dots on the sides of the polygon. The ideas was to find how the area is related to the number of dots in both cases with the hope that some students will make a conjecture for the general relationship. Would they try to find a proof too?

The lesson went through four parts. Part 1 involved students finding the area of a 5 square unit square. This introduces students to the key variables, area, x and y where x is the number of dots inside the polygon and y is the number of dots on the perimeter. Part 2 involved a problem shown in the photograph - draw a polygon with no dots inside the polygon. This is a platform for students to look for some relationship involving area. Part 3 is another problem - draw a polygon with 4 dots on the perimeter. This was the point where one student gave a general relationship involving area (S), x and y. I ended the lesson by asking students to find cases that does not satisfy the general relationship given. One girl did and I urged the class to check if the girl was right and to find other figures where the relationship does not hold.

Lesson Study Open House Elementary School Attached to Tsukuba University, Tokyo, Japan

2011-02-18T05:07:00.001-08:00

The main problem is to find the masses of chocolate of different shapes (all have the same thickness). The square piece weighs 400g.

The first two shapes given (1) and (2) were triangle (obviously half) and square (less obvious that it is half).

The last problems were (3) and (4). Do you see how the two are related?

I was fortunate to participate in the open house. This research lesson is for grade five and was attended by thousands of teachers from all over Japan.

Open Lesson Da Qiao Primary School

2011-02-14T23:57:00.000-08:00

The open lesson on primary five fractions for a remedial class was attended by teachers from the schools as well as guests from Pathlight School, a Chilean teacher who is in Singapore to learn more about Singapore Math and the executive director of CME Group Foundation in Chicago.

The lesson was designed to facilitate authentic professional learning related to students who struggle. What are their major weaknesses? How can they be helped?

One key point that emerge during the lesson is how fast such students arrive at their (often incorrect) responses. During the lesson I tried to get students to talk to each other and using materials to facilitate their talking. I noticed that some students arrive at improved responses after they were allowed to talk more. Sometimes, the correct themselves. Sometimes they evoke prior learning. Sometimes they became (reluctantly) convinced by their friends' explanations.

Such students do need to cultivate a habit of deeper thinking. When hat becomes a habit, things will fall in place.

Lesson Study on Philosophy

2011-02-13T21:18:00.000-08:00

Raffles Institution decided to modify the lesson study process for their teacher mentoring process. I work with a team of teachers teaching philosophy (this is not a common subject in Singapore schools). Three of them including a new teacher and two others with significant experience in teaching the subject.

I started the session by getting the team members to identify their professional learning goals. One of them wanted to learn if the lesson are at the right level for the students. Another wanted to explore more student-centred ways to teach the subject and yet another wanted to learn more about ways to assess students during the lesson in formative ways.

Generally, the discussion was based on the lesson planned, getting the team members to think about if the lessons were able to achieve what it set out to achieve.

I will write more after the research lesson and post-lesson discussion. The discussion video will later be used to provide professional development of senior teachers who are mentors to new teachers.

WALS2011

2011-02-13T21:17:00.001-08:00

This is the website for World Association of Lesson Studies 2011 in Japan.

See the latest program on the website.

WALS2012 will be in Singapore.

WALS2010

2011-01-09T13:49:00.000-08:00

This was my presentation at WALS2010 in Brunei. The 2011 edition will be held in Japan and the 2012 one will be in Singapore.

WALS2010 yeap

View more presentations from jimmykeng.

Learning Journey to Japan 13-23 June 2011 (Updated 8 Dec 2011)

2010-10-07T15:30:00.000-07:00

This was unfortunately cancelled because of the earthquake situation in Japan.

Makoto Yoshida, Akihiko Takahashi and Tad Watanabe, three Japanese professors teaching in US universities and experts in lesson study are going to conduct a lesson study institute that will start in Singapore and continue in Japan. In Singapore, there will be sessions and workshop on the lesson study process. In Japan, there will be lesson study experience in four schools.

It will take place 13 - 23 June 2011.
If you want a copy of the first announcement, please mail yeapbanhar@gmail.com

The tuition fee for the course does not exceed USD1500.
The exact cost is being worked out. This excludes travel and hotel cost.
A local travel agent will be appointed to make the travel / hotel arrangements.
Details are in the First Announcement.

30 places will be available.

Course by Academy of Singapore Teachers

2010-09-09T07:53:00.000-07:00

Previously, under TDD, a course on Lesson Study Overview has been conducted. This intermediate course for participants to experience Lesson Study is scheduled for 20-21 September at Da Qiao Primary School.

Experiencing Lesson Study (Intermediate)

Overview:
This is an intermediate course for teachers who are interested in carrying out Lesson Study in their schools.

Objective:
• To set norms for working in a lesson-study team
• To guide a team through the actual lesson planning
• To draft a lesson plan
• To critique the lesson plan
• To clarify areas of observation during research lesson

Content:
The course comprises the following components:
• Guidelines for planning a good lesson
• Develop a lesson plan using teaching materials
• Identify parts of the lesson plan which will support the research theme
• Identify obstacles which will hinder the development of competencies identified in the research theme
• Research lesson (first cycle)
• Post-lesson discussion

Lesson Study in Japan

2010-09-07T22:21:00.000-07:00

In Feb 2010, a group of MOE officers, teachers and master teacher went to Japan to join the APEC Lesson Study Conference which include a chance to observe open research lesson.

In Nov (2-5 November 2010), lesson study specialists from these APEC economies will meet in Chiangmai to discuss the progress in their countries. There will be open research lesson by Thai schools. See http://www.crme.kku.ac.th/APEC/APEC%202010/APECLessonStudy2010_1.pdf

In Feb 2011 (the dates are to be announced), there will be another meeting in Japan. You are welcome to join me at the meeting. You just need to inform me and I will ask the organizers to let you join the conference. It is not a public conference in the sense that people can register and attend. It will include visits to Japanese schools to see open research lesson as well as presentations by different APEC countries. You need to pay for your own air ticket, accomodation at the conference venue (they will book for you - it cost less than $100 per night), your meals (typically Y1000 per meal). They usually do not charge anything for the conference itself. You can estimate how much it cost per person.

Those who went this year can also advise interested teachers on how much it cost per person.

I am also trying to work with Yoshida Makoto to organise a more in-depth learning experience for Singapore teachers. This will include a pre-trip workshop in Singapore followed by a week of lesson study experience in Japan. I am asking makoto to work out an estimate of how much this will cost. If you are keen please email me at yeapbanhar@gmail.com . It is likely to be a year end thing as June is not a good time for Japanese schools.

