The implementation of large-scale intervention and development projects is often problematic, and the impacts of such projects usually fall somewhat short of what was expected. Additionally, the ...rationalities of intervention projects are not carried over into classroom teaching as directly as expected. This problem is generally known, but comprehensive explanations continue to elude the research community at large. Using the theory of cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), we propose that the heart of the problem lies in the
expansive learning process
that teachers undergo. This process is driven by unrecognised contradictions in terms of cultural and historical origin, which are fundamentally different from the processes governing the projects. We analyze two cases taken from two large Danish professional development projects. In each case, we focus on a teacher as part of two activity systems (‘the project’ and ‘the classroom’) and how the contradictions within and between these shape learning through epistemic actions. The results indicate the importance of making these contradictions apparent and accessible to everyone in the activity systems. Because of these various contradictions, the agency conferred upon teachers leads to unintended outcomes.
Most widely published books and papers on lesson study emphasise that a main attraction of this format is that it enables teachers to build and maintain a shared knowledge base for the teaching ...profession. This, however, clearly requires that lesson study is established as more than an occasional experiment, which is new to most teachers involved and involves only exceptional teachers. Therefore, research on lesson study increasingly focuses on the question of sustainability of the format as a practice-based form of professional development. We present and expand the recent theoretical idea of paradidactic infrastructure and analyse sustainability from the institutional perspective of the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic and especially based on the idea of paradidactic infrastructure. Our data come from the Danish context where lesson study in mathematics has been experimented with for more than 10 years, first by individual researchers and now, increasingly driven by institutions, such as schools or municipalities.
We present a detailed analysis of two statistics lessons in lower secondary school, one in Denmark and the other in Japan. The aim of the study is to better understand how inquiry perspectives are ...implemented in statistics education and what cultural factors shape them. In particular, we draw on the theoretical framework of the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic. The first impressions of the lessons changed during the analysis, and the main differences became explicit in the two question and answer diagrams and the praxeological analysis of the lessons. The two lessons involved cases comprising an "experimental activity with many questions" (Denmark) and "structured problem-solving" (Japan), which differed on a number of points that we shall demonstrate in the analysis. We shall also discuss hypotheses on the possible causes of these differences. We emphasize that our use of question and answer diagrams offers a new way in which to distinguish various kinds of "inquiry-oriented" lessons.
I denne artikel foretager vi et skift fra den traditionelle beliefsteori til anvendelsen af patterns of participation. Først beskrives lærerviden og patterns of participation, derefter beskrives og ...analyseres data omhandlende to lærere, Susanne og Astrid, som vi har fulgt gennem en længere periode. Den overordnede intention er at vise potentialerne ved at anvende patterns of participation som forskningstilgang og at vise at man herved kan komme til en bedre forståelse af matematiklærerens praksis. In this article we shift the research perspective from beliefs to Patterns of Participation. First we describe knowledge for teaching and Patterns of Participation, then in a much longer section we present and analyze data on the cases of two teachers, Susanne and Astrid, whom we have followed over a longer period. The overall intention is to show the potential of using Patterns of Participation as a research approach and show that by using it we get a better understanding of mathematics teacher practice.
