About Our Project

	Overview
	Implementation
	Participants
	Research
	Project Staff
	Advisory Board
	Contact Us

Overview

Education Development Center, Inc. (“EDC”) is a not-for-profit research and development organization located in Newton, Massachusetts. EDC projects are organized into divisions and centers of various sizes. The Lesson Study Communities Project is part of the Center for Mathematics Education within the Division of Mathematics, Learning and Teaching.

The primary mission of the Lesson Study Communities project is to support teams of secondary mathematics teachers in the Eastern Massachusetts region in implementing lesson study. Our goals are: to introduce teachers to lesson study, to build a community of teachers interested in lesson study, to enhance teacher knowledge of mathematics and pedagogy, and to learn how the Japanese lesson study model can be adapted to become a successful professional development model for U.S. secondary school mathematics teachers.

This project is funded by the National Science Foundation. Teachers in the project will be eligible to receive a stipend of $1000 from NSF if they fully participate in all project activities.

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Implementation

The Lesson Study Communities project involves teams of 3 – 10 secondary school mathematics teachers. The project plans to work with 21 teams overall, phased in 7 at a time in Fall 2002, Spring 2003, and Fall 2003. The project will provide two years of lesson study support to each team.

All teams begin their work by attending an Introductory Workshop. Teams then return to their school and begin the lesson study process. An EDC coach attends most meetings during the first cycle of lesson study. At the end of the cycle, the teams come back together to attend another workshop to deepen their understanding of lesson study and to share their experiences with the community.

Each subsequent lesson study cycle is then launched by a community-wide workshop and followed by school-based team meetings. The EDC coaches will most likely attend fewer meetings as teams become more comfortable with the lesson study process. Each cycle will end with a community-wide workshop.

All participating teams will be able to share their experiences at a Showcase Conference planned for November 2004.

For more information on the project, read the December 2002 Spotlight article on the EDC website.

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Participants

The 1st cohort of schools is Brookline High School, Danvers High School, Lexington High School, Newton South High School, Wareham High School, Watertown High School and Watertown Middle School.

The 2nd cohort of schools is Carver High School, Everett High School, Foxborough Middle School, MATCH (Media and Technology Charter High School), and Old Rochester Regional.

The 3rd cohort of schools is Andover High School, Dartmouth High School, Lowell's Bartlett Middle School, Norfolk County Agricultural High School, Scituate High School, Uxbridge's Whitin Middle School, Uxbridge High School, and Wareham Middle School.

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Research

Lesson study holds considerable promise as a form of teacher professional development. Yet, there are many questions about its form and applicability to American schools. In this project, we plan to address the following critical questions: How does lesson study affect the private nature of US schools? How does lesson study serve as a form of professional development? And, how does lesson study meet the particular needs of secondary mathematics teachers?

We are utilizing a nested research design that balances breadth and depth in documenting the phenomenon of lesson study and its manifestations in teacher learning and teacher practice. We will administer baseline and follow-up surveys to all participants in the project to obtain critical background information on individuals and their departments, as well as to ascertain the variation within our sample. We plan to observe a full range of lesson study activities carried out by three or four of the lesson study teams. We will interview about 10 teachers to provide clearer pictures of the lesson study work. Finally, we will observe a full cycle of lesson study work by three teams and create case studies on these teams to gain insight into the evolution of the lesson study activities and its effects on teachers and their classroom practice.

Research products will include an end project report addressing the core research questions and the collection of case studies. Research results will also be the subject of anticipated presentations at conferences and journal articles. Throughout the project, research findings will be shared to inform project development.

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Project Staff

Jane Gorman, Principal Investigator, jgorman@edc.org
Jane Gorman is a Senior Research Associate in the Center for Mathematics Education. She received her Ed.M. from Harvard University and is currently leading the Lesson Study Communities Project. Prior work includes working on the NSF-funded Building Regional Capacity project providing professional development to mathematics teachers and study groups, writing curriculum on the NSF-funded Connected Geometry project, a sixteen-year career teaching high school mathematics, and broad experience with NSF-sponsored Interactive Mathematics Program (IMP).

Helen Lebowitz, hlebowitz@edc.org
Helen Lebowitz is a project coordinator with the Division of Mathematics Learning and Teaching at Education Development Center, where she provides administrative support for a number of projects including the Lesson Study Communities project. Helen holds an M.A.T. from Harvard Graduate School of Education and an A.B. from Cornell University.

Brian Lord, blord@edc.org
Brian Lord is co-Director of the Center for Professional Communities in Education. For this project, Brian is leading the research effort. Previously, he has conducted research on the costs and configurations of professional development in urban school districts and on curriculum implementation and changes in teachers’ practice. He is co-director of Teacher Leadership for Systemic Reform, a three-year study of models of teacher leadership in NSF’s Urban Systemic Initiatives. He directed the evaluation of the Woodrow Wilson Environmental Science Leadership Program and has led national projects in standards-based reform in science and mathematics education, including the technical assistance component for the National Science Foundation’s Statewide Systemic Initiatives, the outreach component for the Ford Foundation’s Urban Mathematics Collaboratives, and cross-disciplinary seminars for the College Board’s Forum on Standards and Learning. He has provided direct support to districts and agencies engaged in standards-based reform, including the San Diego City Schools, the Pittsburgh Public Schools, and the Department of Defense Education Activity. He is author of publications on teachers’ professional development, teacher leadership, teacher networks, and standards-based reform.

June Mark, jmark@edc.org
June Mark is Senior Project Director and Associate Director of the Center for Mathematics Education. She has an Ed.M. from Harvard Graduate School of Education, a B.A. in mathematics, and a B.S.E. in decision sciences from the University of Pennsylvania. She currently co-directs the NSF-funded K-12 Mathematics Curriculum Center with Deborah Spencer, which supports districts in selecting and using standards-based mathematics curriculum. For this project, June’s work is focused on supporting the teams as they develop lesson study. Previously, June was a researcher on the Teacher Leadership for Systemic Reform project. Her prior work also includes co-directing Connected Geometry, an NSF-funded curriculum project. She also led research and evaluation efforts for the Community Technology Centers' Network.

Johannah Nikula, jnikula@edc.org
Johannah Nikula is a Research Associate in the Center for Educational Resources and Outreach. Johannah received a B.A. in psychology with a minor in mathematics from Middlebury College and an M.Ed. with a technology in education focus from Harvard University. For this project, Hillary is working on both the implementation and research components of the project, as well as maintaining this website. Johannah also currently works on a research project at EDC about artifact-based professional development.

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Advisory Board

The national advisory board will meet twice during the project. The board, consisting of mathematicians, leaders in the field of professional development and experts on lesson study, will advise us on supporting the lesson study work of our teams. The following people are on our advisory board:

Gail Burrill: Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Al Cuoco: Center for Mathematics Education at Education Development Center, Inc.
Fran Curcio: Queens College of the City University of New York
Clea Fernandez: Lesson Study Research Group at Teachers College Columbia University
Catherine Lewis: Mills College, Oakland, CA
Michelle Manes: Brown University, Providence, RI
Annette Stavros: Assistant Superintendent Watertown Public Schools, Watertown, MA
Akihiko Takahashi: DePaul University, Chicago, IL

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Contact Us

Correspondence can be sent to: Jane Gorman, Lesson Study Communities Project, Education Development Center, Inc., Center for Mathematics Education, 55 Chapel Street, Newton, MA 02458.

For questions or comments about this website, please contact Johannah Nikula at jnikula@edc.org.

For all other matters, please contact Helen Lebowitz at hlebowitz@edc.org or 617-969-7100.

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