1630
Central European Time
Opening of Conference in Zone 2
Musical Introduction
This year we can enjoy this wonderful music of the Vienna Boys Choir online! Look forward to the WALS International Conference 2021, when the President and Artistic Director, Gerald Wirth, and Hubert Gruber from the University College of Teacher Education in Lower Austria will present a lesson study on learning to sing at their primary school. Their session will resonate the collaborative and yet individual focus of lesson study on learning as suggested by Gerald Wirth:
“A choir consists of many individuals who have to act as a team. A good concert can become a great performance, if every single participant can bring his own personality to the mix.”
Welcome
Catherine Lewis, Mills College and
Pete Dudley, WALS President and University of Cambridge UK
Session 1
1700 - 1815
Central European Time
Keynote:Professor Neil Mercer
Talking and learning: students and teachers
Neil Mercer is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge, Director of Oracy Cambridge: the Centre for Effective Spoken Communication, a Life Fellow of the Cambridge college Hughes Hall and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. Before he joined Cambridge, he was Professor of Language and Communications at the Open University. He is a psychologist whose research has focused on the development of children’s spoken language and reasoning abilities and teachers’ role in that development. He has worked extensively and internationally with teachers, researchers and educational policy makers. In 2019 he was given the Oevre Award by the European Association for Research into Learning and Instruction for outstanding contributions to educational research. His books include Words and Minds, Exploring Talk in School, Dialogue and the Development of Children’s Thinking, Interthinking: putting talk to work and Language and the Joint Creation of Knowledge; and he was co-editor of the Routledge International Handbook of Research on Dialogic Education.
Websites: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Mercer; www.educ.cam.ac.uk/people/staff/mercer; oracycambridge.org; thinkingtogether.educ.cam.ac.uk
1815 - 1830
Central European Time
Break
Session 2
1830 - 1910
Central European Time
Single Papers
Let’s get personal: why we need to understand personal-professional learning in Lesson Study?
When we think of effective Lesson Study we tend to focus on immediate outcomes. Yet, longevity of professional learning is key to really effective professional development. Change that endures is change that develops, refines and transforms practice. It is therefore important that we know more about that process, and what the research in this paper shows is that while Lesson Study processes are situated in professional contexts, it is the personal-professional learning that occurs within and from Lesson Study that is most significant overtime. Over half of the long-term learning in personal or personal-professional. Yet, this personal-professional learning is also far more challenging to deal with, within a professional culture, as it is harder to define, articulate and relate to performative outcomes. Ultimately, personal-professional learning in Lesson Study needs to be considered in more depth as overtime it is the personal learning that facilitates the professional development.
22
johnmynott
Effective lesson study practice
DEEP DIVE - Single Paper Roundtable
Virtual teaming in a new normal: first experiences with online Lesson Study
In this session we will present our first experience with online Lesson Study in the wake of the lockdown, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We started from an analysis of the essentials of Lesson Study, in terms of “Big Ideas”, “Critical Elements” and “Procedures” as well as literature on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning. From this analysis design, criteria were derived. In a virtual Lesson Study team, consisting of six members, all with extensive Lesson Study experience, an online lesson was designed, performed and observed. Participants kept record of their reflections and sessions were recorded. From these data, a set of recommendations was derived regarding the functionality of the online environment, the role of the facilitator and the way online lessons can be observed. The discussion in the session will focus on how the essence of Lesson Study can be held up in an online environment, based on this experience.
210
Wouter van Joolingen
Netherlands
Online lesson study
DEEP DIVE - Single Paper Roundtable
Dialogue between practice and research enhanced by Lesson study in music education
This contribution focuses of a lesson study about the use of a free online tool for music visualization for pupils from 11 to 18. The tool offers the possibility to create video animations on existing music, incite them to listen repeatedly to unfamiliar music and use technologies in a collaborative activity. The conception of this lesson study had been underpinned by research on interdisciplinary approaches in music education and use of new technologies in a collaborative creative process.
