Professional learning in moments of whole-class discussion in a lesson study

Abstract

This article aims to present 1st cycle of basic education Portuguese teachers’ learning of teaching pupils between 6 and 7 years of age, when they plan, lead and reflect on the moment of whole-class discussion, during a lesson study in mathematics. It is a qualitative research, and data collection was carried out by non-participant observation with the elaboration of a logbook and audio and video recording of sessions. The results show that, when planning the whole-class discussion, the teachers became aware of the importance of planning teaching in detail, paying attention to the objectives that are intended to achieve and the role of the teacher in the whole-class discussion. When they conducted and reflected on the discussion, the teachers understood the need to act during the undertaking of the task, in order to support pupils in terms of mathematical language so that they could better communicate their reasoning to their colleagues.