Abstract
This article describes the
collaborative work and professional development of four middle school
mathematics teachers who, participating in the Japanese Lesson Study
method of professional development, used handheld computing devices
to design a lesson. Each teacher worked with a Palm M130 and shared
one classroom set of 25 handheld devices with the other three teachers.
Typically K-12 teachers experience
technological innovations in traditional workshop settings. These workshops
follow conventional training formats for using Excel, PowerPoint, Word,
and more, without any valid connection made to real world classroom
practices. Note, for instance, the following teacher exchange:
Rose: A year and a half ago we were all trained on PowerPoint.
Two days with PowerPoint. Have I ever sat down and made a PowerPoint
presentation to use in my classroom? NO!
Bob: Same here. Same here.
Anna: Because, for one thing, you have to figure out where you
would plug it in, and is it a good use of your time? Is it worth
the use of your time (to develop it) to show them that?
In these workshops, teachers
might learn how to use a new software product, but without specific
explanations about how using this software actually benefits student
learning and factoring in the trade-off for time intensive start-up
and development, teachers often enter their classrooms the next morning
little changed. Technology is viewed as an addition to their curriculum
rather than a powerful vehicle for delivering their curriculum.
Engaging teachers in meaningful dialogue about technology and encouraging
them to envision technology in their daily practice help teachers connect
innovations to their classroom practice. This article will highlight
the experiences of four middle school mathematics teachers participating
in a professional development learning group called a Teacher Research
Team (TRT). The goal of the TRT learning group was to design and implement
a mathematics lesson using handheld computing devices. The TRT structure
modeled the Japanese Lesson Study approach* (Lewis, 2002; Stigler &
Hiebert, 1999) and focused on teachers’ classroom practice and
the development of one lesson with special attention to students’
thinking and learning about mathematics and technology.
*Editor's Note:
In lesson study, a group of teachers
(TRT) collaborates to develop a lesson. One group member will
teach the lesson while the other members of the group observe
how students learn during the lesson. The TRT comes back together
to debrief, looking for what worked and what did not work.
The group will then revise the lesson and re-teach it to incorporate
what has been learned, and the critiquing process begins again.
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Lesson Study Links:
California Science Project: What is Lesson Study http://csmp.ucop.edu/csp/resources/lessonstudy.html
California Mathematics Project:
What is Lesson Study
http://csmp.ucop.edu/cmp/resources/lessonstudy.html
Lesson Study Research Group
http://www.tc.edu/lessonstudy/
Southeast Eisenhower Regional
Consortium for Mathematics and Science: Lesson Study Resources
http://www.serve.org/Eisenhower/resources/lesson_study.html
Tools for Schools: Lesson
Study
http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/tools/tools2-04rich.cfm
Teachers Leaders Network:
Lesson Study - A List of Resources
http://www.teacherleaders.org/Resources/lessonstudy.html
Background
In the National Council of
Teachers of Mathematics 2000 Yearbook, Learning for a New Century,
Waits and Demana (2000) predicted that, “The marriage of calculators
and computers will allow us to resolve some of the intractable equity
issues of our educational system” (p.64). This union has occurred
in personal handheld computing devices or personal digital assistants
(PDAs). These inexpensive learning tools have large-scale implications
for a changing learning environment for K-12 mathematics students. The
same might have been said for desktop computers in the late 1980s as
they entered the schools. Nevertheless, desktop computers have not become
an integral part of the K-12 mathematics classroom (Jacobsen, Clifford,
& Friesen, 2002). School computing technologies average $7 billion
per year, yet student access to school computers is measured in minutes
per week (Becker, 1994; Soloway, Norris, Blumenfeld, Fishman, Krajik,
& Marx, 2001).
In a review of past, present, and future applications of calculators
in the mathematics classroom, Waits and Demana (2000) claim, “the
lesson we learned is that change can occur if we put the potential for
change in the hands of everyone” (p. 53). We predict that the
same lesson will be learned as PDAs become more widely used in the K-12
classroom. Unlike desktop computers that are often not readily accessible
to all students because of cost and mobility, PDAs offer sleek, affordable
convenience in every learner’s hand. They afford students the
same capabilities of a laptop for a much more reasonable price (Swan,
Swan, VanHover, & Bell, 2002). Because of their compact size and
considerable capabilities, PDAs can be used in classrooms in ways not
even approached by previous technology. However, if teachers are not
properly prepared and supported with this innovation, PDAs are destined
to fall by the wayside just as their predecessor technologies.
Our goals in this paper are to: (1) explain how a TRT functions, (2)
provide details on the middle school teachers’ reactions to the
PDAs and the TRT professional development format, and (3) make real-world
connections to the reader’s practice and professional development.
The Teacher Research Team (TRT)
The TRT consisted of four middle school teachers and two teacher educators,
the authors of this article. The classroom teachers, two females and
two males, practiced in four different middle schools teaching seventh
or eighth grade mathematics. Two of the teachers were from the same
urban school district and the other two were from neighboring suburban
towns. Their ages ranged from mid-twenties to early-fifties, and their
years of teaching experience ranged from one to twenty-five years. Each
teacher came recommended by our university colleagues as well as by
his/her school principal.
We provided each teacher with a Palm m130, a handheld computing device
that has a calendar, planner, address book, calculator, and note pad.
Information could be entered by using either the attachable keyboard
or a stylus, a pen-like instrument. Each Palm had Documents-To-Go 5.0
software which included WordToGo, word processing software, SheetToGo,
spreadsheet/graphing software, and SlideshowToGo, presentation software.
The group also shared (1) twenty-five additional PDAs to be used by
their students, (2) a projector, and (3) a Margi Presenter-To-Go, which
projects the Palm image from an LCD projector for whole class viewing.
During the spring of 2003 these handheld devices with software cost
approximately $180 each. Using the PDAs and the Japanese Lesson Study
Method (Lewis, 2002; Stigler & Hiebert, 1999), the group collaborated
to find a mathematics topic common to all four classes and build a research
lesson that could be taught more effectively by using the PDAs.
During the beginning
meetings teachers discussed various ideas for topics that could be enhanced
by using technology. They identified the following topics: the display
and manipulation of three-dimensional geometric objects; fraction and
decimal relationships using an interactive slide show; percents and
resulting investments over time; and budgets and expenditures. The group
decided to focus on the relationships between fractions, decimals, and
pie charts using a spreadsheet and comparing pie charts.
