www.le.ac.uk

Part 2

Lesson Study, investigating and developing learning with international post-graduate students

Aims of the research

•Enhance the quality of lecturers’ learning through collaboration in Lesson Study groups;

•improve the quality of students’ learning opportunities in seminars/lectures developed by lecturers who participate in Lesson Study;

•Evaluate lesson study as a vehicle for the development of lecturers’ reflective practice

Initial ideas

• The early months of full-time face-to-face masters courses can be difficult for international students due to learning issues centred on cultural difference and language acquisition

• Consideration of culture and learning. Led to a basic notion for development:

‘What we’re now saying to them is that they’re at the threshold of a new community, you know, new community of learning.’

(W, 1st planning meeting, Sept 2012)

What is learning?

• We have used the theory of learning developed by Illeris (2007)

Emergent method for understanding learning

Lesson Study cycles

Cycle 1

Cycle 2

Cycle 3

Focus on active/didactic approaches to learning• Learning theories• Effective teaching

Developing a critical student voice – co-constructing learning• Study skills• Globalisation of education

Implanting emergent lessons• Curriculum studies• Neuroscience and learning

Insights

• Much of what we have done/learnt we see as insights emerging out of a complex adaptive system

• Emergent lessons linked to:– The process of lesson study– Successful pedagogies in an international masters

environment– Professional insights and identities– Swimming in questions

The process of Lesson Study

• Session planning– Refocusing onto learning– Context

• Creation of a new session or rehashing an old?– The importance of rehearsal– Explicitly linking teaching and learning– Professional difference as catalyst for debate and

change

Rehearsal‘We’ve asked them to look at five things. We’ve asked them to go through the questions. Then we sort of say, ‘Right. Having had the questions answered, go back together with the five things that you noticed from the video and you now need to create a new definition of learning. You created one on the 8th. Created one last week. Now we want you to think about whether or not for you as a group it stays the same or it changes? What’s your new definition of learning?’

(P, 2nd Planning meeting, October 2012)

• Observation– Perhaps the largest/steepest learning curve– ‘Culturally difficult’ at the start– Insights – Incomplete stories – what does learning look like?

• Evaluating learning– Importance of interviews and observations

together– Insights into the complexity of learning– Reflection on our own practice

Developing Pedagogies

• What type of learning?

• Learning ecologies

• Language

• Co-construction of learning

What type of learning?

• Student perceptions of their own learning– Student/tutor roles– Instrumental/discovery

‘I think group, sometimes a very good idea, but sometimes it’s not good I think because some people have more responsibilities than other students I think. Some students, they more manage to process, but some students can be quite shy.’

(A, Turkish student)

‘Masters degree study should have focus on some research and cooperation with each other to find the best way to solve problems. So I think it’s quite good. It’s better than someone do the work by themselves.’

(R, Chinese student)

Learning Ecologies

• Introduction of pre-session and post-session tasks

• Structured

• Very popular

• Huge differences in learning during sessions

‘It’s funny because I listen a lot to him, both of you, and I like Wasyl because actually I like it that he uses a lot of anecdotes and I kind of like him because I faze out because he’s talking and then I just look at the points and then I’ll try and… It’s like listening for specific information. It’s like I’m sort of not completely ignoring him, but I’m sort of waiting for him to pull out something that I’m like, ‘I don’t know that’. Or like I’m like, ‘Oh’. So I’ll listen to him but if he’s talking or he’s said something that I find especially interesting, then I might look it up on my phone like quickly..’

(E, English student)

W: Have you got notes on the slides?No.W: Just a small number. Underlining some things on your slides.Yeah.W: So you’ve got the slides here and occasionally… So very little. Just the odd word.Yeah. Because it’s not my first language. It’s a little bit difficult to listen, translate and write. So I just listen to understand.

(E, Cypriot student)

Learning Ecologies

• Use of technology– Tablets– iphones– Netboooks– Laptops

‘Some words, especially the academic words, I need to refer to a dictionary. So I bring electronic dictionary everywhere.’

(R, Chinese student)

Language

• Innate variability

• Student led glossaries

• Terminology

Co-construction with students

• Development of the learning challenge and insights into student needs

‘I’m not sure exactly the difference between the introduction and conclusion. Some introduction would need to describe some background and information about our main topic, but in conclusion would also need that. So what’s exactly the difference between them and how to write down the conclusion which I need to write a summary or something, the other I’m not sure.’

Professional Insights and Identities

• Changes in the way we view learning– Structure – technology

• Teacher identity amongst the students

‘I think yesterday or last week. I don’t know why because in my country some teacher is very worried about the other teacher in the lesson.’

(A, Turkish student)

Swimming in questions

• Differentiation

• The role of culture

• Observation

• Learning