Prof. Ulla Runesson School of Education and Communication University of Jönköping Sweden

1. Beyond teacher development and school improvement. Local knowledge for the school or public knowledge useful for a wider population? • Prof. Ulla Runesson • School of Education and Communication • University of Jönköping • Sweden

2. A growth of collaborative, interventionist and classroom-based research • Development research (Van den Akker, 1999) • Teacher research (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1990) • Action research (Elliot, Stenhouse) • Design research (Cobb et al. ) • Lesson/learning study

3. Lesson/learningstudy - mainly a model for professionaldevelopment? • Teacherslearnabout • The content • Pedagogy • Students’ understanding • Development of PCK • (Yoshida & Jackson, 2011) • Makingteachersmorequalified – not generatingknowledge as such

4. Lesson/learningstudy as a model for teacher research? • Could lesson/learning study produce knowledge that “has relevance beyond the borders of the specific context” and meet Stenhouse’s (1981) vision of teachers producing case studies of research in their own classrooms?

5. Enthoven and de Bruijn (2010) have analysed two volumes on practitioner research and professional communities with particular focus on its outcomes. They conclude that these merely emphasisethe process instead of the product, and that public knowledge was therefore seldom produced. • They suggest that there is a need to differentiate between networks focusing on professional learning and networks focusing on knowledge production.

6. Aim of my presentation • Describehowresults from learningstudycould be used by new teachers in new contexts • Discuss the potential of lesson/learningstudy to becoming a model for practicedevelopmentalresearch

7. Outline of presentation • Learningstudy-what is specific? • What is the result of learningstudy? • Insightsgained in learningstudyused by otherteachers (twoexamples)

8. Learningstudy • First developed and implemeted in Hong Kong • A hybrid betweenlessonstudy and design research • Guided by a theoreticalframework – variation theory (Marton & Tsui, 2004) hence, is theoreticallygrounded • Addingsomething to lessonstudy

9. 1. Choose an object of learning 2. Pre-test the students 3. Co-plan the lesson 4. Conduct the lesson 5. Post-test students 6. Teacherswatch the video recorded lesson and revise it • Model: lesson study • Collective process • Iterative, cyclic • Systematic • Feed-back • Theory: variation theory • Focus on the capabilities (the object of learning) • The learners’ understanding • The necessary conditions for learning (what is critical) • Patterns of variation/in-variance

10. Lo et al. 2004

11. Whatdoes it imply to be able to…..? Whatdo you knowwhen you (understand…, are able to…) What must you learn? What is critical for learning this? What must we not take for granted? Questionsabout the nature of the object of learning. Lo et al. 2004

12. Variation theory • Learningimplieslearningsomething, the object of learning • In learningstudy the object of learning is focused, i.e. the capability the learners are supposed to develop

13. Variation theory • Learning amounts to being able to discern certain • features of the phenomenon that one previously did not focus on • or which one took for granted, and simultaneously bring them into • one’sfocalawareness. • In order to learn, one must discern the critical features • To enhance student learning by finding outwhat the critical features are, and implementthem in the lesson is the aim of learningstudy

14. Variation theory • To make the discernmentpossible, the critical feature must be opened up as a dimension of variation.

15. Why variation? • That which is variedagainst a stablebackground is likelydiscerned • (Bowden & Marton, 1998)

16. Insights/results from a Learningstudy Not a lesson plan, buta documented, theoretical, descriptionof thosefeatures that wereidentified as beingcritical for student learning and the pattern of variation and invarianceopenedup in the lesson

17. Findings from the pre-test questions in Hong Kong • Prior knowledge：  Concept of share equally  Concept of fractions as a part of one whole The focus on the research lesson：  The concept of fractions as a part of a group of objects  The concept of the Whole

18. Confirm the object of learning & its critical aspects • Object of learning: • Use fractions to show part-whole relationship given • a group of objects • Critical aspects: • How many object(s) constitute(s) the whole • 2. The meaning of numerator and denominator in the • fraction representing a portion of a group of objects (whole) • (A group of object ‘a’ should be divided into ‘c’ equal parts, • and then ‘ b’ parts are taken away

19. 1 2 Pattern of variation and invariance,an example from a learningsstudy in mathematics P3

20. Howcouldthoseresults be used?

21. Example 1 learning that decimal numbers are densed • Learningstudy in grade 6 (12 yearsold), threeclasses in Sweden

22. One of the tasks on the pre-test: Joanne saysthere are numbersbetween 0.97 and 0.98. Willian saysthere are no suchnumbers. Who is right and why?

