WALS 2013 First Announcement

Christine Lee (NIE) sent this message:

I am really pleased to announce that WALS2013 will be held at University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Our Council member, Mona Holmqvist, is the Chair of the Local Organizing Committee. Work for this conference has already started. We want to thank our Swedish colleagues for hosting the next conference.

Please keep these dates free and join us at WALS2013 in Sweden

5 September         Expert Seminar
6-8 September      Main Conference
9 September         School visit

The theme of the conference is "Teachers as Researchers".

APEC - Khon Kaen International Symposium 2012

Please see this blog for details.

The next meeting is in Japan in February 2013. This year it was 14-18 Feb 2012. It should be around the same dates for 2013. Singapore schools that are interested to attend the meeting with Yeap Ban Har, please contact him at yeapbanhar@gmail.com by January 2013.

Open Lesson at the Symposium

The first three keynote lectures were common to both APEC - Khon Kaen International Symposium and International Conference on Educational Research. In Keynote Lecture 4, Shizumi Shimizu shared the Japanese curriculum (the latest one was introduced in 2008) (also called course of study).

Mathematical activities are defined as related to mathematics, and able to engage students willingly and purposefully. In Japan, mathematical activities are perceived as as aims as well as methods. It is also included in the strands as content - emphasizing the centrality of activities in the learning process. In Singapore 2013 curriculum, the same thinking is evident. Learning experiences (similar to mathematical activities) are now included in the content strands to emphasize its importance.

Types of Activities are of three types (1) Creating mathematics
(2) Using mathematics (3) Communicating mathematics

At the heart of learning mathematics is for students to do mathematics independently.

Mathematical Activities in Japanese Classroom

The speaker discussed mathematical proficiency for a greater part of the lecture and shows Japanese students' performance on test items from National Survey.

This lecture is useful for schools to think about when constructing their research theme for lesson study.

He also describes a typical problem-solving approach in the Japanese classroom and shares some attractive activities that Japanese teachers may use.

A Mathematics Class in Fukushima Prefecture

Lesson Study at ICME 12 in Seoul

ICME12 DG7 Session1 from Jimmy Keng

ICME12 DG7 Session2 from Jimmy Keng

ACJC PLC Symposium

Keynote Lecture

LSP101 Lesson Study ACJC from Jimmy Keng

Research Lesson

Kong Hwa School

Primary Three Professional Learning Team has its lesson revision meeting with me today. They are on MCI Lesson Study Programme. Previously, I have met them for lesson planning meetings, research lesson, post-lesson discussion and, today, lesson plan revision. They use the one hour they have each week (Thursday 0830-0930) to do their lesson study. Their research theme is to engage students in learning. After the research lesson and reflecting upon it for several weeks, the team arrived at two main focus to revise their lesson plan. (1) How to revise the lesson so that students are more engaged in the sense that they are more independent? (2) How to revise the lessons for high ability students so that they are engaged in the sense that they are more reflective and able to communicate their thinking processes? Some possible ways to revise the lesson plan includes (a) to use technology in a more authentic way, harnessing on wireless technology for students to share solutions efficiently and for students to be doing more (rather than teacher demonstration) (b) to create corners where students go to get 'help' when they are stuck and 'extension' when they have solved the required task (to borrow an idea seen at Nanyang Primary School) (c) to use journal / notebook for students to organise their ideas and those of their classmates

First Toa Payoh Secondary School

The mathematics lesson study team did their research lesson today - the research theme is developing resilient behaviours and engaged learning. The post-lesson discussion threw up how engagement and resilience look like in a mathematics lessons. The discussion also centred around how to nurture such behaviours. The discussion concluded with the team members being urged to study students fundamental behaviours that may impact on engagement - for examples, students were observed to be logical (although unconventional) in their responses (a plus point) and they were seen to be not confident of their own thinking and often attribute their correct responses to 'being lucky' (a negative point). It seems that the following processes in learning have potential in engaging students in positive ways - (1) visuals (and some suggested hands-on manipulatives) (2) conversation-style lessons (3) ...

2012 Eleventh Annual Lesson Study Conference
Using Level 3 teaching to cultivate the mathematical practices
of the Common Core State Standards
Thursday – Friday, May 3 & 4, 2011
Prieto Math and Science Academy
2231 N. Central, Chicago, IL

CPDUs will be available for Illinois teachers

Description
At the 2011 Chicago Lesson Study Conference, we presented the concept of Level 3 teaching, in which the teacher creates circumstances that lead students to discover important ideas for themselves. This kind of teaching naturally cultivates many of the mathematical practices called for in the Common Core State Standards. But what does that kind of teaching look like, and how can lesson study help teachers progress towards it?
This year’s Chicago Lesson Study Conference will feature speakers and, of course, live research lessons to foster discussion among participants around the challenge of implementing the Mathematical Practices of the Common Core State Standards.

Featured Presentations
Cultivating Mathematical Practices in a Community of All Mathematics Teachers
Sybilla Beckmann, Department of Mathematics, University of Georgia; member of the mathematics writing team for the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics.
Differences in how level 1, level 2, and level 3 teachers use a textbook
Akihiko Takahashi, Department of Teacher Education, DePaul University, Illinois
Japanese bansho: Using the blackboard effectively to support the mathematical practices
Makoto Yoshida, William Paterson University, New Jersey
Using Lesson Study to Cultivate and Spread Mathematical Practices
Catherine Lewis, School of Education, Mills College, California
Lesson study and Race to the Top: Report from Florida
Lance King, Learning Systems Institute, Florida State University, Florida
Research Lessons
There will be four research lessons: 2nd grade mathematics, 4th grade mathematics (2 lessons), and 8/9th grade algebra.

Registration
Lesson study is a collaborative process, so we encourage registration of teams of at least 3 persons.
Special support is available for Chicago Public School teachers and CTU members! See the web site for details.
$280 per person for teams of 3 or more
$310 per person otherwise
Registration includes breakfast, lunch, and refreshments each day.

Register and find more information on-line at the Chicago Lesson Study Group website:
http://LessonStudyGroup.net