Using Lesson Study to Develop an Appreciation of and Competence in Task Design

Abstract

This chapter focuses on how lesson study can be used to assist teachers in the design of meaningful mathematical tasks for their students. It describes strategies in designing the lesson study process of “outline, teach, analyze, critically design” that support teachers’ development of task design. The chapter explains how specifically using critical design after observing the original lesson and having teachers’ focus on making student thinking visible can impact teachers approach to designing tasks. Participating in lesson study enables mathematics teachers to return to their original service ethic, and provides them with structures to focus on their students and students’ thinking. Examples of specific tasks that were developed using this method are discussed, and how the method and prompts enabled teachers to challenge their students to think on their own, rather than simply following their teacher’s thinking. The chapter is based on data collected from lesson study work with hundreds of teachers over a 6-year period. Lesson study, a form of teacher professional development that is widely used in Japan, has been cited as a crucial element in the improvement of mathematics and science education in that country (Stigler & Hiebert, 1999). In recent years, lesson study has become increasingly popular in the United States with the hope that it can drastically improve the US educational system (Fernandez, 2002; Wang-Iverson & Yoshida, 2005). During the lesson study process teachers work in groups to develop a lesson plan that one of the teachers will teach and have others observe. After the teaching and observations, the group meets and analyzes the lesson’s success in reaching its goals, and then makes revisions accordingly. Thus, a central element of lesson study is task design. The lesson study process can enable teachers to share and learn from each other ways to modify curriculum to engage students in meaningful mathematics. Lesson study by its very nature has teachers actively making decisions about the curriculum and redesigning it. In the process, teachers first develop and adapt