This review examines the concept of organizational routines and its potential for investigating educational initiatives in practice. The studies in our review revealed three different approaches to ...routines: (1) examining organizational routines as entities, (2) (also) examining conversational routines, and (3) examining the internal structure of organizational routines. Current definitions, operationalizations, and examinations can lack clarity and validity. At present, the concept of organizational routines not only holds potential but is also ambiguous. To bolster the potential of the concept, two working definitions of organizational routines are formalized that best allow researchers to investigate initiatives in practice. These working definitions are needed to create clarity regarding the concept and for it to be able to deliver on its promise for providing meaningful and relevant information on how new initiatives actually work and unfold in practice.
Purpose This exploratory study investigates the extent to which lesson study (LS) in initial teacher education (ITE) teams address subject-pedagogical aspects during their conversations and what ...subject-pedagogical aspects are addressed.Design/methodology/approach The two-case design of the study – one LS team in ITE comprised of an ST and experienced teachers and one comprised of an ST and novice teachers – is aimed to discover similarities and variations in their focus of attention.Findings The conversations of both LS teams were to a large degree about subject-pedagogical aspects. Both teams paid relatively less attention to discussing the themes “subject matter” and “learning objectives” and more to “pupils” learning and “teacher activities.” Concerning the theme of “pupils” learning, the LS team with experienced teachers focused more than the novice LS team on discussing the aspects “pupils” initial situation and “expected learning behavior.” The novice LS team focused more than the experienced team on discussing their observations of individual pupils' thinking.Originality/value The results indicate that LS in ITE with a mix of ST and experienced teachers can facilitate exchange on subject-pedagogical aspects of the research lesson. This may help develop and deepen the subject-pedagogical knowledge, views and routines of STs. The differences found between the two LS teams provide starting points for differentiation in the support of LS teams in ITE. Follow-up research could focus on the questions of whether and how LS teams in ITE bring more coherence to their attention for subject-pedagogical aspects of the lesson.
Since classrooms have become more diverse, professional development on adaptive teaching seems critically important, yet turns out to be complex. Lesson Study may address this issue due to its ...explicit focus on student learning. In total, 22 Lesson Study participants from different school contexts were interviewed. Clarke and Hollingsworth's Interconnected Model of Professional Growth was used as the analyzing framework to explore its adequacy for understanding teacher professional growth. The results reveal teacher professional growth in adaptive teaching competence and show how the intensive focus on student learning, collaborative professional experimentation and the facilitators' role may contribute to this.
•Suggests the potential of Lesson Study to promote adaptive teaching competence.•Approaches Lesson Study as a means to stimulate teacher professional growth.•Stresses and clarifies the importance of appropriate school conditions in Lesson Study practice.•Proposes a model for teacher professional growth in the context of Lesson Study.
As a central objective, problem-solving skills are important in the mathematics curricula of many countries. However, such skills tend to receive limited and rarely systematic attention in ...mathematics lessons, including in the Netherlands. To address this gap, the authors adopt a specific approach that defines problem solving as integral to mathematics: Teaching mathematics Through Problem solving (TTP). In Japan, teachers often learn about TTP by performing Lesson Study (LS), an approach in which teachers work in teams to design and conduct a research lesson that allows them to learn collectively about students’ learning processes. TTP offers a promising, structured, didactical approach to introducing problem solving in mathematics lessons, and LS appears to represent an effective means for teachers to learn about TTP. To test this proposition, the current study entails a TTP- and LS-based intervention implemented in two secondary schools in the Netherlands, with an explicit focus on problem-solving skills. The central research objective for this study is to determine whether this TTP-LS-intervention helps mathematics teachers incorporate problem-solving skills into their lessons and how design characteristics and mechanisms of the intervention affect the outcomes. Interviews with teachers provide insights into which characteristics of the TTP-LS intervention fostered the implementation of problem solving in their teaching practice, as well as which did not. The collected data show that the teachers regard TTP as a valuable pedagogy to teaching mathematical problem solving. They report that the joint development, implementation, and evaluation of TTP lessons in the LS cycles, and especially observations of students, has given them more tools for applying TTP pedagogy and that they use these tools to promote problem-solving skills. Elements of the TTP lessons that the teachers perceived as difficult were the lesson phases that featured discussions on solution strategies rather than finding the “right” answers. Teachers regarded LS as a suitable approach for learning about TTP. Some points for improvement also emerged from the data. For example, more support should be given to TTP-LS-teams to explain the problem-solving skills they want to target in their lessons, and to practice especially the classroom discussion and summary phase.
Using sociocultural discourse analysis, we examined when and how a Lesson Study team in initial teacher education integrated theoretical input with practical knowledge when reasoning about ...subject-specific learning by and teaching of their pupils. We found 10 reasoning sequences in which theoretical input helped student teachers externalize their practical knowledge and reflect on the relation between practical knowledge and theoretical input. Three times this process resulted in new understanding of subject-specific pedagogy. Our findings support the assumption that Lesson Study is an appropriate learning task to help student teachers relate theory to practice and develop their subject-specific pedagogical insights.
