Exploring socially-distributed professional knowledge for coherent curriculum design

Exploring socially-distributed professional knowledge for coherent curriculum design

Project information

Start date: 31 January 2019

End date: 30 April 2020

Funder

Economic and Social Research Council https://esrc.ukri.org/

Principal Investigator

Dr Colin Foster, Loughborough University

Co-Investigators

Professor Geoff Wake, University of Nottingham

Dr Fay Baldry, University of Leicester

Jacqueline Mann, Robert Clack School, London

Professor Keiichi Nishimura, Tokyo Gakugei University, Japan

Associate Professor Tatsuhiko Seino, Tokyo Gakugei University, Japan

Dr Naoko Matsuda, Tokyo Gakugei University, Japan

Aim

The aim of this project is to draw on knowledge that the IMPULS group at Tokyo Gakugei University, Japan, have gained throughout their long history of curriculum work in lesson study-informed curriculum design to consider how this might meaningfully support teachers’ learning of mathematical knowledge for teaching and curriculum coherence.

Activities

26 February – 1 March 2019: We travelled to Japan and observed lessons and lesson studies across Grades 3 to 10 and interviewed school principals and mathematics teachers at elementary, secondary and senior high schools.We also had a whole-day meeting with our research collaborators at Tokyo Gakugei University.

8-12 July: Visit of Japanese colleagues to England. We hosted:

• Professor Keiichi Nishimura, Tokyo Gakugei University, Japan
• Associate Professor Tatsuhiko Seino, Tokyo Gakugei University, Japan
• Mr. Enomoto (lecturer at Hakuoh University, Tokyo)
• Mr. Tachikawa, Tokyo Gakugei University, Japan

We held an academic workshop (14 participants) at which Tom Button (MEI) presented on the potential uses of technology as a tool to support students' learning, exploring how technological tools can be/support the use of didactical devices.

We also organised lesson studies at three local secondary schools, in which the Japanese visitors took the role of knowledgeable others. On the final day, we hosted a public event in London, in conjunction with Collaborative Lesson Research, at Friends House, London, attended by 80 educators, including teachers, school leaders, academics and students, consultants/advisors and representatives from a wide range of education-related institutions.

18-22 November 2019: We again visited Japan, in conjunction with six collaborating colleagues funded by the Daiwa Foundation. We observed lessons and lesson studies across Grades 3 to 10 and interviewed school principals and mathematics teachers at six elementary and secondary schools. We also conducted extensive interviews with Tokyo syoseki (textbook publisher) lead authors and editors at elementary, junior high and senior high.

MELSE 2020

The second meeting of researchers  interested in Mathematics Education and Lesson Study in Europe (MELSE) will be held 5th and 6th March at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. The meeting will take the form of a research working group, where researchers will have the opportunity to present and discuss work which is in progress or has been completed. Presentations of research will include considerable time for discussion, similar to the format of Thematic Working Groups at CERME conferences and the Topic Study Groups at ICME. Researchers who do not wish to present but wish to contribute to collaborative discussions around mathematics education and lesson study, are also most welcome.

Outputs

Publications

Baldry, F., & Foster, C. (2019). Lesson study partnerships in initial teacher education. In Wood, P., Larssen, D., Cajkler, W., & Helgevold, N. (Eds), Lesson Study in Initial Teacher Education: A critical perspective (pp. 147–160). Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.

Baldry, F., & Foster, C. (2019). Lesson study in mathematics Initial Teacher Education in England. In R. Huang, A. Takahashi, & P. da Ponte (Eds), Theory and Practice of Lesson Study in Mathematics: An international perspective (pp. 577–594). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-3-030-04031-4_28

Wake, G., & Foster, C., & Nishimura, K. (2020). Lesson study: A case of expansive learning. Proceedings of the 25th International Commission on Mathematical Instruction. University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal, February 4–7, 2020. Lisbon: ICMI.

Seino, T., & Foster, C. (2019). Why the details matter: Learning from Japanese Kyouzai kenkyuu. Mathematics in School, 48(5), 2–8.

Foster, C., & Baldry, F. (2020). Blink, and it's gone! Mathematics Teaching, 270, XX–XX.

Foster, C. (2019). The fundamental problem with teaching problem solving. Mathematics Teaching, 265, 8–10.

Foster, C. (2020). Tailoring the examples to the method. Scottish Mathematical Council Journal, XX, XX–XX.

Other papers are in preparation.

Presentations and Working Group

9 March 2019: British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics, Open University, Milton Keynes. Didactical tools and their potential role in supporting curriculum coherence (Geoff Wake, Colin Foster).

8 June 2019: British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics, University of Birmingham. Didactics Working Group (Geoff Wake, Debbie Morgan).

9 November 2019: British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics, Queen’s University, Belfast. Didactics Working Group (Geoff Wake, Colin Foster).

15 April 2020: Mathematical Association Conference, Wyboston Lakes Resort, Bedfordshire. What might a coherent mathematics curriculum look like? (Geoff Wake, Colin Foster, Fay Baldry and Jacqueline Mann).

2 April 2020: Association of Teachers of Mathematics Conference, De Vere Staverton Estate, Daventry, Northamptonshire. Developing a coherent mathematics curriculum (Geoff Wake, Colin Foster, Fay Baldry and Jacqueline Mann).

Attendance

17 July 2019: La Salle Education Ltd, London. Curriculum Design in Mathematics (attended by Jacqueline Mann).