Different ways of introducing the tool in different classroom have been tested by teacher-researchers from the fields of music and education. Theoretical framework from dialogue theory, intersemiotic translation and socio-cultural psychology had been used to analyse the data. Variations within the same lesson helped to identify some levers or obstacles to the pupils' learning (Marton, 2015). Findings suggest the important role of the teacher’s action to guide the classroom dialogue.
227
Sabine Chatelain
Switzerland
Effective lesson study practice
DEEP DIVE - Single Paper Roundtable
Enhancement of Linguistic Output Quality in Foreign Language Classrooms through Peer Observation and a Newly Developed Reference Frame
On the basis of a lesson study and interactive strategies of Classroom Interaction Competence (Walsh 2006), we developed an observation scheme for peer observation in kindergartens and a corresponding reference frame. Our Goal is to ensure high-quality linguistic input and thus to particularly promote children from families with poor literacy input. In a pilot project, we found that a numerical rating scale for peer observation (IQOS Weitz 2015) was perceived by educators as imprecise and emotionally charged. Therefore, we developed a frame of reference which, comparable to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, assigns verbal descriptions to numerical categories of the rating scale (0-4) in mostly positive “can-descriptions”. In a lesson study, this frame of reference turned out to be valid and reliable. Observation form and reference frame - both revised with a focus group - can be a helpful tool for collegial observation for improving input quality.
237
Marjan Asgari
Effective lesson study practice
DEEP DIVE - Single Paper Roundtable
Q and A
Live
1910 - 1925
Central European Time
Session 3
1925 - 1955
Central European Time
Open Research Lesson
Open research lesson based on a story by Eric Carle
An open research lesson, available in video-recorded form, was designed collaboratively by a team of two primary school and two secondary school teachers with the goal to investigate the impact of formative feedback on the oral and written communicative competence of young foreign language learners. A lesson study in three cycles brought about variations in the design of the lesson, its teaching and learning materials as well as feedback tools. In the sharecase, the fourth research lesson will be shown and afterwards, the lesson study team will discuss the intended and observed learning of four case study pupils.
170
Fiona Lackenbauer
Austria
Effective lesson study practice
HUDDLE - Lesson Study Sharecase
2010 - 2030
Central European Time
LIVE Reflection
2030 - 2045
Central European Time
Break
Session 5
2045 - 2105
Central European Time
WALS Talks
School memorial days ‘rebooted’
Aims: The talk proposes a methodological dialogue between practitioners in order to foster creativity and utilize digital skills in celebrating memorial days giving empirical research background and suggestions with practical lesson designs.
Rationale: Basic to the analysis, the most important starting point for the design of a teaching unit is to get to know the learning activities of the students and to consciously approach the teaching on the basis of the knowledge gained. In the context of this study, the authors do not want to draw attention to the activities of the children during class, but rather report on how festivals are celebrated with the children at school.
Empirical study: Pupils in two 5th grades were asked to write an essay and these were evaluated by the authors according to objective criteria and presented in tabular form or with the help of diagrams. The children were asked to name and characterize the national holidays they knew and describe their feelings about the holidays. From the answers it can be stated that most of the Hungarian children have little knowledge about the content and background of the holidays and wrote rather negatively about the way of celebrating.
Suggestions: On the basis of the results of this study, the authors give recommendations for an experience and child-oriented celebration that also develops the community and brings the teaching material close to the children.
Key words digital learning, experience-oriented celebrations, memorial days
127
Agnes Klein
Hungary
Online lesson study
BURST - WALS Talks
The role of lesson study in the implementation of portfolio-based education in higher education (case study)
The talk focuses on portfolio-based education at Budapest Metropolitan University, where iMyBrand program was implemented in 2018. MyBrand is based on the portfolio-based education closing the gap between higher education and labour market. Portfolio-based education means methods, tools, structures, which can help students construct their rich and relevant portfolios from the aspect of market and lifelong learning using the activities at the universities and outside in order to apply their knowledge, skills and attitudes (competences) in more efficient way. Lesson study plays effective role on these levels, especially organizing the teacher development networks and thematic workshops on renewing teaching and assessment methodologies in order to implement portfolio-based education at Budapest Metropolitan University. Lecture focuses on the main results of impact on lesson study in the implementation process emphasizing some research data (focused group interviews, participated observation, questionnaire) and drawing conclusion (dilemmas, challenges and next steps).