•A Lesson Study-team in initial teacher education used theory and practical knowledge when reasoning.•Integrating theory and practical knowledge resulted in new understanding of subject-specific pedagogy.•Integration between theory and practical knowledge took place during the study phase of Lesson Study.•The analysis approach developed helps to dissect knowledge integration processes during Lesson Study meetings.•Lesson Study seems an appropriate learning task to help student teachers relate theory to practice.
In the current study on noticing as reasoning of Lesson Study (LS)-teams in initial teacher education (ITE), we analyzed the reasoning two mixed LS-teams set up about pupils' subject-related learning ...of. Both teams consisted of a student teacher and experienced teachers. Both teams paid more attention to identification (describing pupils‘ learning behavior) and planning elements (considering and deciding how to act) than to interpretation elements (determining and explaining pupils’ problems with learning). They differed in the extent to which they considered plans and provided continuity in their reasoning. Stimulating meaningful reflection may help further develop noticing among LS-teams in ITE.
•The analysis approach developed for this study helps reconstructing noticing as reasoning during LS-conversations.•Two mixed LS-teams in initial teacher education reason about learning, teaching and mixed problems.•The two mixed LS-teams provide their reasoning with similar elements.•Both LS-teams pay more attention to identification and planning than to interpretation elements.•Both LS-teams differ in foci, extent of planning considerations, and continuity in their reasoning.
Although lesson study (LS) is widely considered a promising approach to teachers' professional development, the variation in teacher learning in LS is not yet well understood. Using a ...cultural–historical activity theory lens, we identify aspects of LS as a learning activity of significance for teacher learning. Using mixed-methods analysis of questionnaire and interview data drawn from 17 secondary school teachers, we find multiple variables of relevance in relation to teacher learning. This study clearly shows that participants’ understanding of and attitude toward LS are at least as important as how LS is conducted.
•Examining Lesson Study practices using a quasi-experimental mixed methods design.•Significant group differences in terms of beliefs of efficacy in pupil engagement.•Enhancing efficient classroom ...management and clarity of instruction.•Promoting adaptive teaching through Lesson Study.•Significant relationship between beliefs of self-efficacy and adaptive teaching.
Teachers are expected to address a broad range of diverse pupil needs but do not always feel capable or lack the skills to meet these high expectations. The professional development approach Lesson Study may address this. Therefore, this study examines whether participating in Lesson Study influences teachers’ beliefs of self-efficacy and (adaptive) teaching behaviour. A quasi-experimental mixed methods design was used to compare pretest and posttest data of intervention and comparison group teachers (N = 48). Significantly different results between the two groups arise in terms of efficacy in pupil engagement as well as classroom management and instructional behaviour. Immediate stimulated recall interviews provide insight in these outcomes and illustrate to what extent teachers addressed pupils’ educational needs.
•We examine whether and how teachers embed lesson study in their schools.•Teachers who maintained the script of lesson study often embedded the practice.•Teachers who modified the script discontinued ...or lethally adjusted lesson study.
Professional development practices remain at the forefront of ways to support teacher learning but are difficult to sustain. We investigate whether and how teachers continued to perform the professional development practice of lesson study in their own schools after participating in a cross-school Lesson Study Professional Learning Network for four years. We found different perceptions of the general idea of lesson study. If the general idea was modified, teachers rarely continued to perform lesson study; if they did, they transformed lesson study in such a way that core elements were removed. When teachers maintained the general idea of lesson study they were more likely to continue to perform lesson study in their own school and to consider the practice useful.
Peer-to-peer-talk in whole-classroom discussions van Balen, Johanna; Gosen, Myrte N.; de Vries, Siebrich ...
International journal of educational research,
2024, 2024-00-00, Volume:
125
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
•Students use in stretches of peer-to-peer talk mainly two types of utterances: challenges and assertions.•Both a challenge and an assertion subsequently elicit a student contribution.•This study ...reveals that students work on one another's contributions from moment to moment in interaction.•The stretches of peer-to-peer talk provide interesting starting points for encouraging dialogue in the classroom.
We observed stretches of peer-to-peer-talk during teacher-guided whole-classroom discussions aimed at sharing perspectives in Dutch Language and Literature lessons. This conversation-analytic study zooms in on how these stretches of peer-to-peer-talk emerge. Students are mainly found to respond to each other with challenges and assertions. A challenge is formulated as a wh-question - imperative, interrogative, declarative or phrasal - and is used for questioning the given response rather than obtaining information. An assertion is used to express a point of view and is formulated in two ways: as personal opinion, formulated in I-perspective, and as statement, formulated in second person singular or by the use of ‘generic you’. Both a challenge and an assertion subsequently elicit a student contribution. A challenge mostly provokes a contribution in which a student expresses to stick to his/her point of view. An assertion mostly provokes a subsequent assertion in which agreement or disagreement is expressed. This study reveals that students work on one another's contributions from moment to moment in interaction. The insights from this study can support teachers in encouraging dialogue during whole-classroom discussions.
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