Bukit View Primary School Primary 5 Team

2010-08-04T23:10:00.001-07:00

This is the Lesson Study in Primary Mathematics: Implementation course. BVPS Team 1 (Upper Primary)has completed their lesson-planning stage with one of the sessions facilitated by me. They have selected as a research theme to develop confidence in problem solving.

The research lesson and post-lesson discussion was on 24 May 2010.

The team found that the manipulative and group setting made students more confident and they participated more. There were questions about if this also led to learning. This is one of the focus of the second cycle research lesson.

It was also found that students had difficulties cutting up the bar model after drawing them. In the lesson revision meeting, teacher were led to see that there are different categories of this skill - cutting 2 bars into 4, cutting 2 into 10 and cutting 2 into 5. The team will work out if they have included all situations in the lesson and the order in which the tasks will be used.

I look forward to the second cycle lesson on 30 August 2010.

Princess Elizabeth Primary School

2010-08-03T17:59:00.000-07:00

The research lesson was on the topic of money. The research theme was on curiosity to facilitate the problem-solving process. When I met the team during the lesson planning stage, I asked questions about what tools / strategies had been put into the lesson to evoke the sense of curiosity in the learning / solving process.

Thanks to Joyce, the research teacher, Mee Eng, the facilitator and the kids in the class for the learning experience.

This is what I learnt about curiosity in the learning process. I saw the kids, initially, not curious about their own responses. They were asked to find the number of ways to purchase a $2, $2.50 and $4 items using exactly $20. When they tried 5 of the $2 items and 2 of the $4, they correctly found that they had spent $18. But they did not react to this findings. Why were they not curious how they could use this to generate a possible solution (say, by getting a $2 item)?

However, halfway through a boy wondered aloud if getting another item would help. Then a girl and another boy went to do the same and generated a solution. Another girl did not see what they were on about. But when it was carried out she thought it was a great idea - "You are troublesome but very smart" this girl said to her friend who used the $18 response to get a solution.

The post-lesson disucssion was dominated by ideas about obstacles to the kids being curious about what they did. Among the reasons - lack of understanding of the task, pre-occupation with their groupwork roles, lack of understanding of terminologies such ans 'ways' and 'combinations' and a couple others.

Bukit View Primary School Primary 2 Mathematics

2010-07-19T08:43:00.001-07:00

During the meeting, as a facilitator, I focussed on three things. One, the research theme. Two, on the main task. Three, on the practice tasks.

The LS team has selected "to develop pupils' ability to solve two-step word problems". I tried to get the team to see that there research theme was not focussed enough. What is it that you want the students to learn - to solve word problems is too broad? It was the comprehension of word problems that the team wanted to know more about. I probed further. It seems to me that the team wanted to know more about how to develop independent problem solvers and they are interested to study this in the context of two-step word problems.

Thus, the research theme is actually "to develop independent problem solvers". It so happens that in this LS the team is studying this using two-step addition and subtraction word problems. What the team learn from this should be useful in helping students with other types of word problems including those involving miltiplication and division or for that matter any combinations of operations.

The team has the view that (a) it is better to teach 'consistent' word problem (the operation is + when the word more is included) first before a second lesson on the 'inconsistent' version (the operation is - when the word more is included), and (b) it is better to teach one type of word problem and get them to pratise this type before proceeding to other types.

I tried to get the team to think on two issues: (a) Is it good to use a problem that reinforce misconception (+ when the word more is included)? (b) Is it fruitful to teach problems one type at a time? Can teachers finish all the combinations (even for to-step ones, the combinations are numerous add/add, add/subtract, subtract/add, subtract/subtract, add/multiply, subtract/multiple, you get the idea!

The team has decided to use the model method to help students visualize the situation, to teach the students to picture the situation as they read the problem, and to not focus on keywords but the entire sentence.

There was also an interesting point raised which is does visualization leads to comprehension or it is actually the reverse. And if comprehension preceeds visualization then what leads to comprehension.

I ended the meeting by urging the team to decide the main teaching task and the practice tasks. I also attempt to prepare the team of the possible things they may observe during the research lesson.

Open Research Lesson

2010-07-17T03:59:00.001-07:00

A group of tecahers have formed a LS Network and they will be hosting an open reserach lesson in one of the primary schools in August. I will provide the details once I have them.

http://lessonstudy2010.blogspot.com/

New Courses by TDD/MOE

2010-06-03T04:46:00.000-07:00

The photo shows a research lesson in action with teachers observing students. This is a Grade 2 class in Keys Grade School, Manila.

Ministry of Education (TDD) is organising a three-session lesson study training in July, one for primary and one for secondary schools.

9 July 2010
Session 1 : An Overview of LS

27 July (Primary) & 29 July (Secondary)
Session 2 : LS focussing on lesson planning with actual/ live demonstration of how to facilitate planning. Group discussion based on participants observation & summary of explicit learning by Dr Yeap. Only for participants already /embarking on LS . (half day).

28 July (Primary) & 30 July (Secondary)
Session 3: A follow-up of Session 2. A live demonstration of research lesson in action with participants observing. Group discussion based on lesson observation & lesson revision. (half day)

These sessions are for participnats to learn about the lesson study process and how to facilitate teacher learning across subject areas.

I believe you register via TRAISI.

A Course in Indonesia

2010-05-20T13:59:00.001-07:00

This is by Marsigit, Indonesia.

Course of Developing Lesson Study in Mathematics Education For South East Asian Countries Senior High School Mathematics Teachers

By. SEAMEO QITEP Center of Mathematics Education, Yogyakarta, Indonesia,
5 - 30 April 2010
Reported by Marsigit, Yogyakarta State University, Indonesia

Recently, we have conducted the Course of Developing Lesson Study in Mathematics Education For South East Asian Countries Senior High School Mathematics Teachers. The course was carried out by SEAMEO QITEP Center of Mathematics Education, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 5 - 30 April 2010. The programs consisted of the Background of Lesson Study, Theory and Philosophy of Lesson Study, Preparation of Conducting Lesson Study Activities, Implementation of Lesson Study Activities, Observation and Reflection, and Follow Up the Lesson Study Programs. Following were the detail programs:
1.Policy of the Government Of Indonesia on Establishing and Empowering QITEP in
2.Understanding SEAMEO Countries Culture
3.Philosopical & Theoretical Ground of Mathematics Education
4.Empirical Evidence & Current Trends of Mathematics Teaching
5.Concept of Lesson Study and How to Implement it
6.Supporting Factors of Lesson Study
7.Establishing System for the Proposed Lesson Study
8.Instructional Design for Lesson Study
9.The Use of Computer in Lesson Study
10.Preparation for Lesson Study (Open House of Lesson Study)
11.Sustaining the Programme of Lesson Study
12.References for Teaching Material for Lesson Study
13.Producing Material for Lesson Study
14.Presenting and Refining Material for Lesson Study
15.Monitoring and Evaluation
16.Programme Design for Lesson Study
17.Implementation of the Lesson Study & Observation Activity
18.Reflection of Lesson Study Activities
19.Publishing the Report
20.Designing the following program

