College Lesson Study

Psychology Lesson on Bystander Intervention

Title: Bystander Intervention: Explaining Behavior in Terms of Multiple Variables
Authors: Bill Cerbin, Melanie Cary, Rob Dixon, Carmen Wilson, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
Course Name: Introductory Psychology
Excerpt: The immediate academic learning goal of the lesson was to develop students' ability to explain the "bystander effect" and how the presence of other people can affect individual behavior. A broader goal of the lesson was to develop students' ability to explain human behavior in terms of multiple factors or variables, which is an important facet of social science reasoning.

Developing the Eyes to See Students

What's the most important benefit to lesson study?
You develop the eyes to see children.
~ A Japanese elementary principal (Lesson Study: A Handbook of Teacher-Led Instructional Change by Catherine Lewis, p. 27)

What does it mean to "see students"? Why is it important to develop the eyes to see students? And how does lesson study promote this capacity in teachers? At the college level, the phrase “seeing students” brings to mind national surveys and reports (e.g., NSSE and CIRP) that describe college students’ beliefs, social attitudes, and academic behavior, including the Beloit College Mindset List which lists generational touchstones and benchmarks for each new freshmen class (e.g., For the class of 2009 born in 1987, “Starbucks, souped-up car stereos, telephone voicemail systems, and Bill Gates have always been a part of their lives”). These provide a broad range of information about students as a cohort or group. “Seeing students” also brings to mind understanding students as people—their interests, goals, lives—as a result of getting to know them in and outside the classroom.

But “seeing students” has a more specific meaning related to classroom teaching. In this case it is seeing and understanding how they learn and think as they interact with the subject matter, trying to make sense of the material, solve problems, interpret new ideas, make decisions, and so forth. I believe this is the form of seeing the Japanese elementary school principal has in mind.

Is it important for teachers to understand how students learn and think? If a teacher’s major aim is to advance student learning and thinking, then understanding how they learn is indispensable. Most good teachers recognize that their students rarely achieve deep understanding of the subject matter, and there is almost always a sense at the end of a class period or a course that teaching and learning could be improved. In order to improve their teaching, teachers need to know why students didn’t learn or didn’t “get it.” Without some insight into student learning and thinking, teaching improvement is pretty much guesswork.   Being able to “see” the subject from students’ point of view can help teachers understand what kinds of problems, difficulties and misconceptions students are likely to have. Knowing what makes a topic difficult for a student can help teachers design instructional activities, develop explanations, and give feedback more directly attuned to the problem. To illustrate consider teachers who are adept at explaining difficult concepts to students. They seem to be aware of what makes a concept difficult for students to understand, and base their explanations on how students (novices) might understand the concept, rather than on how the teacher (expert) understands it. Teachers who do not have this kind of “cognitive empathy” are more likely to explain concepts as if they are talking to themselves or to another expert on the subject.

How does lesson study develop the eyes to see students? How students learn and think seems to be at the center of Japanese lesson study. In planning a research lesson teachers anticipate and predict how students are likely to interpret and respond to parts of the lesson. During the lesson their observations focus on how students experience, interpret and make sense of the subject. And, their post-lesson discussions analyze student thinking in depth and detail. Imagine the rich and varied insights into student learning and thinking one might develop by doing lesson study regularly throughout one’s teaching career.  In many accounts of lesson study, Japanese teachers reveal a keen sense of how their students learn and think and use that knowledge to design, observe, analyze and refine class lessons. For examples see:

• Can You Lift 100KG? (available for viewing online)—a compelling video of lesson study excerpts with a group of Japanese schoolteachers.
• Developing “The Eyes to See Students”: Data Collection During Lesson Study, by Catherine C. Lewis, Akihiko Takahashi, Aki Murata, and Elizabeth King.
• Lesson Study: A Japanese Approach to Improving Mathematics Teaching and Learning by Clea Fernandez and Makoto Yoshida, 2004.   

Building Professional Knowledge

Lesson study is not only a way to improve the teaching of those who participate in the process, it can be a way to improve the practice of teaching more generally. For example, in Japan teachers produce more than 4000 research papers annually based on their lesson study work. As researchers note

Together these writings provide an extensive repository of professional knowledge and ideas that teachers engaged in lesson study can learn and build from. Clearly, through this well developed system of publications, teachers from all corners of Japan can learn from each other’s lesson study activities. (Fernandez & Yoshida, 2004, p. 213)

Imagine what teaching would be like if you were able to refer to lesson studies on the topics you teach? Instead of starting from scratch—as most of us do—you could build on the work of others, adapt strategies and materials to your classes, and anticipate the kinds of problems and difficulties students might experience.

