Teachers as Researchers: Exploring Action Research and Lesson Study

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Teachers as Researchers Exploring Action
Research and Lesson Study

• Presented at the
• National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
• Annual Conference
• April 22, 2007
• David S. Allen Ed.D
• Melisa J. Hancock, T.I.R.D
• Jennifer Malcolm, Junction City, KS
• Amy Marts, Junction City, KS
• Jennifer Stuck, Junction City, KS
• Annette Tinney, Manhattan, KS
• Electronic copies of presentations martial are
  available here
• http//www.educ.ksu.edu/allen/Math/Presentations/P
  rofDev.html

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Teacher Empowerment Through Research

• Funded Grant Projects
• IMPACT
• CAPSULE
• ACUMEN
• IMP
• Course Offerings
• EDCI 795 Problems in C I
• EDCI 760 Teachers as Researches

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Lesson Study

• Goals of CAPSULE Project
• Deepen Content Knowledge
• Develop a research-based lesson
• Strengthen Pedagogy

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Action ResearchExamining Practice

• Action research has evolved into an ongoing
  process of systematic study in which teachers
  examine their own teaching and students learning
  through descriptive reporting, purposeful
  conversations, collegial sharing, and reflection
  for the purpose of improving classroom practice.
• (Miller Pine, 1990)

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Action Research as Professional Development

• Action research is a major form of professional
  development, and is central to the restructuring
  of schools.

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OUTCOMES

• Innovations in Action and
• Action Research Projects
• Teacher as Leaders
• New teaching strategies and risk-taking
• Pilot testing and field testing research-based
  curriculum
• Expanded learning opportunities for students
• Increased student achievement

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Jennifer Stuck

• Personal Goals for Project
• To deepen my math content, and improve my
  teaching (encompassing teaching math and
  classroom management)
• No risk involved since I was a first year
  teacher still learning the ropes.

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My expectations

• Viewed this experience as an extension of student
  teachingI had strong support from my Clinical
  and University Supervisor.
• During student teaching, supervisors critiqued
  the lesson and did not pick apart the teaching.
  This expectation carried over for the lesson
  study process.

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Team Dynamics

• Mrs. Marts-in her 7th year of teachingoffered
  advice about the present and the future
• Mrs. Malcolm-2nd year of teachingwas able to
  tell me what to expect month by month with the
  development of my students (Dont worrymy
  students last year had the same problems with
  counting money.)

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Lesson 1

• Created an estimation lesson
• Not addressed in curriculum but is a state
  standard
• Length of lesson 30 minutes
• Focused on the process of estimation
• Results -- ¾ of my students identified a
  reasonable estimate for their final guess.
• Questioning Video Clip

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Debriefing

• Personal Reaction
• I am my own worst critic
• Debriefing A Learning Process
• Observers reactions-Content Expert, Teacher in
  Residence, Colleagues, Administrators

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My final reflections

• I grew throughout the process by strengthening my
  content knowledge, as well as pedagogy, classroom
  management ideas, and thoughts for asking deeper
  questions during my math teaching.

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My final reflections

• I became more confident in my teaching after
  seeing that Jenny and Amy both had kids who had
  the same wiggles as I did, and that my class
  looked more like a typical first grade class.

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My final reflections

• Biggest change was during my math lessonsI
  realized that I didnt have to directly teach out
  of the textbook instead, I could create an
  engaging lesson that focused on the content. I
  also became aware of needing to use more math
  vocabulary in my everyday teaching.

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Jennifer Malcolm

• Personal Perspective
• 5th year teacher
• Recently obtained Masters Degree in Curriculum
  and Instruction
• No previous experience with 6 year olds
• By the end of my first year I had developed some
  ideas about how 1st grade children act and how to
  manage them.
• Behavior
• How they learn
• Do they get it?
• Question Is my room the only one like this?

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Changes to lesson (2nd)

• Management Issues
• Students wanted to erase their first estimations.
• Students used counting as an estimation strategy.
• Changes to resource management.
• Pedagogical Issues
• More comparisons needed between five cubes and
  full containers.
• Compare again after telling that there are 15 .
• Prompt students to identify changes and provide
  reasoning for change.
• Demonstrate more and less on the number line.
  Talk about the change in estimation on their
  guess sheet.

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Changes to lesson (2nd)

• Questioning
• What similarities and differences can we see on
  the number line with our estimations?
• Ask do you think all the bottles have the same
  amount of cubes? Why or why not?
• Miscellaneous Changes
• Compare the size of the cubes and the gum after
  they make their guess.
• Talk about the size comparison.
• Reward System Gum
• We needed to incorporate more math terms into
  this lesson. We also modeled more think aloud
  as we explained our thought process during
  estimation.