The participants were 24 Senior High School Mathematics teachers came from Thailand, Cambodia. Laos, Vietnam, Philippines, East Timor, and Brunei Daressalam. The participants seemed very enthusiastic to follow the programs until it was finished. The implementation and observation of Lesson Study were conducted in some International Senior High Schools and in collaboration with the school teachers. Good atmosphere of schooling and understanding of decision makers i.e. supervisors, head teachers and society were the supporting factors for the success of the programs. While, the competencies of participants in communicating in English was still the significant constraint. In this program we have a fortunate to have Prof. Isoda Masami from Japan as Key Note speaker and gave lecturer about Lasson Study. Hope that Indonesian and South East Asian community of education are to en-culture and sustain Lesson Study to improve the quality of education.

Marsigit,
Yogyakarta, Indonesia, May, 18, 2010.

Lesson Study Learning Journey in December 2010?

2010-04-26T13:36:00.000-07:00

I met with Yoshida Makoto (he coined the term lesson study and did his doctoral work in this professional development tool) and Takahashi Akihiko (he has been to Singapore several times) recently and we discussed the idea of such a learning journey for Singapore teachers.

The idea is that they will come to Singapore and run a few days' seminar on lesson study (with a focus on mathematics because we are all mathematics educators). This is to be followed by a trip to Japan where we will get to school how schools do lesson study - not the open lesson type of lesson study but the day-to-day lesson study that is more typical.

We will designed the learning journey in such a way that we will get into schools and see lesson planning, research lesson and lesson revision (with simultaneous translation into English language) followed by discussion with the professors.

When you come back here, the conversation will continue.

Once we get the organizer to work out the tuition fee (to include accommodation plus fee for the instructors as well as organizers who will hunt down schools for us to visit) I will let you know the details. We are thinking of a 10-day thing with about a week in Japan. The classes are likely to be Grade 1 to 8 Mathematics and perhaps Science.

If your school is interested please drop me aline so that we will keep you in the loop.

Share Your LS Journey at International Conferences

2010-04-21T18:32:00.001-07:00

The trolley at San Diego where NCSM and NCTM events are hel this year.

Does your team want to present at international conferences?

Why do you want to do it? Preparing for these conferences is a learning journey in itself. Also, there are so many things to learn at these conferences. Plus, you get to see a bit of the place yo are presenting.

Do you need to be an expert to present?

Absolutely not. People are interested how Singapore teachers develop themselves professionally. It beats nothing to hear it from you directly. I am happy to coach any school who is keen to prepare for a conference.

This is a selection of 2011 conferences I think will provide opportunities for learning. Deadlines for proposal are approaching but there is plenty of time to prepare the actual presentation. If you need ideas for proposal contact me.

General Education
2011 ASCD Annual Conference San Francisco CA
What you will learn at this conference?
UbD, DI, PLC especially action research, MI. Key authors of these concepts like Carol Tomlinson (DI) and the others are often at this conference.

http://www.ascd.org/conferences.aspx

Mathematics Education
2011 NCTM Annual Meeting and Exposition Indianapolis IN
What you you learn at this conference?
There is a mind boggling-number of sessions from dawn to dusk. There is a fantastic expo with manipulatives, books and so on. I come every year and I still get excited each time I attend this. If you are also interested in leadership in mathematics education e.g. HoDs, senior teachers and lead teachers, there is a NCSM Annual Conference that preceeds that.

NCTM: http://nctm.org/conferences/default.aspx?id=52

NCSM: http://www.mathedleadership.org/events/index.html

Nearer to Singapore WALS2010 Conference is hosted by Brunei in December
See http://www.ubd.edu.bn/conference/wals2010/paper.htm for details

Changing Face of Professional Development in Singapore

2010-04-20T05:20:00.001-07:00

Among the 30 000 teachers in over 300 schools, 75% of Singapore teachers have a first degree and 10% have graduate degree(Ng 2009). Half the teachers in primary schools have a first degree. Essentially all secondary teachers are university graduates. In a few years, MOE will only recruit only university graduates or students who qualify for degree programmes into the teaching force. Eventually, there will be only university graduates teaching in Singapore schools.

Singapore mathematics teachers are found to have good content and pedagogical content knowledge when they leave the NIE (see TEDS-M) - together with Taiwanese teacher, they are on top of the table among the 16 countries in the study.

Workshop-style inservice has become the norm. Most inservice courses offered at NIE are workshop style courses.

There are various possibilities under the umbrella of Teachers Network TN, Professional Development Leave PDL and Teacher Work Attachment TWA. For example, a HoD spent her PDL with me to develop hands-on learning activities for lower primary students. She researched the literature, pilot tested the activities in several school. Other teachers shadowed me as part of TWA. In fact, four teachers went to Cambodia in December 2009 to try their hands in teacher training as part of their TWA. More teachers will do this in June 2010. But these involve a small number of already motivated teachers. How about the average teacher in the system? They also, especially, need professional development.

Research has indicated the limitations of workshop-style professional development. The demand on teachers are higher. With the recommendations of PERI, tecahers are expected to engage students better. The curriculum and national examination (PSLE)also expects teachers to help average students become good in problem solving. Teachers have been doing well - typically 40% to 45% of a cohort are capable of solving challenging mathematics problems. But the demands for teacher to help more students acquire the ability to handle complexities is becoming more urgent.

The setting up of the PLC is in the right direction. About 50 schools pilotted PLC in 2009. More are on board this year. By 2012 all schools will have formal PLCs.

PLCs allows teacher to engage in a wider range of professional development including those which are authentic and on site such as lesson study. I think this is in the right direction to help teacher acquire the necessary knowledge to deal with the complexities of teaching and the demands of the system to prepare students well for the global technological economy.

Many schools are making good start in forming and kick-starting PLCs. Many teachers are enthusiatic as the learn to do lesson study and as the actually carry out lesson study.

Later this year, TN will morph into TDC which will coordinate all PLC activities. And I am excited about thinking of a 'curriculum' for inservice teachers.

This is probably our best bet in making an average teacher an expert one.

Lesson Study at NCSM Annual Conference

2010-04-19T10:56:00.000-07:00

There is a networking session facilitated by Jane Gorman in Randle B Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel on Wednesday 2:45 p.m.

At the opening keynote session Mike Schmoker spoke on the importance of "authentic team-based PLCs". Although he did not use the term lesson study, he emphasized the importance of collaborative planning, teaching, assessing impact of a lesson and adjusting the lesson which is essentially the four stages in a lesson study cycle.

