Departments of Biology, Chemistry, and Physics

Every student in secondary science teacher education is required to participate in the preparation and teaching three sequential, inquiry-oriented, student-centered classes at University High School or a similar site. Requirements for this project are found in this document. Specific criteria describing acceptable performance can be found in the Lesson Study Performance Assessment Form.

OVERVIEW

The lesson study approach is based upon ideas brought to North America from Japan by Stigler and Hiebert through an analysis of disparities in teaching and learning as documented in The Teaching Gap (Stigler, J. W. & Hiebert, J. (1999). The Teaching Gap: Best Ideas from the World's Teachers for Improving Education in the Classroom. New York: The Free Press.). Too often, there is a fundamental gap between how we expect students to learn and how we expect teachers to teach. Lesson study closes this gap. Lesson study, the method by which these disparities can be addressed, empowers teachers at all levels to focus on students' learning rather than upon teachers' teaching. This change in focus requires and allows teachers to more freely examine and reflect upon their own actions in the classroom as demonstrated by their students' learning.

The following is an example of what characterizes a ≥typical≤ lesson study project, only two or three of which might be completed in a year's time in Japan. A team of 5 - 7 teachers meets to identify a goal for their lesson. This is typically done by examining long-term goals for students' science learning, and considering specific content goals as well. Teachers then examine what is known about the teaching and learning of the concept selected for study by reviewing previously taught lessons, reading related literature, watching videotapes, and examining a variety of curriculum materials including state and national science teaching standards. Based on what they find, teachers collaboratively plan a research lesson that is taught by one of the teachers and observed by the other group members. Following the lesson, everyone involved participates in a discussion involving several components: the teacher reflects on the lesson, the other lesson study group members comment on the intended goals of the lesson; all members of the lesson study discuss what they observed in relation to the goals, and other observers ask questions and make comments. The lesson study group then reflects on and refines the research lesson that might be taught again. Finally, the teachers write a report about their lesson that will be shared with other lesson study group members.

The following discrete steps will be followed as part of our Lesson Study process:

Define the Problem. The teacher candidate team will, with the assistance of the instructor, select one topic from among those that ordinarily would be included among the lessons of a physics class. It would be good to choose subject material that would be challenging to students or which students find difficult to understand. At the same time, the lesson probably should be a self-contained ≥drop in≤ unit due to the brevity of the teaching (3 lessons) associated with the Lesson Study project. Clearly establish the goal of the lesson in terms of what student will be expected and known and be able to do at the end of the lesson sequence. The team needs to find out from the instructor when and the lessons will be taught.

Plan the Lessons. Once the goal has been determined, teacher candidates will begin to plan the lesson as a group even though only one of the team will actually teach the lesson at a time. The requirements and criteria should be consulted before, during, and following the planning and writing process. Strong efforts should be made to bring resources to bear in solving the problem of how to best present the lessons. What does the research literature say? What are pertinent pre-conceptions or typical misconceptions? What sort of materials will be needed, and which are available? The goal is not only to produce an effective sequence of lessons, but to understand why and how the lessons work to promote (or prevent) learning among students. The lesson plans can be shared with methods course instructors or in-service teachers for their input. Attention must be paid to the creation of clear inquiry-oriented student performance objectives; the lessons should end with an assessment of some form to determine whether or not the declared objectives have been met. Prepare three detailed sequential lesson plans following the guidelines that are part of this document.

Teach the Lessons. Several teacher candidates will present the lessons, remembering always that the lessons are the product of the group. The lessons might be rehearsed several times before they are presented. All planners must be present when the lessons are taught. Barring that, arrangements must be made for the lessons to be videotaped for later reflection and analysis. If high school students are asked to complete some sort of performance such as a lab activity, lesson planners are free to move about the room to observe students completing the work. In no case should these observers take an active part in teaching the lessons. The purpose of the activity is to determine how a teacher working alone can best teach the prepared lesson. In order to keep the playing field level, no decision is to be made about who will actually present the lessons until immediately before each lesson is taught. Lesson presenters will be selected via a random process. Please note that not all teacher candidates will have an opportunity to teach, and that each teaching performance will be assessed with the aid of a rubric contained within the Lesson Study Performance Assessment Form.