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Lesson Implementation

• Strengths
• Students
• understood main idea
• had fun
• multiple opportunities for cooperative learning
• increased vocabulary and developed a stronger
  understanding of number sense
• good mathematical dialogue
• Lesson
• well developed lesson
• Aha! Moment with respect to how my students
  learn and react to each other

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Lesson Implementation

• Weaknesses
• Students
• not all students got it
• not enough exposure to vocabulary
• difficulty communicating thought process
• did not transfer to other lessons
• Lesson
• not enough practice prompting for explanations
• holes in lesson (see changes for 3)
• what to do with outliers
• frustration with the depth of students
  explanations
• not enough use/familiarity with vocabulary

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Debriefing

• Debriefing
• Excellent opportunity to dialogue related to
  positive and negative issues related to the
  lesson
• Team members had great suggestions and ideas
• We all saw the holes and wanted to make changes
• Very comfortable and easy to talk about the
  lesson and focused on student learning, rather
  than the teacher
• I recognized how strong our 1st grade team was
• Very natural to talk about the lessonthis is
  what teachers should do all the time..reflect and
  share what worked and what did not workthe
  sounding board was great.
• Debriefing Video Segment

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Personal Reflection

• Personal Reflection
• Increased mathematical content knowledge
• Became a better teacher (strengthened pedagogical
  knowledge)
• Increased self efficacy
• Increased expectations
• Desire to do the Lesson Study format with other
  lessons
• AFFIRMATION that my students are not that
  different in their behavior, understanding,
  background knowledge, or at being 6-7 year olds
• Bonded our teaching team in immeasurable ways
• I/we were able to transfer pieces of the Lesson
  Study to almost every part of the school day!

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Amy Marts

• Biography
• Teaching has been my chosen profession for 11
  years. Having spent most of those years in 1st
  grade has taught me a lot about teaching
  children.
• Participating in the lesson study was one of the
  best pedagogical experiences in my career. This
  lesson study provided my colleagues and I with an
  open forum in which to enhance a particular
  lesson.

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The Lesson Study

• New Experiences
• Lesson Plan format (The 5-E)
• The 5-E format allowed us to integrate many
  quality components into the estimation lesson.
• Concerns About Observations
• At first we were worried about teaching and being
  judged on our teaching qualities.
• Lesson study allows for a discussion of the
  actual lesson, not the teaching style. It was
  great to be able to see how each of us handled
  our respective classrooms.

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Amys Part

• Third Lesson Presentation
• Difficulties teaching the third lesson
• After the first lesson, we removed some of the
  components of the lesson. However, following the
  2nd teaching cycle we decided, as a team, that
  some of the these items were necessary, so we
  inserted them back into the lesson. That caused
  some confusion on my part, as it was difficult to
  remember what changes had been made.

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Changes for the Third Lesson

• Some changes made for the 3rd session include
• Increasing math vocabulary.
• We included estimate, reasonable answer, predict,
  more, less, greater, fewer, half, full (whole),
  empty, if.then statement, explain, frame of
  reference, compare
• Compare the size of the items in terms of space
  between the cubes and no space between the gum
• Bigger bottle
• Time frame went from 30 minutes to an hour and a
  half
• Lesson Video Segment

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Final Reflections

• Going in I saw this as an opportunity to work
  closely with my colleagues and learn from them
  since they were new to the profession
• Sharing my expertise with them in terms of
  classroom management and lesson content
• I became more aware of the need to use more
  mathematical vocabulary in every lesson.
• We are all great educators with a passion for
  learning and growing with our students as well as
  each other.

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Annette Tinney

• Every research project begins with a question
• What bothers you the most in your classroom?
• What drives you up the wall the most?
• My Question(s)
• I see students really try hard, study, do
  homework, etc. but they still fail (c or below)
  my class. Why? What is their problem? What am I
  doing wrong?

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• What did I do?
• Selected student for study
• Worked with student on organization, note taking,
  study skills, and homework
• One-on-one attention (support)

• Did I get my question answered?
• YES!
• Some students just need more time
• Some students just needed the praise and support
  I gave to them
• Some students needed to know how to take notes
  and study for a math test

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What did this do for...

• School
• Created a class solely around this project
• Great success this year therefore it will be
  offered as an elective next year all day long

• Myself
• Empowered Me!
• Gave me strength confidence
• Students
• Grades were raised
• Gained self confidence in math
• Skills were gained

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What does this mean for you?

• Every research project begins with a question
• What is your question? What bothers you the most
  in your classroom? What would you like to fix?
• Write down your question.
• You never know what you, your students, and/or
  your district will gain from the experience.

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Questions Answers

• David Allen dallen_at_ksu.edu
• Melisa J. Hancock melisa_at_ksu.edu
• Jennifer Malcolm Jennifermalcolm_at_usd475.org
• Amy Marts Amymarts_at_usd475.org
• Jennifer Stuck Jenniferstuck_at_usd475.org
• Annette Tinney annettet_at_manhattan.k12.ks.us

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Teachers as Researchers Exploring Action
Research and Lesson Study

• Presented at the
• National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
• Annual Conference
• April 22, 2007
• David S. Allen Ed.D
• Melisa J. Hancock, T.I.R.D
• Jennifer Malcolm, Junction City, KS
• Amy Marts, Junction City, KS
• Jennifer Stuck, Junction City, KS
• Annette Tinney, Manhattan, KS
• Electronic copies of presentations marital are
  available here
• http//www.educ.ksu.edu/allen/Math/Presentations/P
  rofDev.html