Home > About Our Project | ||||
About Our Project
OverviewEducation 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. ImplementationThe 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. ParticipantsThe 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. ResearchLesson 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. Project StaffJane Gorman, Principal Investigator, jgorman@edc.org Helen Lebowitz, hlebowitz@edc.org Brian Lord, blord@edc.org June Mark, jmark@edc.org Johannah Nikula, jnikula@edc.org Advisory BoardThe 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: Contact UsCorrespondence 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. |
Lesson Study Resources | Math Resources | Project Business | About the Project | ||
For project information contact: Jane Gorman (jgorman@edc.org), EDC, 55 Chapel Street, Newton MA 02458 (617-969-7100) |