Evaluate the Lesson. The group generally gets together immediately after the lessons are taught in order to conduct a review. The teacher who led a high school lesson is generally given the floor to speak first, outlining her or his views on how well the lesson worked and noting the key problems. Others are free to speak critically under the full realization that the lesson was the product of the group, and not a product of the teacher who taught the lesson. In effect, the team critiques itself. The focus moves from the presentation of the lessons to their revision. A helpful Assessment Rubric can be found as part of this document.

Revise the Lesson. Based upon previous observations and reflections, the lessons are revised. Changes might include use of materials, order of presentation, questions asked, assessment of student understanding ≠ all these things and more.

Document the Lessons. The final step and the responsibility of each student is to individually document the entire Lesson Study process. This must be done individually, not as a group. Guidelines and a rubric will be provided.

LESSON PLAN REQUIREMENTS

Each of your two lessons must be inquiry oriented and student centered; they must also be sequential; they must adhere to the content area identified by the course instructor. Each lesson must be fully prepared and documented following the guidelines below. The series of lessons must incorporate one or more complete learning cycles.

The focus of each lesson should be on answering a key question rather than merely purveying knowledge. Simply asking lots of questions during a lesson does not make it an inquiry-oriented lesson. Students should be actively engaged in hypothesizing, experimenting, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, drawing conclusions based upon empirical evidence, and communicating results. The use of technology is a plus. Avoid at all costs expository lecture-demonstration approaches. Before planning your lesson, be certain to have:

ß determined with the help of the course instructor the general strand of teaching;

ß identified a major goal within that strand; and

ß identified major objectives within that goal.

Document the entire lesson study project by preparing individual reports (some components of which will result from work of the group such as daily lesson plans).

Three separate and distinct lesson plans must each include the following clearly identified components:

Title: Clearly identify the strand by name.

Statement of Goal: The teaching/learning goal must be inquiry oriented. The lesson goal should state what the students are expected to know and be able to do at the end of the lesson. The goal should include aims in relation to content knowledge, intellectual and/or physical process skills, and dispositions as appropriate.

Inquiry-Oriented Student Performance Objectives: Objectives for students should consist of readily observable behaviors or performance tasks. Students must be made aware of day-to-day objectives. Provide two to five inquiry-oriented student performance objectives for each lesson. Hint: See for example the student performance objectives hyperlinked to the PHYSICS 310 course syllabus at http://www.phy.ilstu.edu/~wenning/ptefiles/310.html.

Description of Embedded Learning Cycles: Your three-day lesson series must incorporate two or more complete learning cycles. Please describe the phases of any learning cycle employed in this lesson along the following dimensions: observation, generalization, and/or application.

Lesson Content: List the hierarchy of scientific content and procedural knowledge in a concise, hierarchical outline fashion.

Alignment with Standards: The content, objectives, and goal of this lesson must align with Illinois Learning Standards, including Applications of Learning. In a concise statement, explain how the lesson complies with the Illinois Learning Standard directives.

Anticipatory Set: Explain how you will want to link the current lesson with any previous related lesson. The anticipatory set is included to ensure that the students are ready for this lesson as the next lesson in a series of lessons. These introductory activities focus student attention, provide for very brief practice on previous objectives, and develop readiness for the current lesson.

Inquiry Elements: Classroom activities must be inquiry oriented. Instructional activities are planned that help students to accomplish the stated objectives. A question that a teacher should ask is, Is the particular strategy used most appropriate to the content? How do I know? Instructional activities should be described. Include estimated times for each activity. Use diverse and effective actions, strategies and methodologies to teach science.

Skills of Teaching:

Interactions: Tell how you will make this lesson student-centered. Explain how you will interact effectively with students to promote learning and assess student achievement.

Student Groupings: Tell how you will organize and manage science activities effectively in different student groupings.

Technology: List the nature and type of advanced technology used to teach students.