Lesson study should be a way to build and share professional knowledge about college teaching. Your lesson study could and should be available so that other teachers can learn from it and build upon it. Toward this end, we have established a way to make your work usable and accessible through the final report. In the report you will provide a detailed plan of the lesson, explain how it is intended to work, describe how students performed, discuss what you learned, and suggest how to improve the lesson. The report will be available online, making it possible to include lesson materials such as student handouts, instructor notes, video clips of the lesson and other related materials.   

Our aim is to start an online library and database of college lessons. Your Final Lesson Study Report will be one of the first contributions. Teachers will be able to access your lesson plan and materials and learn about how students responded to your lesson.   

Mid-Year Review & Final Report

If you are a grant recipient participating in the Lesson Study Project, now is the time to complete your Mid-Year Review or your Final Lesson Study Report.

• Mid-year Review. The Mid-Year Review is for teams at the halfway point in a lesson study—after you have designed, taught and studied your research lesson the first time. The review is intended to help improve your lesson study before you teach the revised lesson, and to help us learn more about your lesson study experience. Download Lesson Study Midyear Review May 2006 (Word document)
• Final Lesson Study Report. If your team has completed its lesson study, you should complete a Final Lesson Study Report. For more details, visit http://www.uwlax.edu/sotl/lsp/submit.htm. Reports will be hosted online by the Knowledge Media Laboratory at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Example of a Report.

Cerbin

Partnering with KEEP Toolkit

We are happy to announce that the Lesson Study Project is partnering with KEEPtoolkit, a technology developed by the Knowledge Media Laboratory of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. KEEP is an acronym for "Knowledge Exchange Exhibit and Presentation." We are asking all project participants to use KEEP for submitting final lesson study reports. 

• To get started with KEEP, please visit Submit Your Final Report to create and share the products of your college lesson study.
• For general information about KEEP, please visit KEEP Toolkit Home or What is KEEP Toolkit? 

ISSOTL 2006

Call for Proposals--Deadline Extended to June 15

The 3rd Annual Meeting of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) will be held at the Hyatt Regency Washington DC on Capitol Hill November 9 - 12, 2006. This year's conference will be hosted by Georgetown University, in collaboration with George Mason University, Howard University, and University of Maryland, College Park. The conference site may be found at http://www.issotl.indiana.edu/ISSOTL/. This year's theme is "Making a Greater Difference: Connecting to Transformational Agendas." The call may be found on the web at http://www.issotl.indiana.edu/ISSOTL/call.html.  The ISSOTL 2006 Conference highlights the connections of this research and practice with broader currents of transformation in higher education and in the world. Queries may be directed to ISSOTL2006@georgetown.edu. We hope to see you in Washington DC next November.

Randy Bass, ISSOTL2006 Conference Chair
Barbara Cambridge, ISSOTL President

About the College Lesson Study Blog

Lesson Study is a teaching improvement process that has origins in Japanese elementary and secondary education where it is a widespread professional development activity. Working in a small group, teachers discuss learning goals, design an actual classroom lesson (called a "research lesson"), observe how it works in practice, make evidence-based improvements, and then report on the results so that other teachers can use it. Despite differences between Japanese and American educational systems, the practice is gaining in popularity in the United States in K-12 education and teacher training.  More recently it is finding a home in higher education as a form of faculty development and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (learn more about SoTL).

This blog is for anyone interested in lesson study at the college level—professors, instructors, graduate students, teaching assistants, administrators and others, whether they are new to lesson study or expert practitioners. Here you will find articles, opportunities, examples, reflections, and multimedia resources related to lesson study in higher education, especially in the United States. International perspectives are welcomed on all topics. To navigate this site, please click on the CATEGORY links in the left margin. The most recent posts in each category will appear at the top of each page.

An Invitation

You are invited to contribute to this blog. To ask questions or to share ideas, experiences or resources, please use the comments feature, which is located immediately under each blog entry. (If you would like to submit an extended article or to upload a file, please contact the people listed below.) The following people will be primary authors of this blog, at least initially:

• Dr. Bill Cerbin is Professor of Psychology, Assistant to the Provost, and Director of the College Lesson Study Project at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. His research interests include the nature and development of college student learning and thinking, and the nature and development of pedagogical expertise.
• Dr. Bryan Kopp is Assistant Professor of English, Director of the Writing Center, and Associate Director of the College Lesson Study Project at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. With a Doctorate in Rhetoric and Composition, he is currently investigating the rhetoric of teaching and learning in and across the disciplines.

More Information

For more information about lesson study in colleges and universities, including introductory articles, how-to guides, video clips and tools, please visit the Lesson Study Project website.

• A Brief Introduction to College Lesson Study
• Online Guide for College Teachers (+ videos)
• Lesson Study Research Tools