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School-Based Lesson Study in Singapore

30 November 2011

IMPULS SEMINAR, Tokyo, Japan

A/P Christine Lee Head, Curriculum, Teaching & Learning Academic Group

National Institute of Education

Outline of Presentation

•  Extent of School-based Lesson Study in Singapore schools.

•  Practice of Lesson Study.

•  Issues arising from practice of Lesson Study in Singapore schools.

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§  About 364 primary, secondary and post-secondary schools

§  About 31,000 teachers with 79% graduate teachers; 1847 Allied Educators

§  English is the medium of instruction

§  Centralised Curriculum (80%) from MOE and 20% (school-based curriculum)

Context of Educational System

•  teach less •  improve the quality of interaction

between teachers and students •  equip students with the knowledge

and skills and values to prepare them for life

A call from PM Lee Hsien Loong during his inaugural National Day Rally in 2004 for schools and teachers to:

Reform Initiative: Teach Less, Learn More

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§  Three  a'ribu+ng  factors  prevalent  in  top  performing  educa+on  systems  (McKinsey,  2007)  •  geAng  the  right  people  to  become  teachers  •  developing  them  into  effec+ve  teachers;  •  ensuring  that  the  system  is  able  to  deliver  the  best  possible  instruc+on  for  every  child.  

§  Teacher  quality  made  the  largest  difference  in  student  achievement  and  the  most  effec+ve  school  systems  invested  in  their  teachers  (McKinsey,  2007).  

§  High  investment  in  educa+on  in  Singapore:  Much of the investment goes to the development of teachers.    

HIGH INVESTMENT IN TEACHER EDUCATION

•  Give teachers more time and space. – Reduce curriculum content – Creation of white space

•  Provide additional resources to schools ready to prototype their ideas for TLLM and bring in new school practices.

Support from MOE Provision of Top Down Support for

Bottom-up Initiatives

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Support from MOE

•  Enhance professional development and mentorship of teachers:

– Strengthen focus on professional development in curriculum customisation, pedagogy and assessment;

– Offload experienced teachers, such as Senior Teachers or Heads of Department, to mentor beginning teachers;

–  A new position of school staff developer in schools created.

q  Lesson Study started in Singapore schools in 2004 supported by the faculty from the National Institute of Education.

q  It has now grown by leaps and bounds.

Extent of LS in Singapore

Exploratory Stage: Just do it

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Results from Dipstick Survey 2011

Primary   Secondary   Jr  College   Total  Responded     94   104     4     202    Doing  LS   64  (68%)   70  (67%)   2  (50%)   136  (67%)  Beyond  2012  

78  (83%)   81  (78%)   3  (75%)   162  (80%)  

Overall Response Rate to Online Survey: 60%

The Growing Interest in Lesson Study in Singapore

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Number of Lesson Study Teams in 2011

Impetus for Growth of Lesson Study in Singapore schools

•  PLC Initiative from STB, MOE in 2009. Lesson Study is one of 3 platforms for developing PLCs

•  In Sep 2009, at the annual MOE Work Plan Seminar, the Minister cited Lesson Study as an avenue for building schools into Professional Learning Communities, thus escalating demand for lesson study training.

•  The launch of Academy of Singapore Teachers in 2010.

•  Marshall Cavendish Institute also offers Lesson Study training and support to schools.

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MOE Support of Lesson Study

•  26  Aug  2009:  Address  by  the  Director-­‐General  (Educa+on)  at  the  Teachers’  Mass  Lecture  –  “teachers taking ownership in designing learning for students”

–  “Professional Learning Communities are powerful platforms for teachers to learn from one another, and for teachers to be leading teachers. There are 51 Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) today. We will in fact increase the number of these PLCs as we go forward. PLCs are a way of learning that can help level up teacher professionalism in a quick and effective way.”  