114
Vilmos Vass
Hungary
Effective lesson study practice
BURST - WALS Talks
Q and A
Live
2055 - 2105
Central European Time
Session 6
2105 - 2145
Central European Time
Multiple Round Table
Student teacher learning through on-line lesson study in English as a foreign language, mathematics and physical education
Since March 2020, teaching and teacher education have changed dramatically. Although digital literacy had been at the forefront of new developments in education to foster 21st century skills, nobody had really anticipated a total lockdown and the need to facilitate remote and autonomous learning. Success in this endeavour seemed to depend on three main aspects: the access to digital resources (hard- and software), the ability to make use of digital learning opportunities, and the efficiency of the collaboration between parents, pupils and teachers, student teachers and lecturers, or all of these in the case of teacher education. This round table presents three modifications of lesson study in a virtual environment making use of various digital technologies and strategies to support student teacher learning in three seminars: formative feedback in English as a foreign language, mathematics, and physical education for primary and secondary school pupils.
154
Claudia Mewald
Austria
Online lesson study
DEEP DIVE - Multiple Papers Roundtable
Single Papers
Lesson study as a vehicle to foster teacher agency: An emergent theoretical framework
Despite evidence in support of Lesson Study (LS) as a powerful approach to teacher professional learning (e.g. Cheung & Wong, 2013; Dudley, Xu, Vermunt & Lang, 2019), the mechanisms by which Lesson Study foster teacher agency in particular contexts, including primary school settings, remain under-explored (Lewis, Friedkin, Emerson, Henn & Goldsmith, 2019; Willems & Van den Bossche, 2019). With this in mind, against a backdrop of primary curricular reform in Ireland, this paper presents an emergent theoretical framework for LS and teacher agency. The paper describes how this framework derived from a recent systematic review of existing literature which used an ecological conceptualisation of agency (Priestly, Biesta & Robinson, 2015) as a lens to examine empirical studies across multiple contexts in order to uncover how LS may support teachers to become agentic.
123
Mairead Holden
United Kingdom
Role of research
DEEP DIVE - Single Paper Roundtable
Lesson Study: a revealing mirror of teaching knowledge. The value of subtlety
What role does Lesson Study play in initial teacher training? In what way does it allow future teachers to question their convictions, conscious and unconscious, about what the teaching-learning processes entail?
This communication contains the results of a case study framed in a Spanish R&D project. In it, we investigate the pedagogical value of Lesson Study to reconstruct the practical knowledge of a group of teachers in training of the Early Childhood Education Degree of the University of Malaga. A journey full of uncertainties that allows the participants to become aware of their conceptions about the educational process, transform their teaching identity, and rethinking the complex relationship between autonomy-teaching and learning: How can we understand that the simple fact that children put on an apron by themselves and not that adults put it on, can open a space and time necessary for the child to develop relevant learning?
212
Isabel M. Fernández García
Spain
Role of research
DEEP DIVE - Single Paper Roundtable
Q and A
Live
2130 - 2150
Central European Time
Multiple Round Table
Single Papers
2200
Central European Time
WALS Routledge Book Series
Stepping up Lesson Study
An Educator’s Guide to Deeper Learning
Edited By Aki Murata, Christine Kim-Eng Lee
Copyright Year 2021
Changing Teaching, Changing Teachers
21st Century Teaching and Learning Through Lesson and Learning Study
By Keith Wood, Saratha Sithamparam
Copyright Year 2021