(Page 3 of 7) - Lesson Study in Preservice Teacher Education authored by Zilliox, Joseph. and Fernandez, Maria.

The Lesson Study cycles completed by each secondary group were as follows: (1) The

groups analyzed each others’ prior videotaped lessons; (2) The groups of three researched and
planned a 25 minute lesson on their specified topic to teach to different small groups of their
peers (5 or 6 students); (3) After the planning, one member was videotaped teaching the lesson to
a small group of their peers. Each of the three teachers watched the videotape, analyzed aspects
of the lesson, discussed the lesson, and made revisions for the re-teaching. (4) Then a second
member taught the lesson to a new group of peers and the analysis and revision process was
repeated. (5) Finally, the lesson was taught by the third member to a third group of peers and
once again revised, producing a lesson plan that was shared with the entire class. In Japanese
Lesson Study, the lesson is typically shared with the teaching community. Throughout the
experience, the instructor was available as a resource, observing lessons, watching videotapes,
and providing questions and feedback for the groups to consider throughout the planning,
teaching and reflecting phases. At the end, each group submitted a notebook documenting the
cycles of their Lesson Study.

The elementary group consisted of 48 preservice teachers enrolled in a four semester field-

based undergraduate program offering initial certification. For each of the first three semesters of
the program the preservice teachers completed two full days a week of supervised work in an
elementary classroom and two days of educational coursework. The fourth semester of the
program consist of traditional student teaching. Those participating in this project were in either
their second or third semester of the program, so they had varying degrees of experience in
classrooms and were enrolled in either one of two required elementary mathematics methods
courses.

Each elementary Lesson Study group consisted of three or four prospective teachers. The

groups were formed based on the grade level and location of their field placement. School
locations for elementary groups were purposely mixed to give prospective teachers opportunities
to consider if and how differences in location influenced their choices of teaching practices. Each
group was involved in three cycles of planning, teaching and observing, analyzing, and revising
a mathematics lesson. Individual lessons typically lasted 45 minutes to one hour. The time
between consecutive iterations of the cycle varied among the groups, with all groups completing
the three cycles in about three weeks. Mathematics content topics varied from group to group,
but the guidelines for their research lessons required that the lessons be consistent with the
practices promoted in the methods course. The lessons needed to involve hands-on activities that
required the children to do more than just listen to the teacher, and encouraged student discourse
and group work. Content topics were selected in collaboration with the regular classroom
teachers.

The research design involved qualitative data collection and analysis. Data sources included:

questionnaires of potential Lesson Study content topics; observations of planning, implementing,
and analysis of lessons; group documentation of three cycles of planning, teaching, analysis and
revisions; individual reflective writings on the process and outcomes; videotapes of lessons;
videotapes of end-of-semester group presentations; and surveys of feedback, analysis, and
collaboration. Field notes of these observations and the group interactions were kept. Data from
the elementary and secondary groups were analyzed separately. At both levels analysis involved
the coding of the prospective teachers’ development, insights, and struggles within individual
Lesson Study groups. As patterns emerged they were compared across groups. Then outcomes
from secondary groups were compared with data from elementary groups to identify common
characteristics and differences between these contexts.