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FINNUT-Forskning og innovasjon i utdanningssektoren

From teachers' teaching to pupils' learning

Awarded: NOK 9.2 mill.

The results from the project show positive changes in the mentoring sessions between the ?normal? situation and the ?intervention?. These changes can be seen across the subjects English, Sports Science and Natural Science and are related to both the content of the discussions, i.e. what is being spoken about, and the patterns of the discussions, i.e. who is participating. However it is not possible to identify the same changes in the mentoring sessions for mathematics. One possible reason for this is contextual; the students not having teaching in mathematics at the university during their fourth semester when data for the TasS project was collected (spring 2012 & 2013). As a consequence, the mathematics lecturers were unable to support the project on campus to the same extent as the lecturers in the other subjects. An essential tool that has contributed to these changes is the Handbook in Lesson Study, which was created as a joint effort between the lecturers and mentor teachers at the University of Stavanger. The observations from the mentoring sessions clearly show that the handbook is used as a starting point for both the common planning and assessment of the students? teaching, as well as guiding the content of the discussions. In the pre-lesson mentoring session the focus of the students and mentor, when discussing the planned lesson, is on the pupils? abilities and possible reactions to the lesson. The students seem to be more aware of the challenges that the chosen subject topic may incur for the different pupils, and more time is spent during the pre-lesson mentoring session on discussing how the teacher can facilitate the pupils? comprehension of the subject content in the teaching. During the post-lesson mentoring session the taught lesson is discussed on the basis of fixed pupil observations and interviews with selected pupils. These contribute to more data driven descriptions of what happened during the lesson as a basis for the analysis of the teaching by the students and their mentor. Observations from the video data collected by the researchers show that the students, during the intervention, are still concerned with practical aspects of their teaching, but that these aspects are discussed to a much greater extent in relation to expectations of pupils? behaviour or actions in specific classroom situations. A clear difference between the ?normal? and ?intervention? sessions can be seen in the conversational patterns. In the ?normal? session there is greater variation in who participates in the conversations and throughout all the observed sessions the mentor teachers take a dominant role, often together with the students who are responsible for the lesson. In many of these discussions there are students who never join or are invited to join in the conversation and are silent, or nearly so, throughout. Also of note is that there is little use (or physical presence) of lesson planning support materials (textbooks, teachers guides, subject literature, pupil work books, notebooks etc.) during the discussions. During the ?intervention? all the students are jointly responsible for the lesson study project cycle and are therefore required to collectively plan, teach and observe throughout the process. The effect of this joint responsibility can be seen in all three of the mentor sessions (pre-, middle- and post-) where all the students are active participants, asking many more questions of their mentor than in the ?normal? sessions and being more able to offer reasonable arguments to support their lesson plans and their subsequent classroom experiences. The implementation of new educational methods is challenging in teacher education, as can be seen in as earlier discussed, in relation to the results from the group responsible for mathematics. This illustrates the need for time to be allocated so that all parties involved (students, mentors and lecturers) can be informed and supported as the Lesson study method is brought into the teacher education syllabus. It is also important that the process of a Lesson study cycle starts and is well supported on campus by engaged subject lecturers before the students take their plans out into the practice schools, adapting the projects as necessary to each subjects? specific requirements and focus. The results from the project are so promising, in relation to student engagement during the mentoring discussions and a movement away from a focus on student performance and towards pupil learning, that the institute has chosen to include Lesson study as a method for student teachers (both in the GLU 1-7 and GLU 5-10 programmes) in their second practice period from the academic year 2014/2015. By doing this all the mentor teachers connected to first year students together with all the student teachers at the institute were taught the principles and thinking behind the lesson study method and experience the process of undertaking a lesson study project.

The FTP-project will investigate how students can learn teaching to promote pupils' learning outcomes and inclusion. Research problems include "Which affordances are present in teacher education today that support students' learning teaching?" and "Can we push students' learning further by implementing lesson study approaches to learning teaching?" Other questions concern the types of teaching tasks that students are expected to do within four subject areas, how students are able to learn these, and whet her they differ between subject areas. Another question that will be addressed is how teachers and students use research to inform their decisions and understanding. To investigate these questions, we will conduct a time-lagged design experiment (Hartas , 2010) among teacher students and teachers on campus and in practice schools at a Department of teacher education. The research will be conducted at one department only because we need to have a good overview of circumstances surrounding the intervention . The experiment will include 2 conditions: a business-as-usual condition (control group) and a lesson study approach condition (intervention group). Data collection will include pre- and post tests as well as video observations of processes related to pl anning, teaching, discussing and revising. Data will also include lesson plans for students prior to their field placement and following their field placement as well as the lesson plans they develop in their groups during practice placement. The FTP-p roject will contribute to knowledge development by including four subject areas within teacher education. Most projects have only included one subject, thus making comparisons across subjects impossible. The inclusion of a control group also makes it pos sible to assess effects of the intervention designed. This has also been lacking in much of the research in teacher education.

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FINNUT-Forskning og innovasjon i utdanningssektoren