23. Example 1 learning that decimal numbers are densed • Learningstudy in grade 6 (12 yearsold) threeclasses • Similarities: 60 mins., lessonstructure (introduction, group work, wholeclassdiscussion) • Greater improvement after the second and thirdlessons in the cycle • The designs of the lessonsdiffered in respect to the critical features present in the lesson

24. Different features present Lesson 1 Lesson 2 and 3 1 4

25. Identifiedcritical features Lesson design 1 • Decimal numbers as points on a line. This feature entails seeing decimal numbers as points on a number line e.g. between 0.97 and 0.98 is 0971, 0.972, 0.973 etc. • The interchangeable representation of rational numbers. This entails experiencing decimal numbers as a rational number e.g. as fractions and percentages, 0.97 as 97/100 or 97%. • A rational number as a part of a whole. This feature entails experiencing part-whole relationship of a decimal number e.g. 0.97 could be seen as 97 centimetres of a one meter ruler. • Divisibility of rational numbers. This feature entails experiencing that an interval between two decimal numbers is repeatedly divisible by ten. Lesson design 2

26. Beyondlocality? • Couldresults from learningstudy be communicated and used by otherteachers in a new context? • Are results from learningstudy valid in othercontexts?

27. (Kullberg, 2010)

28. Kullberg, 2010

29. Kullberg, 2010

30. Conclusions • The study has shown that the critical features could be used by other teachers, however the way the critical features are implemented are of decisive importance • It is possible that other teachers would not have succeeded with the implementation of critical features since pre knowledge about variation theory could be necessary • The knowledge produced in the learning study can benefit other teachers and learners and thereby provide a more ‘evidence’ informed teaching approach http://gupea.ub.gu.se/bitstream/2077/22180/1/gupea_2077_22180_1.pdf

31. Example 2: Learning to write a story

32. A follow up study in Swedenbased on results from a learningstudy in Hong Kong • The same age level (grade 3) • The same subject • A sharedtheoreticalframework

33. Source: A summary of a documentedlearningstudy from Hong Kong, primary 3 , Chinesewriting (Cheung, 2005) • The object of learning: to increase pupils awareness of causal sequence of a narrative • Critical features identified: • -Casual sequencing of events • -Component parts • Teaching materials: six pictures • Creative drama was used

34. Pre-test Lesson 1 Class Ö1 Lesson 1 Class Ö2 Lesson 1 Class 3A Lesson 1 Class 3B Lesson 1Class 3C Post- lesson 1 meeting Pre-lesson 2 meeting Post- lesson 1 meeting Pre-lesson 2 meeting Lesson 2 Class Ö1 Lesson 2 Class Ö2 Lesson 2 Class 3A Lesson 2 Class 3B Lesson 2 Class 3C Post-test Pre-lesson meetings School A Pre-lesson meetings School B Pre-lesson meetings School A Pre-lesson meetings School B Delayed post-test (4 weeks)

35. From the results on pre-test it wasdecided to Expanding the object of learningto include : • to structure a story in terms of introduction - main event (plot) - resolution • to find an appropriate and attractive title to the story • to write more expressively by using dialogue in the story

36. The enactment of the objects of learning • Patterns of variation and invariancewas (deliberately) used to make the critical features discernable • The teachersand the pupilsopened up for variation

37. Table 1. Dimensions of variation (dov) opened up in the lessons documented from the Hong Kong learning study and analysed in the Swedish study. Italics indicate new and unique additions to dov.

38. To summerise: • The results were used as a resource when planning the lesson in the new context. • The product of the HKL served as a model or a prototype for the Swedish teachers. It informed them and made them aware of features that may be of importance for enhancing learning. It seems to have given them a direction or guidance for the planning and enactment of the lesson, but not an explicit plan for the lesson to follow. • The documented HKL was not implemented directly, but adopted and adjusted in relation to the specific conditions. • It did not imply a ‘transfer’ of results but rather a transformation

39. Challenges for the future • Teacher research has been criticised for being idiosyncratic (Orland-Barak 2009) and situated. • The questions the teacher research movement has to deal with is how to define and justify appropriate ‘outcomes’ of inquiry-based teacher research. (Cochran Smith and Lytle 1999). • If research aiming at developing teaching and learning is to last and have an effect, one must consider how to make sure that the ‘result’ of such research is sustainable and disseminated. (Brown 1992; Bereiter 2002). • How could lesson/learning study become a knowledge production for teachers? What is needed?

40. Thank you

41. Howdoes the childlearnwhat a dog is?