MOE Support of Lesson Study

•  17  Sep  2009:  Speech  by  Minister  of  Educa+on  (Dr  Ng  Eng  Hen)  at  MOE  Workplan  Seminar    –  Teacher-driven culture of professional excellence: “enabling  teachers  to  develop  themselves”  

–  Professional  Learning  Communi+es  —  Teachers  driving  professionalism:  “an  example  is  Tampines  Primary,  where  teachers  conduct  peer  lesson  observa+ons,  with  a  post-­‐lesson  observa+on  conference  to  provide  feedback  and  exchange  best  prac+ces  with  one  another”    

–  Video  clip  of  teacher  who  a'ended  WALS  Conference  2008.    

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Course Title Duration Participants INTRODUCTION TO LESSON STUDY

7 hrs Teams composed of key personnel (P, VPs, HODs) and teachers from all levels

CRAFTING A RESEARCH LESSON

10 hrs Members of lesson study team

EXPERIENCING LESSON STUDY

7 hrs Teams composed of key personnel (P, VPs, HODs) and teachers from all levels

LESSON STUDY AS A TOOL FOR TEACHER LEADERS

14 hrs Teams composed of key personnel (P, VPs, HODs) and teachers from all levels

NIE’s Provision of Training to Schools

Number  of  schools  trained  in    introductory  workshops  (as  of  Nov  2011)    

NORTH  ZONE  65/89  schools  

(31  Pri/32  Sec/2  JC)  

EAST  ZONE  70/90  Schools  

(31  Pri/35  Sec/4  JC)  

SOUTH  ZONE  57/87  Schools  

(26  Pri/27  Sec/4  JC)  

WEST  ZONE  61/88  Schools  

(32  Pri/26  Sec/3  JC)  

Total  of  253/354  schools  (71.47%)  

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Number  of  Schools  with    CriOcal  Mass  Trained  (>  5  as  of  Nov  2011)    

NORTH  ZONE  29/89  schools  

 

EAST  ZONE  38/90  Schools  

 

SOUTH  ZONE  27/87  Schools  

WEST  ZONE  39/88  Schools  

 

Total  of    133/354  schools  

(37.57%)  

Major Findings from a CRPP Funded Lesson Study

Pilot Project in a Primary School (2006 – 2007)

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Researchers

NIE/CRPP/CTL Research Community

NIE Teacher Educator Community

Subject & Curriculum Experts

School as a Professional Teaching Community

School Leaders/Teachers

•  Classroom & Pupils •  Protected time for LS • Teaching Resources

•  Research theories •  Research methodologies e.g. Design Experiment

Lesson Study as a Community of Practice (COP)

Lesson Study

• Subject knowledge • PCK • Educational theory and philosophy

Community of Practice (Wenger, 1998)

Implementing LS in a Primary School

20 Studies of Lessons Across Grades & Subjects

6 in Mathematics, 5 in English, 2 in Social Studies

2 in Malay Language, 2 in Tamil Language, 1 in Science,

1 in Chinese Language & 1 in Physical Education

2006 Cycle 1 (Jan-Apr) Learning by doing

Cycle 2 (July-Sept)

Improving & adapting to local context

2007 Cycle 3 (Jan-April)

Experimenting with whole school approach - teacher leaders as

facilitators

Cycle 4 (July-Sept) Deepening teachers curriculum and

subject matter knowledge

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Major Findings: Teachers’ Participation

•  Majority of teachers: –  were satisfied with Lesson Study as a process for

improving teaching and learning in the subject areas but found it difficult to cope with the competing demands in the school.

–  felt more confident to have colleagues observe their lessons.

–  gained confidence in teaching the topics (of research lessons) selected by their teams.