Lisa Lavelle and Claire Gates spoke on three forms of professional learning - video study group, classroom coaching and lesson study and a team from Las Vegas presnted their experience in doing lesson study to focus on communication and problem solving.

The next NCSM Annual Conference is April 11 -13 2011 to be nosted by Indianapolis IN. Deadline for proposal submission June 7 2011. See mathedleadership.org

This conference is focussed on mathematics with an emphasis on leadership and professional development - suitable for HoDs. This conference is followed by NCTM, a much bigger conference on mathematics teaching and learning.

Question on Lesson Study

2010-04-18T08:13:00.001-07:00

I am a teacher in a primary school in Singapore, currently carrying out Lesson Study in our school. I would like to seek your advice on Research Themes.

I gather that to come up with the Research Theme, the team needs to look at the Ideal Profile of Students and the Actual Situation of Students. This, with the School's and Department's Vision and Mision, the team will construct the Research Theme or Research Focus. My question is once this is firmed up, it will form the basis of all future Research Lessons for Lesson Studies, is that right?

Do we need to come up with a different Research Theme for each cycle of Lesson Study or will the Research Theme be the one that all Lesson Studies be based on. For example, my team has discussed and came up with a Research Theme for Mathematics. Will another Research Theme need to be constructed for a different cycle for Mathematics or can we use this Research Theme we have decided on for all Research Lessons for Mathematics.

Ban Har writes: Based on the school's vision, focus of the curriculum and your students' profile, the research theme is constructed. You are on the right track. You will stick with the same reasearch theme for a while until your team feel that there are new areas that need attention.

Lesson Study at Yangzheng Primary School

2010-04-03T18:28:00.000-07:00

In the second-cycle research lesson, four parallel research lessons using the same lesson was conducted on an angle property in trapeziums.

This is an interesting format where there is more than one research lessons and participants would have seen different classes in action. This should make the post-lesson discussion more lively.

In an MOE course ran by RECSAM in Princess Elizabeth Primary School in 2009, two research lessons were conducted to alleviate the problems of a large number of participants squeezing into one class.

Lesson Study & Graduate Programmes in Japan

2010-04-03T02:37:00.000-07:00

For teachers who are interested to observe lesson study in Japan, there are several options. At the start of each calendar year, the APEC HRD Lesson Study group meets in Japan and this meeting includes opportunities to see lesson study. In 2010, a group of Singapore teachers were with me when we attended the APEC event. There were also many teachers from Thailand and MOE officials from Brunei who came with their respective country specialists.

Another option is to join a study group organised by Global Resources (US-based agency). There was one such previous visit and another one this July. It targets primarily US teachers. It is led by two or three Japanese professors who are based in the US (Yoshida Makoto, Akihiko Takahashi and Tad Watanabe - all big names in lesson study and mathematics education). I am speaking to Makoto about the possibility having one for Singapore teachers in December 2010 or June 2011.

This year's EARCOME is in Japan and the programme includes lesson study.

Those who intend to study for masters or doctoral degree in Japan may consider Hiroshima University or Tsukuba University. These universities have been offering doctoral programmes in maths education for many years. More recently another group of universities which include the famed Tokyo University has also started to offer Ph.D. in maths education. If you are keen on studying in Japan you may look up their websites.

Inservice Course on Lesson Study

2010-02-20T04:43:00.000-08:00

IME4511 started on 24 February 2010. The last session was on 31 March. This is a 12-hour course to introduce lesson study to primary mathematics teachers. There were 35 partcipants. They should refer to www.mmepdpm.pbworks.com

Those who want to conduct one cycle of lesson study should sign up for IME4512. The entire course is on participants doing lesson study - that means you must have some background (IME4511 or other such training) to do this course. Participants should sign up as a team of 3 to 6 people. This course should run in April - May 2010 although I know some teams want to extend theirs to July, after the June vacation.

The course includes an introduction to the lesson study cycle as comprising of setting the research theme, lesson planning, research lesson, post-lesson discussion and lesson plan revision. The second cycle, which is optional, happens when the team decides to teach this research lesson again. Instead of a single lesson, lesson study can also be done on a unit of lessons.

The class is introduced to the idea of research theme and had opprotunities to write their research theme. It is emphasized that reserach theme can be linked to school's vision, curriculum goals and pupil profile.

By stating the ideal and actual characteristics of pupils, a gap becomes evident. Lesson study then becomes an endeavour to increase teachers' knowledge in order to close the gap.

It is emphasized that lesson study is aimed at increasing teachers' competency which will result in better pupil achievement.

One lesson study cycle may not result in increased pupil achievement. But teachers learn a fair bit during this cycle. If the tecahers apply their knowledge in carrying out lessons for the rest of the year, this should result in increased pupil achievement.

There is also a session on lesson planning and one that includes a research lesson and post-lesson discussion. The photograph shows teachers observing the students during a research lesson on primary six speed.

Graduate Students Investigating Lesson Study

2010-02-14T22:35:00.000-08:00

I am currently enrolled in our school's postgraduate program and will be giving a report on Lesson Study. I am asking for your help in providing me with any research material that may aid me in adding substance to my report.

Patrick, The Philippines

For lesson study in Singapore, I document my work with schools as well as lesson study efforts that I know of at www.lessonstudyinsingapore.blogspot.com
I can also grant you access to my e-learning portal which has a section on lesson study

Finally and most importantly, the work of a group of people from the APEC economies is invaluable http://hrd.apec.org/index.php/Lesson_Study

I am keen to see more graduate students research into this professional development tool.

APEC-Tsukuba University Conference in Tokyo (18-21 Feb 2010)

2010-02-12T04:31:00.000-08:00

This is an excellent opportunity to experience lesson study in Japan first hand. This APEC HRD project has been around since 2006 and I have had many chances to see first hand how the Japanese schools do their research lessons and post-lesson discussion.

This time we will get to see one science research lessona and two mathematics ones. Exciting. A team from MOE including people from TN and TDD as well as a CPDD colleague and a master teacher joined teachers from Da Qiao Primary School, Woodlands Ring Primary School and North Vista Primary School for a four-day lesson study conference among the lesson study specialists from many APEC countries.

The two-day lesson study was actually the largest lesson study event in Japan. Apparently 5000 Japanese teachers were at the event which comprised an all morning research lessons - there were so many to choose from across subjects and levels. We only get to see the ones with English translation. The last two days were set aside for the actual conference itself.

The next conference is in Chiangmai in November 2010.

Lesson Study in Da Qiao Primary School

2010-01-30T20:50:00.001-08:00

Da Qiao Primary will be using the same model as Woodlands Ring Primary to train their LS facilitators.

