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Welcome Message
The Academy of Principals (Singapore) is delighted to organize the Singapore Lesson Study Symposium 2013 to benefit our education fraternity. The theme this year is “Improving Teaching and Learning through Lesson Study”. With the strong interest in improving actual classroom teaching, we know that Lesson Study with its strong emphasis on real-time learning will be very relevant. As a platform to network and share good practices and ideas related to Lesson Study, this symposium will also provide opportunities for Singapore schools to learn from our fellow educators and leading experts from Japan, Hong Kong, United Kingdom and the United States of America. We wish all participants an engaging and enriching learning experience at this symposium.
Chan Poh Meng
President
Academy of Principals (Singapore)
Edmund Lim W.K.
Chair, Organising Committee, Singapore Lesson Study Symposium 2013
The Singapore Lesson Study Symposium (SLSS) is an annual event for educators, school leaders and academics to deepen their understanding and knowledge of Lesson Study. It also provides a platform for the sharing of valuable experiences and good practices in Lesson Study, and its application in schools. Our Guest of Honour Ms Ho Peng, Director-General of Education will deliver the Opening Address.
We have invited leading speakers to share their expertise in the various fields of Lesson and Learning Study. There will also be mini-workshops and presentations by teachers. The SLSS will enable educators to improve the quality of teaching and learning through Lesson Study (LS).
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The Keynote Speakers &
Invited Workshop Presenters
Lynn PAINE
Michigan State University, United States
 Lynn Paine is Professor of Teacher Education, and an adjunct professor of sociology and women’s studies. Her work focuses on comparative and international education and the sociology of education, with an emphasis on the relationship between educational policy and practice. Much of her work has involved the comparative study of teachers, teaching, and teacher education, supported by research in China, Japan, the United States and England. A teacher educator who works with future and practicing teachers, she is interested in how teachers learn and what contexts and supports enhance certain kinds of learning. Most recently her work has focused on understanding teacher professional development as a kind of teaching and exploring the knowledge entailments of practice-based professional development. Intrigued by the ways in which globalization may create new ways of talking about and reforming teaching, she recently co-edited a special issue of Comparative Education Review on the global and local in teaching and teacher education.
Keynote Synopsis
Learning in and from practice: What does it take?
Teachers, researchers and policy makers around the world today argue that improving student learning requires that teachers change their practice. Lesson study and related forms of learning in and through practice often is seen as a powerful response to this challenge to support teacher learning. But what does it take to learn in and through practice? In this presentation I reflect on how different forms of lesson-based teacher professional development afford learning and examine comparatively various approaches in China, Japan and the U.S. I also explore what those who support this kind of teacher learning say is required to help make practice-based learning possible. Drawing on a study of mathematics staff developers in each of these three countries, I unpack the complex teaching which is entailed in supporting teacher learning.
Pete DUDLEY
University of Leicester, United Kingdom
 An education leader, writer and researcher, Pete has taught in primary and secondary schools in East London and abroad. He led on school improvement, curriculum development and assessment in Essex and in the London Borough of Redbridge before joining the National College for School Leaders in 2003 to develop school learning networks. He then headed the government’s Primary National Strategy for 5 years.
Pete introduced Lesson Study (LS) into the UK from Japan in 2001. He developed LS at NCSL (2003-5), the National Strategies (2008-11) the University of Exeter (2010-12) and GTCNI (2010-13). He has spoken and worked on Lesson Study in the Japan, the US, Hong Kong, Singapore, Palestine and Chile and is currently advising a number of national developments and ‘teaching schools. He was awarded a PhD in 2012 for his LS research by the University of Cambridge.
He has published widely in the fields of teaching and learning, assessment, school improvement, teacher learning, and school to school support. He is currently responsible for education and learning in Central Bedfordshire, Honorary Secretary of the World Association of Lesson Study and Honorary visiting Professor of Education at the University of Leicester.
Keynote Synopsis
How and why Lesson Study can help to overcome longstanding and intractable barriers to teacher learning and school to school support.
There is a growing body of research which indicates that how teachers learn and what they learn differs considerably from the ways in which most other professionals learn professionally. The 'swiftly flowing river' that teachers cope with each lesson they teach presents an almost unique set of challenges to our intellects in terms of coping with vast amounts of information and the need to make thousands of decisions an hour.
And why do teachers learn so quickly and so furiously during the first year or two that they are in the profession? And why do most teachers almost stop learning beyond the third year - when so many other professions continue to increase their experience and knowledge for many more years?