•  Lesson study teams became sites for mentoring beginning teachers

Shift in Teachers’ Planning Orientation from Focusing on Instructional Strategies to Meaningful Learning Opportunities for

Students

50.0%

26.9%

17.5% 20.9%

Mtg1Y06 Mtg2Y06

Planning Sessions in 2006

12.8% 10.7%

24.6%18.2% 21.0%

31.9%

51.8%

24.6%

36.4%

27.1%

Mtg1Y07 Mtg2Y07 Mtg3Y07 Mtg4Y07 Mtg5Y07

Planning Sessions in 2007

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The role of subject specialists is critical in enhancing the level of pedagogical content

knowledge of the teams

Major Findings: Role of Faculty and Researchers

•  Enabling and supporting knowledge building

•  As brokers for knowledge and resources

•  Provision of training •  Documenting and

studying teacher learning

 well-­‐honed  repertoire  of  ways  of  reasoning  with  tools  and  artefacts

LS

Well-honed repertoire of ways of reasoning with tools and artifacts

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Power Factors into the Egalitarian Interaction in

Lesson Study

•  Lesson Study is an egalitarian platform where participants, regardless of years of experiences, are able to contribute thoughts and suggestions freely

•  Nevertheless power factors into the interactions. Ideas offered by those perceived to possess more knowledge were accepted more readily in the lesson design.

The issue is how do we build norms and protocols to support sharing and community building in the early stage of lesson study?

2009 LESSON STUDY SURVEY FINDINGS

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What are support mechanisms in the school?

reduced  workload

5%

protected  time28%

relief  teachers

8%grassroot  interest13%

advocate23%

resource  links12%

other11% “Other”

•  Supportive school

leaders & HODs •  Training of LS

facilitators •  Sharing among

teachers •  Sharing by other

schools

Problems “Others”

•  Initial skepticism among teachers

•  Building up resources for the RL

•  Entire cycle is time consuming & intense

•  “Fighting” for time with other initiatives (e.g. AR, LC, UbD)

•  Teachers holding other responsibilities

•  Teams not strong in content, pedagogy & facilitation

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Summary of Findings: Teachers’ Voices

What did teachers like or dislike Lesson Study? Ø  The teachers liked – post-RL discussions (84%) –  observing the RLs (78%) Ø  Top of the list of dislikes is planning meetings

(10%) •  The RL teachers seemed to benefit more from LS

than those who did not teach the RLs.

What  Teachers  Like/Dislike    about  LS

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Positive Outcomes of Lesson Study

•  Bring about greater collegiality among teachers •  A site for the mentoring of beginning teachers •  Sharing of lesson study experiences within

schools, across schools and at national and international platforms

•  Deepening of subject matter knowledge and PCK •  Develop teacher capacity for curriculum redesign

Need for more research to collect evidences of

teacher learning and student learning

Common Practices & Concerns

In  planning,  teacher  teams  • decide  on  the  topic  of  the  research  lesson  without  giving  adequate  a'en+on  to  a  discussion  of  a  research  problem  which  LS  is  a'emp+ng  to  address.  • over-­‐plan  by  including  too  many  ac+vi+es  in  a  lesson.  • spend  a  lot  of  +me  in  developing  the  lesson  plan  with  inadequate  a'en+on  to  how  they  are  going  to  observe  the  lesson  • include  a  group-­‐work  component  for  the  sake  of  observers  of  their  research  lesson  • do not situate their single research lesson in a unit of work and that a single lesson is sufficient to improve learning  • are  concerned  about  the  collec+on  of  quan+ta+ve  data  as  evidence  that  students  have  learnt.  

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Common Practices & Concerns

In observing research lessons, teachers • are not sure what to observe and how to take notes • tend to observe the teacher rather than the student (s) (ingrained practice)

• do not use a camera or video camera as additional tools of observations • sometimes interfere with the group process

Common Practices and Concerns

In post-lesson discussions, teachers • who participated in the planning process are not able to attend post-lesson discussion because of conflicting schedules • share their reflections largely based on recall or opinions without reference to data such as observation notes or concrete examples • do not use students’ work for discussion • comment on teacher’s delivery/teaching (He/she should have….) • do not use the video as a source of evidence • do not after the cycle document carefully the materials, tools, and artifacts produced during the process.

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Early Adopters of Lesson Study

Lesson Study in Singapore is still in its early stages of development. We started only in 2004. It would take time to bring about changes in school culture and mindsets of teachers. Much more work has to be done to develop the quality of Lesson Study.

A Video Case of a Mathematics Lesson Study

Team – Lesson on Long Division with Remainder

(16 mins)

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THANK YOU