Learning from engagement of cross-disciplinary lesson study

This presentation reports preliminary findings arising from a NAIRTL funded research project, which embodied cross-disciplinary collaboration and the use of technology at two levels in the pursuit of research into teaching and learning. The project involved the use of a form of Japanese lesson by colleagues from the Education Department and the Mathematics Department of a college of education. Five colleagues worked together to explore the goals of teaching a research lesson as part of a third level module in the history of mathematics. A research lesson on the contribution of Leibniz to the invention of the calculus using GeoGebra as a resource was prepared by the group and taught by the course lecturer delivering the module. Following ethical clearance, the research lesson was videotaped using a static camcorder focused on the teacher and a roving camera to record student participants’ work stations. The research lesson was also observed ‘live’ by the remaining participants of the lesson study group. Students recorded their impressions of the research lesson in their learning journals. The video recording was subsequently transcribed and analyzed collaboratively in the light of the agreed research lesson goals. Building on the protocols of the first cycle of lesson study a second research lesson in mathematics education for students of primary teaching is in preparation for a different group of students. In this symposium, four participants from the first cycle of lesson study will share their findings on the research lesson. Each will speak from a different perspective addressing the preparation, teaching, observation and review of the research lesson, with particular emphasis on the use of GeoGebra in the teaching of mathematics at third level. The potential for conducting lesson study in a cross-disciplinary fashion will be evaluated as will the contribution of video-stimulated recall to research into the teaching of mathematics.