Preconceptions: List the known preconceptions associated with this content area.

Nature of Science: Explain how you will engage students in activities to define the values, beliefs and assumptions inherent to the creation of scientific knowledge within the scientific community, and contrast science to other ways of knowing.

Context of Science: Explain how this lesson will relate to the daily lives and interests of your students and to the larger framework of human endeavor and understanding. Context of science refers to relationships among systems of human endeavor including science and technology; relationships among scientific, technological, personal, social and cultural values; and the relevance and importance of science to the personal lives of students.

Learning Environment: Explain what sort of learning environment you wish to establish. Explain how you will maintain a safe and supportive learning environment reflecting high expectations for the success of all students.

Closure: There has to be a logical means for drawing conclusions from the lesson. How will this be done?

Assessment: Explain how you will as teacher determine whether or not the goal and objectives for the days' lessons has been achieved (formative assessment). How will you assess the objectives in an informal though meaningful manner? List here a series of not less than seven questions that you might use to check for student understanding of the content of the lesson at its conclusion. Provide at least 10 formal questions that your cooperating teacher may use as part of a summative assessment of the content of this 3-day unit.

Materials: What materials will you need to teach your lesson? Because science teaching can be so materials intense, it's a good idea to make a list of everything that you'll need so that nothing is forgotten.

ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES

Documentation Requirements: During planning meetings, teacher candidates should carefully document the entire Lesson Study process, from beginning to end. Documentation should include the issues addressed, a sampling of the argumentation, and conclusions reached by the team for each of the planning meetings. Minutes for each meeting should be recorded. While a single individual may serve as team secretary, each team member is responsible to keeping up-to-date records about the process. These records should be created within one day of any planning meeting discussion. Following conclusion of the three days of lesson presentation and observation, the team needs to assess the lessons and determine how they might best be improved. Teacher candidates should include copies of the original and revised lesson plans, as well as a commentary on what changes were made and why. Individual scores will be assigned to this documentation process.

Specific Criteria for Documentation: This will be provided by each methods course instructor.

Teaching Requirements: Each student must teach two or more of the three planned lessons. Both the lesson format and delivery will be assessed and include the following components derived from the NSTA Teacher Preparation Standards: content knowledge, nature of science, inquiry, context of science, skills of teaching, curriculum, social context, assessment, environment for learning, and professional practice.

Specific Criteria for Teaching: Each lesson (including format and delivery) will be assessed by the cooperating teaching using the NSTA-based Teacher Candidate Performance Assessment Form.

The checklist on the next two pages outlines the salient behaviors of an inquiry lesson. It is provided to teacher candidates as means for conducting an evaluation of the inquiry nature of the planned lessons.