On 9 February 2010, I will be conducting a session to introduce lesson study to all the teachers in the school.

Lesson Study in Woodlands Ring Primary School

2010-01-30T20:44:00.000-08:00

After a meting with the principal before the school year 2010 begins, I conducted a session to give a group of teachers in the school an overview of what lesson study is all about.

Subsequently, various lesson study teams were formed. Using the school's vision as an overarching research theme, the different LS teams are in the process of crafting their research themes. I have reminded them that all the research themes, while appear to be different, should be in tandem with the school's overarching research theme. This is important because all the LS teams should be heading in the same general direction.

I have briefed the group leaders on their roles in the different lesson-study stages.

Lesson Study in North Vista Primary School

2010-01-30T20:38:00.000-08:00

Two heads of department from North Vista Primary School has formed a lesson study team in their school. Their research team is reasoning and communication in mathematics learning. The research lesson was conducted on 13 April 2010. This lesson study cycle was also used to train LS facilitators (focussing on facilitating post-lesson discussion).

The lesson study team has concluded the lesson planning stage. In the final lesson planning meeting, I gave the team a structure to deepen their professional learning in helping students develop reasoning and communication in mathematics. The structure I used is to ask the team to consider (1) the strategy (2) the task(s) (3) the key questions (4) the assessment tools and (5) the obstacles in the lesson plan.

The photograph shows the research lesson which was followed by the post-lesson discussion which also double up as training to facilitate post-lesson discussion.

The lesson plan revision meeting focused on what-if questions. What if the lesson is conducted with a similar group of students? What if it was for older students? Weaker students? As an enrichment? In the computer lab? Using technology for recording of what they did? How would the level and quality of reasoning and communication be increased for the students?

The discussion revolved around changes to the problems (simplifying it or with more scaffolding), as well as the processes in each of the problem-solving stages (understanding, planning, doing, looking back).

What if they were given more time to understand the problem? What if the doing was changed - from doing the beading to just using drawing or recording on a netbook? What if the look back involved more group? What if the typical presentation was tweaked? What if the communication moved from descriptive to evaluative?

One of the members asked about how professional learning can be heightened. The documentation part can consolidate the group's professional learning.

Training in Lesson Study

2010-01-10T10:07:00.000-08:00

Singapore teachers, please refer to TRAISI for inservice courses on lesson study in primary mathematics. IME4511 is an introductory course and is designed for beginners to lesson study. It will be held on Wednesdays, in March 2010. IME4512 is for you to implement the stages in lesson study - that means you will carry out lesson study in your school under the guidance of the facilitator (me) as the inservice. You must sign up as a team of 3 to 6 for this course. The lesson study should be completed in April or May 2010. These are the only ones on lesson study that I will conduct this year.

Lesson Study (Primary Education) Conference in Singapore

2010-01-10T09:58:00.000-08:00

A lesson study conference with a focus on primary education in all subject areas coming your way on 26 May. An exciting programme with Keynote Lecture, Case Sharing, Research Lessons in English Language, Chinese Language, Mathematics and Science, as well as a Plenary Panel. An opportunity to share your school's work in lesson study. A chance to contribute to a Handbook on Lesson Study in Primary Schools. Case Sharing is a platform to share your research lesson as well as an analysis of the benefits and challenges of lesson study.

Watch this space for announcements.

Lesson Study (Mathematics) Conference in Chicago

2010-01-10T09:52:00.000-08:00

This is from my friend Prof Akihiko Takahashi in Chicago

The Second Announcement is available at http://www.lessonstudygroup.net/index.html

The Chicago Lesson Study Group
2010 Ninth Annual Lesson Study Conference
Chicago, IL, USA

Are We Doing Lesson Study Right? Looking Back and Looking Ahead

April 29 – 30, 2010
Preconference dinner, Wednesday, April 28

Sponsored by:
· Chicago Lesson Study Group
· Asia-Pacific Mathematics and Science Collaborative
· McDougal Family Foundation

The Chicago Lesson Study Group invites you to its ninth lesson study conference. For nearly a decade, this conference has been one of the major lesson study conferences in the world, examining lesson study from a global perspective.

Facilitators:
Thomas McDougal, Asia-Pacific Mathematics and Science Collaborative, DePaul University, Illinois
Akihiko Takahashi, Department of Teacher Education, DePaul University, Illinois
Tad Watanabe, Department of Mathematics, Kennesaw State University, Georgia
Makoto Yoshida, Director of the Center for Lesson Study, William Paterson University, New Jersey

Featured Presentations:
What does it mean to do Lesson Study right? A theory of action for lesson study.
Catherine Lewis Ph.D., Mills College Lesson Study Group, CA

Moving from the Algorithms to the Practice of Lesson Study
Patsy Wang-Iverson, Ph.D., Gabriella and Paul Rosenbaum Foundation, PA

Are we doing Lesson Study right? Major roles of knowledgeable others.
Tad Watanabe, Ph.D., Department of Mathematics, Kennesaw State University, GA

Are we doing Lesson Study right? What should do or should not do as a facilitator.
Makoto Yoshida, Ph.D., Center for Lesson Study, William Paterson University, NJ

Research Lessons:
There will be two live research lessons, one Thursday and, one Friday.

Pre Conference Dinner: Introduction to Lesson Study
For those who are new to Lesson Study, this is an excellent opportunity to learn about lesson study from one of the founders of lesson study in the North America, Makoto Yoshida. He will introduce lesson study by highlighting what is lesson study and how could you start lesson study with your colleagues.

Registration
Registration will be open at late January.
The registration information and the second announcement will be available here.

What is Lesson Study?
Lesson study, widely viewed in Japan as the primary form of professional development, has been the critical systemic feature that enabled Japanese elementary teachers to improve classroom instruction. In lesson study, teachers work collaboratively to: 1) formulate long-term goals for student learning and development, 2) plan, conduct, and observe a ‘research lesson’ designed to bring these long-term goals to life as well as to teach a particular academic content, 3) carefully observe student learning, engagement, and behavior during the lesson, and 4) discuss and revise the lesson and the approach to instruction based on these observations. The research lesson is taught in a regular classroom with students, and participants observe as the lesson unfolds in the actual teaching-learning context. Discussion following the lesson is developed around the student-learning data collected during the observation. Through the process, teachers are given opportunities to reflect on their teaching and student learning.
Lesson study has become increasingly visible in state, national, and international conferences, open houses, high-profile policy reports, and special journal issues in recent years in the United States. Moreover, some school districts in the United States have attempted to use it to change their practice and impact student.

