Wake, Swan & Foster Professional learning through the collaborative design of problem-solving lessons.pdf (532.11 kB)
Professional learning through the collaborative design of problem-solving lessons
journal contribution
posted on 2019-02-07, 16:55 authored by Geoff Wake, Malcolm Swan, Colin FosterColin FosterThis article analyses lesson study as a mode of professional learning, focused on the development of mathematical problem solving processes, using the lens of cultural-historical activity theory. In particular, we draw attention to two activity systems, the classroom system and the lesson-study system, and the importance of making artefacts instrumental in both. We conceptualise the lesson plan as a boundary object and use this to illustrate how professional learning takes place through the introduction of carefully designed artefacts that draw on teachers’ professional knowledge of potential student approaches, and to the nature of progression in problem-solving processes. We identify the roles of instrumentalisation and instrumentation in supporting professional learning as these artefacts are prepared for use before a lesson and as they are again used as catalysts for reflection in post-lesson discussions. These artefacts are seen to effectively facilitate the socially situated learning of all participants. We conclude that the design of artefacts as boundary objects that support teaching and professional learning in their respective activity systems may be fundamental to the success of lesson study as a collaborative venture.
Funding
The work described in this article was funded by the Bowland Charitable Trust and the Nuffield Foundation.
History
School
- Science
Department
- Mathematics Education Centre
Published in
Journal of Mathematics Teacher EducationVolume
19Issue
2-3Pages
243 - 260Citation
WAKE, G., SWAN, M. and FOSTER, C., 2015. Professional learning through the collaborative design of problem-solving lessons. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 19 (2-3), pp.243-260.Publisher
Springer © The AuthorsVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Publisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/Publication date
2015Notes
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.ISSN
1386-4416eISSN
1573-1820Publisher version
Language
- en
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