Dr Dudley will outline what we currently know about teacher learning and how teacher learning differs from other forms of professional learning. He will go on to report distinctive and promising characteristics of how teachers seem to learn when they are engaged in Lesson Study.
He will then identify factors that can help to enhance teacher learning in lesson study and finally point to actions that teachers, school leaders and local system leaders can take in order to optimise the learning that is gained from lesson studies and the impact on the learning of students.
He will draw upon his research and experiences in the UK and internationally.
Hiroyuki KUNO
Aichi University of Education, Japan
 Associate Professor Hiroyuki Kuno from the Aichi University of Education is an expert in Lesson Study and School Development. He has been actively leading Lesson Study activities in various schools in Japan. His research interests include Lesson Study and Lesson Analysis, Integrated-Studies as well as European and German Education. In his social responsibilities at the national level in Japan, he serves as an editorial member of the National Curriculum for Period of Integrated Studies, Ministry of Education (September 2007 – August 2008); a committee member of "Pilot Schools Program for Research Purposes" for Nara Primary School attached to Nara Women's University assigned by the Ministry of Education (April 2009–March 2012). Dr Kuno is a founder member of the WALS Council and Executive Committee member as well as a Board member of the Japanese Society for living Environmental Studies and Integrated Studies. He is also frequently invited to International Lesson Study Conferences such as in Singapore, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and UK. Dr Kuno is currently staying as academic visitor at Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge in United Kingdom.
Keynote Synopsis
School-curriculum development and sustainability of Lesson Study: 21st century teachers competencies and improving teachers
The presenter will share with participants a perspective of teacher’s competencies that is required in the first half of the 21st Century. Besides ICT literacy, communication skills and collaborative minds, School-Curriculum Development and Modification will be basic competencies for teachers in the sustainable 21st century. For this purpose, participants will try to revise a given lesson plan jointly (probably mathematics) according to their point of view for lesson improvement. Then, they will exchange their vision for lesson improvement. The presenter shows some examples of teaching materials and lesson videos in Japan. (Part I)
In the second part, the presenter describes the School-Curriculum model of “Integrated-studies” which was introduced in Japan since 2008. It played a significant role for school-developed Learner-Centered Curriculum in Japan. The School-Curriculum model of “Integrated-studies” was distributed to participants through Lesson Study and the process of modification. Lesson Study plays a role in the continual enhancement of school curriculum and teacher quality improvement in the 21st century.
Ellen Yuefeng ZHANG
Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong
 Dr. Zhang is an Assistant Professor of Department of Curriculum and Instruction and the Co-director of Centre for Small Class Teaching at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, and a Council member of The World Association of Lesson Study. Her main research interests include curriculum studies, English language teaching and learning, learning study and teacher professional development. She has led many Learning Study projects and learning circle activities in Hong Kong schools which aim to enhance teaching and learning and promote teacher professional development.
Keynote Synopsis
A Variation-based Framework of Effective Teaching and Learning
Variation Theory argues that learning is always directed to a certain object of learning. Each object of learning bears many various aspects. Some of the aspects are more critical than the others and should be the very focus of teaching. In order to discern the critical aspects, a person needs to experience variation corresponding to these aspects. The presentation starts with a brief introduction of Variation Theory and then illustrates a variation-based pedagogical framework with examples from Hong Kong Learning Study Movement. It concludes with implications on effective use of Variation in teaching and learning.
Patsy WANG-IVERSON
Gabriella and Paul Rosenbaum Foundation, United States
Patsy Wang-Iverson is Vice President for Special Projects at the Gabriella and Paul Rosenbaum Foundation, where her work focuses on improving mathematics and science education by learning from practices around the world, including lesson study. She is active in disseminating lessons learned from international studies, including TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study), PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), and PIRLS (Progress in International Literacy Study). She has made presentations on lesson study, TIMSS and PISA, and origami in mathematics education. She is the U.S. representative to the APEC Lesson Study Project directed jointly by Thailand and Japan.
Abstract
Engaging in Kyozaikenkyu through the lens of TIMSS
Practitioners of lesson study (LS) have encountered differing LS cycles. Some cycles consist only of three steps: 1) plan, 2) do, 3) review/reteach. Such cycles miss a vitally important component: study (i.e. kyozaikenkyu). How can a LS team plan effectively without first engaging in study of students, research, and resource materials?
In this session, we will discuss what occurs during kyozaikenkyu by using TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) data to help us examine what students know, how well they can apply what they know, and how well they are able to reason. Using these data, participants will compare their own students with students "representative" of Singapore in TIMSS. They will discuss what kinds of students they want to see graduate from their school and how to achieve those goals.
Please click here to view the programme
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