Checklist: Salient Behaviors of an Inquiry Lesson


*The teacher* *candidate:*	Unacceptable: Candidate exhibits no regard for expected behavior.	Weak: Candidate attempt to exhibits expected behavior, but fail.	Acceptable: Candidate implements expected behavior to a limited degree.	Strong: Candidate regularly exhibits expected behavior.
focuses on questions as the active mode of inquiry.	No consideration for this activity over course of lessons.	Confuses asking lots of questions with true inquiry.	Focuses on finding the answers to only a very few questions.	Great emphasis on ways of knowing answers to very few questions.
encourages student thinking and questioning.	No consideration for this activity over course of lessons.	Provides questions for students to investigate.	Attempts to have students identify questions to investigate, but fails.	Encourages students to identify questions worthy of researching.
engenders debate and discussion among students.	No consideration for this activity over course of lessons.	Asks few follow-up questions; does not deal with apparent discrepancies.	Regularly asks follow-up questions; draws attention to apparent discrepancies.	Actively encourages meaningful debate among students on observations and interpretation of data
provides a variety of levels and paths of investigation.	No consideration for this activity over course of lessons.	Generally takes one approach to achieving educational goals.	Seeks external verification to answered questions.	Seeks alternative means to experimentally verify answers to questions.
is a mentor and guide, giving as little direction as possible.	No consideration for this activity over course of lessons.	A sage on the stage providing lots of specific direction.	A mix of sage and guide, providing suggestions for appropriate action.	A guide on the side helping students to identify appropriate procedures.
promotes an active quest for new information and ideas.	No consideration for this activity over course of lessons.	Tends to provide students with information rather than helping them create their own knowledge.	Attempts to engage student in the construction of knowledge, but fails.	Actively and regularly engages students in the construction of their own knowledge.
avoids appeals to authority and avoids acting as an authority figure.	No consideration for this activity over course of lessons.	Teaches from a didactic perspective and sets self up as authority figure or uses textbook as authority.	At weak moments, sets self up as authority figure or uses textbook as authority.	Strongly encourages empirical approach; avoids reference to external authority.
maintains an atmosphere conducive to inquiry.	No consideration for this activity over course of lessons.	Has a difficult time establishing and maintaining inquiry-oriented classroom atmosphere conducive to experiential learning.	Generally maintains inquiry-oriented classroom atmosphere conducive to experiential learning; attempts to employ learning cycle.	Regularly maintains inquiry-oriented classroom atmosphere conducive to experiential learning; successfully employs learning cycle.
places emphasis on ≥How do I known material of this course?≤	No consideration for this activity over course of lessons.	Places greater emphasis on what is known rather than how it is known.	An equal emphasis placed on what is known and how it is known.	Places greater emphasis on how is known rather than what is known.
uses appropriate questioning skills such as wait time & variety.	No consideration for this activity over course of lessons.	Poor variety of question types; most questions convergent.	Good variety of questions, but tend not to move from convergent to divergent.	Wide variety of questions that regularly move from divergent to convergent.
responds appropriately to what students contribute to lesson	No consideration for this activity over course of lessons.	Only a minimal amount of attention paid to student responses; few follow-up questions.	Periodically responds in the affirmative to student questions; some times asks follow-up questions.	Reflects student responses; regularly asks follow-up questions.

*Participating students:*	Unacceptable: Students not involved in expected behavior.	Weak: Students only weakly engaged in expected behavior.	Acceptable: Students regularly engaged in expected behavior.	Strong: Students exhibit expected behavior to high degree.
make observations and collect and interpret data.	No consideration for this activity over course of three lessons.	Observations generally taken from inquiry-oriented lecture demonstrations.	Observations take from a mix of inquiry-oriented lecture demonstrations and laboratory activities.	Observations generally taken from laboratory activities.
formulate hypotheses and create and conduct experiments to test.	No consideration for this activity over course of three lessons.	Confuses hypothesis with prediction, but follows up with an experiment to test prediction.	Students formulate simple explanations, but not experimental follow-up occurs.	Students formulate simple explanations and follow up with test activities.
relate independent & dependent variables to establish meaningful relationships.	No consideration for this activity over course of three lessons.	Students identify and work with independent and dependent variables, but do not work with them in a meaningful way.	Students identify and work with independent and dependent variables; little concern for control of extraneous variables.	Students identify and work with independent and dependent variables; control of extraneous variables.
use reasoning ability to interpret data draw relationships	No consideration for this activity over course of three lessons.	Students derive principles from data; not concern shown for generation of laws.	Students perform algebraic calculations using discrete data to generate law.	Students use graphical methods to generate meaningful relationships using all suitable data.
make decisions and draw conclusions on the basis of data.	No consideration for this activity over course of three lessons.	Students derive their own results, but do not communicate them to the rest of the class.	Students communicate results verbally without the aid of instructional technology or illustrations.	Students use white board or other appropriate means to communicate results.
defend conclusions on the basis of data.	No consideration for this activity over course of three lessons.	Students write up lab reports in which they merely present conclusions but do not defend them directly.	Students answer questions from other students following presentation.	Students answer probing questions from other candidate following presentation.
interpret collected data or observations.	No consideration for this activity over course of three lessons.	Students apply what they have learned to nearly identical situations.	Students apply what they have learned to a small variety of situations.	Students apply what has been learned to a wide variety of situations.

Comments of assessor: