Lewis (2002:51-72) stated that there are six basic steps as a guide in implementing lesson study. The steps are (1) Form a Lesson Study Group, (2) Focus the Lesson Study, (3) Plan the Research Lesson, (4) Teach and Observe the Research Lesson, (5) Discuss and Analyze the Research Lesson, and (6) Reflect on Your Lesson Study and Plan the Next Steps.
Step 1. Form a Lesson Study Group
There are at least four activities that we need in forming a lesson study group. The activities are (1) recruitment of the group members, (2) commitment to provide a specific time, (3) arranging a schedule for meetings, and (4) commitment to obey the rules of the group. Members of a lesson study group can be recruited from teachers, lecturers, education personnel, and/or other people who are interested in education. The most important thing is every member should have highly commitment, interest, and willing to improve the quality of mathematics instruction. Members of the group will usually have daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly meetings and they have to present at those meetings.
At the meeting, members of the group will prepare everything related to lesson study activities that will be conducted. A member of the group sometimes will be assigned to be a model that will teach a research lesson. As noted above, the group members will arrange an agenda and a schedule. The agenda and schedule will be very useful for every member of the group. Tasks as well as job description of each member should be clearly defined.
Step 2. Focus the Lesson StudyThis step consists of three main elements. The elements are (1) to determine the research theme, the main aim, the research focus, or the main objective of lesson study; (2) to choose subject-matter; and (3) to select a topic or a unit and lessons. There are three things that should be considered in determining the research theme of lesson study. First, what is the actual quality of our students right now? Second, what ideal quality of students will we expect at the end of lesson study activities? Finally, is there any gap between the ideal and the actual quality of our students? The gap (if any) will be used to choose the research theme of lesson study. Subject-matter area can be selected from a series of subject-matters offered at a school. The subject-matters can be science, chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics, language, or social studies. In selecting the subjectmatter, we have to consider the following three main questions. What subject-matter is the most difficult for students? What subject-matter do the teachers find as the most difficult to be taught? What subject-matters in a new curriculum do teachers want to understand and master? In our case,
of course, the subject-matter will be mathematics.
After selecting research theme and subject-matter, the next activity will be choosing a topic and lesson. We choose a topic that is (1) a prerequisite for the subsequent topics, (2) very difficult for students or the one that students hate, (3) difficult to teach or the one that teachers dislike, (4) new in a new curriculum. After choosing a topic, we formulate the objectives of the topic and then determine the number of lessons related to the topic and its objectives. Suppose, for example, we choose inequality as our topic. The lessons may consist of the concept of inequality, linear inequality, linear inequality that involve absolute values, quadratic inequality, the relationship between quadratic inequality and quadratic function, fractional inequality, graphical method for solving linear inequility, and inequality in two variables.
Step 3. Plan the Research Lesson
Planning has a very important role in every activity, especially in educational research. A plan can be a guide for researcher. A good plan will help researcher to solve the research problem or the research question. In planning a research lesson, we need to develop a plan to guide learning. This plan will be very useful to guide us in teaching, observing, and discussing the research lesson. There are some versions of format that can be used. It depends on the characteristics of subject-matter and the agreement of the users.
Each country has its own format. Every expert has his or her own format. Which format shall we choose and use in our research lesson? This is a problem of choice. So, we can choose a format that is fit to our need. The most important thing to be kept in mind is that the plan should be a complete document. In other word, the plan should be a stand alone document or a self-contained document. In research lesson, there are three kinds of plan, namely (1) general or comprehensive plan, (2) unit or topic plan, and (3) (research) lesson plan. Comprehensive plan is related to the research theme and the longterm goal for students. This plan may relate to one semester planning and it will consist of several topics. Unit or topic plan will cover several research lessons. In other words, unit plan will consist of some lessons. In our example above, the topic will be inequality and the lessons will be the concept of inequality, linear inequality, linear inequality that involve absolute values, quadratic inequality, the relationship between quadratic absolute values, quadratic inequality, the relationship between quadratic inequality and quadratic function, fractional inequality, graphical method for solving linear inequility, and inequality in two variables. Research lesson plan is the core of plan related to research lesson we propose. This plan will answer the question ”What changes in student thinking will occur during the lesson, and what will provoke them.” (Lewis, 2002:64).
Template of plan to guide learning propose by Lewis (2002:127- 130) can be examined in the Appendix 5 below. Of course, we do not have to use this template. We can compare this template to our format that we usually use in each country. For Indonesian people, we have a lesson plan called ”Rencana Pelaksanaan Pembelajaran” (RPP) or ”Instructional Implementation Planning.” For the time being we can use the format of RPP. Please ask your colleagues from Indonesia to show their RPP. Collecting data is an important activity to be considered and included in a plan to guide learning. We need an instrument that fits our objectives. Instrument that we usually use in implementing lesson study is observation guideline, observation sheet, or observation form. Observation form contains three main questions, namely (1) when does a student begin to concentrate on the lesson?, (2) when does a student end their concentration on the lesson?, and (3) what lesson learned can be taken from the lesson implemented?
Step 4. Teach and Observe the Research Lesson
The research lesson that has been prepared can be implemented and observed. One of the group members that has been assigned by the group will teach the research lesson. During the implementation of the research lesson, other members of the group observe the lesson. Other participants, teachers, lecturers, or even anybody who is interested in mathematics education can also observe the lesson. Observer will collect data related to students’ thinking, learning, motivation, and/or behavior. This activity is usually called open lesson. Recording and documenting the research lesson can be done by using audiotape, videotape, handycam, camera, student work, worksheet, and/or narative observation notes. The main thing to be remembered is that the record should contain facts and real events that found during the lesson and should not contain the opinions of the observer. The facts documented will be very useful and needed at discussion and reflection step.
Observer’s role during the lesson is to collect data and it is not to help students. Students should be reminded that if they need some help, they can ask their teacher to help them. They are prohibited to ask some help from other people in their classroom.
Step 5. Discuss and Analyze the Research Lesson
Research lesson that has been implemented need to be discussed and analyzed. This is necesary to be done because the results of analysis and discussion can be used to revise or refine the research lesson. We hope that the revising research lesson will be more complete, effective, and effcient.
Before conducting discussion and analysis, it will be better to prepare a discussion manual and agenda. The contents of the manual may cover the following items. First, the member of the group who teaches the lesson will be the first speaker in the discussion activity. He or she will have chances to deliver or express all of his or her difficulties in teaching the lesson. Second, as a rule of the game, the lesson belongs to the members of the group. Consequently, the lesson is ”our lesson” and it is not ”my lesson.” The members of the group have responsibility to explain everything related to the lesson. Third, discussion should be focused on the data collected during the lesson by the observers. Fourth, discussion and analysis of the research lesson should be done directly at the same day and right after the lesson implemented. This is reasonable, because the results of the
discussion and analysis will be used to revise the lesson. Finally, the role of a moderator should be clearly stated and implemented in order to get an effective and efficient discussion.
Step 6. Reflect on Your Lesson Study and Plan the Next Steps
In reflection session, there are some questions that should be answered. What parts of the lesson have been practiced well? Is there any progress by doing the research lesson? What parts of the lesson need to be improved? What are the benefits of the lesson study efforts? What we would like to change in the next cycle? Is lesson study enriching our knowledge? Is lesson study helping student learning? Is lesson study helping student development? Who will re-teach the revised lesson. Of course, there must be many more questions that can be raised.
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