Chicago Lesson Study Group
The Chicago Lesson Study Group was launched in November of 2002 with several volunteer teachers in Chicago area. Since its inception, this informal study group has met regularly to discuss issues in mathematics teaching and learning and to develop research lesson plans. As part of the lesson study cycle, the group hosts an annual lesson study conference with public research lessons.

Looking to Lesson Study in 2010

2009-12-07T03:53:00.000-08:00

Many of Singapore teachers are now in Hong Kong for the Third WALS Conference. Unfortunately, I am not able to join them this year.

Looking forward to 2010, I will be conducting two inservice courses in the first half of the year. The first is for beginners Lesson Study in Primary Mathematics: Concepts & Design while the second is for those who want to actually try it out Lesson Study in Primary Mathematics: Implementation. The first course is workshop-based training where participants will have a go in crafting research theme and have a sense of what lesson study involves. I was told that 35 participants have registered and as such the registration is closed. The second course requires participants to form teams of three to six and they will be guided through the stages in lesson study.

APEC HRD Lesson Study Project is having the first meeting in 2010 in Japan with research lessons in primary-level science and mathematics. This is followed by two days of conference on discussing lesson study with a focus on assessment and curriculum materials. I will attend as a country specialist under the Tsukuba University fund and four teams from schools and MOE will be joining the conference. Fifteen of us from Singapore will attend the conference. There will be a follow-up conference in Chiangmai, Thailand in November 2010.

The East Asian Regional Conference on Mathematics Education EARCOME5 will be held in Japan and will include a lesson study component.

Lesson Study Symposium

2009-08-14T02:19:00.000-07:00

The lesson study in primary mathematics event on 2-3 September 2009 was organized by Ministry of Education Singapore in collaboration with SEAMEO RECSAM. About 50 teachers from more than 10 primary schools participated. On the first day, I did a lecture on lesson study in primary mathematics in Singapore. Dr Cheah Ui Hock was the main facilitator. Teachers in the two research lessons - Siti and Niswan presented their lesson plans and the participants wrre forth-coming with suggestions to improve them. The second day revolves around the two research lessons - one on division for Primary One and the other on word problems for Primary Six. The slides of my lecture is at math.nie.edu.sg/T3

Lesson Study at PCF Kindergartens Tampines East

2009-07-01T20:14:00.001-07:00

The team has completed the research lesson and post-lesson discussion. I will be writing about this research lesson in a few days. The team, in the coming days, will be compleing the lesson study cycle by revising the lesson plan. I have made several suggestions for the team o focus on students collaboration and problem solving which are the reseacrh theme. As the lessons included science as well and art-and-craft, I have also suggesed that the team discuss concepts and skills in these domains that are natural to children as well as those that requires explicit instruction, those which are easy for children this age grasp readily and those that are difficult to them.

Lesson Study at PCF Kindergartens Zhenghua

2009-06-17T10:29:00.000-07:00

The second team to launch their lesson study journey is the team from Zhenghua comprising of the vice principal and three teachers teaching Kindergarten 2 (K2). They have decided to do lesson study on the unit on Nature. Their research theme is to develop amongst the students a sense of responsibility towards the environment.

The research lesson is on methods of seed dispersion. The lesson plan comprises three segments. First, students sort seeds into groups. Later, a book will be used to show how a seed is dispersed. The children will then be engaged in a discussion of how seeds they have brought are dispersed. In the last segment, they will be made aware of their roles in seed dispersion.

Lesson Study at PCF Kindergartens Tanjong Pagar

2009-06-01T08:36:00.000-07:00

It is so exciting. We presented lesson study as a means of professional development of teachers in PCF Kindergarten some time back. Five kindergartens have taken up the offer to try it out. Most of them will do it in Term 3 of the school year. But Tanjong Pagar's centre has kicked start the process. This project receives the support of Ministry of Education.

The team of four teachers met last Friday. The team includes the principal. After the planning meeting, the team has decided to focus on how children acquire a new idea. The lesson is on addition within 20. The team decided that addition by making ten will be a new idea. The members were interested in how the new idea can be developed through play, how to create a situation for children to move into the idea, how the teacher can facilitate the process and how children interact with each other and respect each others' ideas in the process of moving into the new idea.

When asked what their learning is during the planning session, one teacher said she learnt a lot, new things she has not heard before or used before. Another teacher mentioned she learn about the tens frame that can be used to help children acquire the make ten strategy. Another teacher used to think that teaching addition is well simply teaching adding. She said she now realize that there are many strategies to do addition. Another concurred with her and said she learnt by listening to her colleagues.

Redesigning Pedagogy Conference 2009

2009-06-01T08:20:00.000-07:00

Deborah Ball's keynote on What is the Work of Teaching Mathematics? reminded us on the complexity of teaching. Teaching mathematics is an intricate activity that requires teachers to have all kinds of knowledge. Among others, subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. She mentioned two new categories - knowledge horizon under subject matter knowledge and knowledge of curriculum under pedagogical content knowledge.

Lesson study offers a viable way for teachers to acquire this knowledge set.

The team from Canossa Convent Primary School shared their use of lesson study to learn more about lessons that took into account learning styles.Tatang Suratno from Indonesia focused on teacher reflection aspect of lesson study.

I think SYM013 on variation theory by the team from Hong Kong is useful in selecting tasks in research lessons. There is also a Hong Kong presentation on Learning Study, a variant of lesson study. See SYM006.

Ho Geok Lan and her collegeaus will present a paper on building a professional learning community through lesson study and Michelle Tan will present a paper on the learning study approach to biology teachers' professional development.

Chicago Lesson Study Conference 2010

2009-05-26T17:09:00.001-07:00

The Chicago Lesson Study Conference will be held at DePaul University next spring, Thursday and Friday 4/29/10 and 4/30/10. There will be a pre-conference and reception on Wednesday evening, 4/28/10.

This is organized by a team led by Prof Takahashi Akihiko.

Lesson Study Team North Vista Primary School

2009-05-26T02:51:00.000-07:00

The team of four teachers were participants of an inservice course. The meetings with myself were on 5 May, 23 May, and 27 May. In the first meeting, which was attended by the Principal and Head of Mathematics and Science, we focused on developing the research theme and helping teachers understand the lesson-study process better. Although they had attended some workshops, they still felt that they needed to have an opportunity to clarify some questions.

The team met on their own to plan the research lesson. I met them once to discuss the lesson plan. As their research theme is on students developing conceptual understanding in mathematics, I kept on asking the team if the steps in the lesson plans and the examples selection can help students develop conceptual understanding.

The team had to do a bit of modification to the research lesson as the students were going to m missed a lesson due to a school outing. Also, our discussion went off tangent for a few moments as some members brought up an interesting observation from a lesson on equivalent fraction.

