Doug Corey and his former graduate student, Matt Mellville recently published an article titled “Kyouzaikenkyuu: An Exploration of Japanese Mathematics Teachers’ Daily Planning Practices” in the Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education. Doug has answered a few questions about this article below:
Who would you say is the target audience for this article?
Researchers that want insight into Japanese instruction/planning or that want insight into mathematics teacher planning in general.
What is the big problem you hoped to address with this article?
We know that the Japanese teach mathematics at a high level, but we don’t understand all of the aspects that enables them to teach at such a high level. It takes considerable knowledge, skill, and planning to implement high-level lessons. We were trying to understand a planning practice that all Japanese teachers seem to do, but has not been studied. The Japanese claim that it is fundamental to good teaching, so we should understand what it is.
What are some of the key ideas in the article?
The focus of planning by Japanese teachers is not just finding examples to explain or tasks to give students during class. The teachers study a variety of materials to improve their understanding of the specific unit and lesson goals that would be appropriate for their students, understanding of mathematics for themselves, understanding student thinking/misconceptions related to the topic, adapting lessons to their particular students, and finally crafting a refined lesson plan based on what they have learned.
What are some of the main ideas you hope your audience will take from this article?
That the right kind of study during lesson planning can be a powerful, just-in-time professional development for teachers to gain the knowledge needed to develop and implement high-quality lessons.
Kyozaikenkyuu takes a long time to learn, and it seems to be learned through mentoring, lesson study, and on-the-job experience; not so much from teacher training programs.
There are two kinds of Kyozaikenkyuu, one type sticks closely to the textbook to develop a unit plan and uses textbook tasks (or modified versions of these tasks). The other type is usually done by very experienced, knowledgeable teachers. These teachers may make units that are quite different from the textbooks and draw on their own tasks. Both types can be effective because they focus on understanding mathematics, understanding student mathematical thinking, and developing/modifying tasks to help students to engage in rich, meaningful mathematics in a natural way.
Abstract:
Kyouzaikenkyuu (translated as instructional materials research) is said to be a crucial part of successful Japanese lesson study. Kyouzaikenkyuu is described as the planning portion of the research lesson during lesson study. Kyouzaikenkyuu is also said to be done on a daily basis by Japanese teachers; however, there is very little written about this process in the literature. This study takes an in-depth look into what Japanese junior high mathematics teachers do during their daily kyouzaikenkyuu, and why they do it. Through interviews, observations, and participation in kyouzaikenkyuu, we explain the process and key ideas that many Japanese mathematics teachers go through to prepare their lessons. We document two different approaches to kyouzaikenkyuu. We also found that for some teachers there is a large difference between what they do during kyouzaikenkyuu for a research lesson compared to the kyouzaikenkyuu of a daily lesson. If teachers outside of Japan wish to engage in kyouzaikenkyuu and lesson study, these approaches are a good place to start.