Planning a research lesson online: pre-service teachers' documentation work

Abstract

PurposeThe authors developed a lesson study innovation for bridging pre-service teachers' experiences in an early methods course and clinical experiences focusing on the development of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). The authors analyze one planning meeting by a lesson study team comprised of four pre-service teachers and one cooperating teacher. The purpose of this research was to determine the nature of documentation during the online planning meeting and how the cooperating teacher facilitated the documentation process.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used Gueudet and Trouche's (2009) documentation framework to determine the way the lesson study team in our study used all the resources available to plan a lesson. They analyzed the video recordings of the meeting to examine the interplay between material, didactical and mathematical components during the discussions. The material components included the Teacher Desmos Activity Builder and the eTextbook. The didactical components included assessment, scaffolding, multiple representations and problem-solving activities. The mathematical components pertained to systems of linear equations and inequalities with two variables.FindingsThe authors’ findings show that the cooperating teacher performed an invariant set of actions for improving the research lesson and, also, gave recommendations about how to implement the lesson. In facilitating the planning discussions, the cooperating teacher made explicit the relationship between material, didactical and mathematical components. The authors’ work has implications for supporting the preparation of facilitators of online planning sessions during lesson study.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors did not have access to the planning meeting where the PSTs created the draft of the research lesson. In addition, they are reporting the observations of only one online meeting.Originality/valueThe authors’ work has implications for supporting the preparation of facilitators of online planning sessions during lesson study.