The research lesson was on comparing two fractions with the same numerator but different denominators.

At the end of the lesson planning sessions, team members were asked to share a learning point. I started the ball rolling. One teacher noted that she realized how important the selection of examples was. In the discussion, I asked teachers several times why the tasks selected were so and if the selection or its alternative would lead to better conceptual understanding. For example when these three were put up: compare 1/2 and 1/8, compare 2/3 and 2/5 and compare 5/12 and 5/8, I pressed the team to explain the wisdom of having 1/2 and 1/8 as the first example. One member gave an illuminating answer that 1/2 and 1/8 are obviously different. Students would be able to say that 1/2 is larger without having to change both 1/2 and 1/8 to a common denominator. The discussion ended with the point that using an obvious case where students can use prior knowledge to validate the 'new' method would enhance conceptual understanding.

Two others said they learnt from the case of the unusual pattern students raised during a lesson on equivalent fraction other members shared (see photo). One of them mentioned that sometimes as teachers we tended to "focus on what is in the textbook (and) too quick to discount" students' responses.

Finally, another member realized how important the concept of trigger and source is. In the discussion, I discussed in the context of preparing for the research lesson, to be on a look out for conceptual understanding (I summarized some indicators of conceptual understanding which the teachers gave - if they can use correct terms, if they can recognize a pattern, if they are able to use diagrams to explain and if they are able to resolve apparent conflicts) and the triggers and sources of these conceptual understanding.

The team met on their own to finalize the lesson plan and to prepare the resources for the research lesson...

IME4512 Lesson Study in Primary Mathematics: Implementation

2009-05-08T04:48:00.000-07:00

So far two schools have started the lesson study process. The team at North Vista Primary School has met to discuss the research theme and their initial plan for the research lesson. They will now go into the lesson planning process. Their research theme is along the line of children developing conceptual understanding by having their voices respected.

The team from Haig Girls' Primary School met to settle their research theme. They are working on developing students' critical thinking through cooperation and collaboration. They have also started to work on their lesson plans which will be for lessons on decimals (primary five).

Teams are encouraged to read the blog about setting research theme. See below.

Announcements

2009-05-08T04:42:00.000-07:00

Please see the blog on WALS 2009 for information on proceedings of WALS2008.

NCTM 2009 Annual Meeting & Exposition

2009-04-24T01:57:00.000-07:00

This is an annual conference for US teachers. Lots of professional development opportunities and a chance to look at teaching materials and manipulatives at the Exposition. Next year it will be at San Diago, California (www.nctm.org/meetings) 21-24 April 2010.

There were 828 sessions in all! Plenty to choose from. There were some on lesson study in mathematics too. Akihiko Takahashi did one on What We Learn Through Lesson Study: Ideas to Design Lessons for All. I went to the lecture by Deborah Ball and she proposed this idea on teachers' horizon knowledge and how it can be developed. I suppose lesson study can help teachers develop this knowledge which essentially is knowledge that allows them to understand where the mathematics their students learn will lead them to.

Jane Gorman presented a session on Starting Lesson Study at Your School.

I went to the National Research Council Report on Early Mathematics (Doug Clements, Karen Fuson, Sybilla Beckman & Herbert Ginsburg) to get some ideas as I will be working more and more with the kindergartens. In the evening I went to a session that got us solving primary school problems - quite fun if you like solving mathematics problems. I was presenting on the second day - two presentations - so I doubt I will have a chance to attend any sessions.

Other than Takahashi, the other people from the APEC Lesson Study group who were there were Patsy Wang, Lim Chap Sam, Makoto Yoshida and myself.

Lesson Study P3 Mathematics Teachers at PEPS

2009-04-16T23:08:00.000-07:00

I have formed a lesson study team with a group of PEPS primary three teachers. We met for an hour on Tuesday. I tried to bring the team through the process of developing a lesson plan for research lesson. We talked about learning how to help low-achieving students develop into competent and independent problems solvers who can handle a variety of word problems with less scaffolding and guidance. In particular, in this research lesson, the team wants to explore the use of making-sense strategy (in particular with the help of pictorial representations and diagrams including but not limited to the model method), to find out how to assess students accurately during a lesson on word problems, and to see if students learn to do division better using an alternate strategy instead of the long division method.

The team leader doing such as session will request the team members to think of students' difficulties and use that to focus what the team has as it learning goals for the lesson-study cycle.

In this case, we have selected a stand-alone lesson which can happen after students have learnt a variety of operations - addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Lesson Study at Redesigning Pedagogy Conference 2009 at NIE

2009-04-16T22:47:00.000-07:00

This June, we will have the Redesigning Pedagogy Conference at the NIE. Kiyomi Akita (Tokyo University) told me that she will be at the conference to be part of a symposium put together by Christine Lee (CTL/NIE). Don't miss this opportunity to hear more about lesson study if you are attending the conference.

Look out for Deborah Ball's (University of Michigan) keynote lecture a sit give us some ideas about teacher capacity. Deborah Ball is a mathematics educators so her examples are likely to be all mathematics. http://conference.nie.edu.sg/2009/info/keynote-speaker.php

WALS International Conference 2009 8 - 10 December

2009-03-20T01:40:00.000-07:00

WALS2008 Electronic Proceedings is now available at http://www.ied.edu.hk/wals/conference08/post1.htm#parallel1

I am glad to announce that The World Association of Lesson Studies International Conference 2009 will be held from 8 to 10 December 2009 in Hong Kong. This year, the theme is “Collaborative Knowledge Creation through Lesson and Learning Study”. The conference features keynote speeches, presentations by teachers and researchers from different countries, school visits etc.

More information of the program will be uploaded onto our website at http://www.worldals.org/

Should you have any questions, please contact our conference secretary, Miss Anna SETO at (852) 2948 8052 or email her at amfseto@ied.edu.hk .

Please bring this message to your friends and colleagues too. We look forward to seeing you at WALS 09!

Warmest regards,

KO Po-yuk, Ph.D.

Chairperson of the Conference Organizing Committee

Crafting Research Theme

2009-03-15T00:28:00.001-07:00

Lesson Study is a professional development process and involves teachers collaboratively investigating their own practice to become more effective.

Such investigation involves planning, teaching, observing, critiquing and revising a small number of lessons. These lessons are called ‘study lessons’ or ‘research lessons’. It is in these lessons that teachers study, research and investigate teaching and learning.

To provide direction and focus, an over-arching goal and the related research questions should be set right in the beginning.

The first step in the lesson study process is to formulate this over-arching goal, sometimes referred to as research theme, and the related research questions.

