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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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/