Lesson Study with Mathematics and Science Preservice Teachers: Finding the Form (Routledge, 2023) is a new overview of the fundamentals of lesson study edited by Syracuse University School of Education Dean Kelly Chandler-Olcott, Professor Sharon Dotger, and Jen Heckathorn G’22, Director for Experiential Learning and Partnerships and an instructor in teacher education, along with Gabriel Matney, of Bowling Green State University, and Ohio mathematics teacher Miranda Fox.
Part of the World Association of Lesson Studies (WALS) Routledge Lesson Study Series, the book is written for teacher educators who may want to try this immersive teacher training method in university contexts without translating the practice from the K-12 context on their own.
Lesson study is defined as a collaborative process that facilitates planning, analysis, and continuous improvement of instructional practices through live observation, evaluation of student learning, and goal-setting. Under Dotger’s leadership, it is among experiential methods for pre-service teachers offered through SOE’s Center for Experiential Pedagogy and Practice.
The new book describes lesson study’s constituent steps and offers examples provided from math and science teacher educators using the method in their local contexts.
“Learning well requires teachers and students to take risks together, to trust one another while subjecting public ideas to test and scrutiny. Lesson study gives its practitioners a supportive framework to do this,” says Dotger, SOE Faculty Director for Teacher Education and Undergraduate Studies. “Lesson study’s roots are almost as old as teacher education itself. I’m excited that the many authors of this volume have shown how it remains relevant and applicable to current contexts.”
The book’s descriptions and cases—although focusing on mathematics and science—are designed to support teacher educators and scholars across subject specialties and geographic lines, as they seek instructional frameworks to advance their pedagogical goals.
“Learning well requires teachers and students to take risks together, to trust one another while subjecting public ideas to test and scrutiny.”
Lesson Study with Mathematics and Science Preservice Teachers also reports on projects funded by several National Science Foundation awards, including an NSF Robert Joyce Urban STEM Teachers Capacity Building grant and an award for “A Community-Based Approach to STEM Teaching and Learning.”
Writes Peter Dudley, Associate Professor of Learning and Leadership, University of Cambridge, and Immediate Past President of WALS, “This book is a ‘must’ for anyone running or teaching pre-service mathematics or science teacher education courses who either wants to introduce lesson study into their program or who wants to enrich the way they are currently using lesson study. This book will dramatically increase the potential for emerging science and mathematics teachers to gain significantly and lastingly from early lesson study experiences in pre-service teacher education programs everywhere.”