These are some drafts of research theme articulated by the participants of the lesson study course. The research themes are broad and long-term in nature. And they are linked to the vision of the department, school and Ministry of Education.

The research theme can be adopted by lesson study teams in different grade levels and for different mathematics lessons on various topics.

The research theme is broad to provide a wider range of learning experiences. The research questions, based on the research theme, can be made more specific.

For the research theme selected, what are the ideal characteristics of the students? What are the actual characteristics of the students? Hence, what is the gap between the two? How do we close the gaps? These are the questions that the subsequent stages of the lesson-study process aim to provide answers to.

IME4511 Lesson Study in Primary Mathematics: Concepts & Design

2009-02-27T12:14:00.000-08:00

Lesson Study in Primary Mathematics: Concepts and Design is an inservice and Maris Stella High (Primary) School hosted it on four Monday afternoons.

In the first session, participants were introduced to the basics of lesson study. In particular, they watched a video on lesson study in the Japanese education system to understand how lesson study fits into the professional development of teachers. They also watched another video on lesson study in mathematics, also from Japan, to see what it means when we describe lesson study as comprising of (a) lesson planning (b) research lesson (c) post-lesson discussion and (d) revising lesson plan.

By the end of the first session, we have gone on to identify the research theme for a lesson study effort. When schools want to begin lesson study, they should start by articulating the research theme which serves to give focus and direction to teacher learning. Participants were asked to compile the vision and mission of the education system, their school and their department to help them articulate their research theme. This research theme will be used to describe ideal student characteristics wrt the research theme. Participants were also asked to locate information about the actual student characteristics. The gap between the actual and ideal will be crucial in the subsequent stages of lesson study.

Lesson Study Events 2009

2009-02-03T18:29:00.000-08:00

Inservice Courses

There are two in-service courses for lesson study in primary mathematics offered by NIE. The one in March (2, 9, 23 and 26 March 2009) focuses on concepts and principles. This is suitable for beginners. The other one is on the implementation and the course is essentially your team doing one cycle of lesson study. This can be done anytime between April and July and takes place in your school. This second course has started and schools have started to form their lesson study team to accomplish the task. Please see TRAISI for more details.

NIE Courses by CTL

Patsy Wang-Iverson conducted two level one workshops, one during the March school break in Temasek Secondary and another during the term in St Stephen's Primary School. There was also a level two workshop during th eMarch school break. She aslo did one in-house session for Jurong Secondary School.

Symposium on Lesson Study in Mathematics

We are planning to hold this symposium during the September holidays or end of the year. We are still looking at partners to co-host it. Details are still being worked out. If your school or organization is interested to co-host this with us, please let me know. This symposium is a follow-up from the one we had in June 2008 (NIE) organized by NIE and AME and the first one that we had in August 2007 (Cedar Primary School) organized by NIE and Tsukuba University.

Projects with Professor Akihiko Takahashi

Two primary schools are involved in a project with Akihiko Takahashi. When he is in town in September 2009, we will most likely organised workshops for teachers in Singapore. Keep a look out for this.

WALS2009

WALS2009 takes place on 8-10 December 2009. It will be in Hong Kong again. The subsequent WALS will be outside Hong Kong. In fact, we are looking for it to be held in Singapore in the coming year.

Learning Journey to Japan

I am discussing with Makoto Yoshida and Akihiko Takahashi to organise a study trip to Japan to learn more about lesson study in mathematics. The one planned for June-July for the US teachers is cancelled because of the economic situation in the US where funding for education has been reduced.

The photo shows teachers participating in a research lesson as part of an in-service course on mathematical problem-solving heuristics in October 2008. The lesson was held at Princess Elizabeth School, Singapore.

Lesson Study in Singapore

Assumption English School - Structure of Lesson Planning Meeting

Kong Hwa School - Beginning the Lesson Planning Process

Research Lesson on Graphs of Linear Functions

Kranji Secondary School

Hiroshima International Conference

Lesson Study Meeting at Assumption English School

Introduction to Lesson Study

Introduction to Lesson Study

Lesson Plans from Lesson Study in Japan

APEC-Ubon Ratchathani Lesson Study Symposium

Lesson Study in SingTeach

IMPULS by Tokyo Gakugei University

Learning from Teaching a Research Lesson

Lesson Study Symposium : Deepening Our Practice 13 September 2011

Opportunity to Attend Lesson Study Open House in Tokyo

APEC-Ubon Ratchathani International Symposium 2011

Lesson Study in Action at Northbrooks Secondary School

Lesson Study Across Levels

Lesson Study Programme Junyuan Secondary School

Open Lesson at Junior High School Attached to Tsukuba University

Lesson Study Open House Elementary School Attached to Tsukuba University, Tokyo, Japan

Open Lesson Da Qiao Primary School

Lesson Study on Philosophy

WALS2011

WALS2010

Learning Journey to Japan 13-23 June 2011 (Updated 8 Dec 2011)

Course by Academy of Singapore Teachers

Lesson Study in Japan

Bukit View Primary School Primary 5 Team

Princess Elizabeth Primary School

Bukit View Primary School Primary 2 Mathematics

Open Research Lesson

New Courses by TDD/MOE

A Course in Indonesia

Lesson Study Learning Journey in December 2010?

Share Your LS Journey at International Conferences

Changing Face of Professional Development in Singapore

Lesson Study at NCSM Annual Conference

Question on Lesson Study

Lesson Study at Yangzheng Primary School

Lesson Study & Graduate Programmes in Japan

Inservice Course on Lesson Study

Graduate Students Investigating Lesson Study

APEC-Tsukuba University Conference in Tokyo (18-21 Feb 2010)

Lesson Study in Da Qiao Primary School

Lesson Study in Woodlands Ring Primary School

Lesson Study in North Vista Primary School

Training in Lesson Study

Lesson Study (Primary Education) Conference in Singapore

Lesson Study (Mathematics) Conference in Chicago

Looking to Lesson Study in 2010

Lesson Study Symposium

Lesson Study at PCF Kindergartens Tampines East

Lesson Study at PCF Kindergartens Zhenghua

Lesson Study at PCF Kindergartens Tanjong Pagar

Redesigning Pedagogy Conference 2009

Chicago Lesson Study Conference 2010

Lesson Study Team North Vista Primary School

IME4512 Lesson Study in Primary Mathematics: Implementation

Announcements

NCTM 2009 Annual Meeting & Exposition

Lesson Study P3 Mathematics Teachers at PEPS

Lesson Study at Redesigning Pedagogy Conference 2009 at NIE

WALS International Conference 2009 8 - 10 December

Crafting Research Theme

Related Readings Educational Leadership February 2009

IME4511 Lesson Study in Primary Mathematics: Concepts & Design

Lesson Study Events 2009