reflections on the WALS 08

The main purpose of lesson study is to make teacher a life-long learner. According to Dr Makoto Yoshida, there are three essential components of lesson study: 1) well researched and planned lessons with a clear hypothesis, 2) live observation of the lesson with various participants, 3) focused post –lesson discussion based on participants' observation.

 

Lesson study is a group effort and through collaborating with colleagues, we are able to learn from one another. I perceive lesson study as a professional development to keep on improving my teaching and also indirectly improve my relationship with the colleagues that I am working with.

 

The principal in HKMA KS LO Collage see lesson study as a Win-Win-Win situation. First, the teachers get a chance to improve on their teaching making them more competitive than other teachers. Second, the students will be able to understand the lesson better. Third, through the help of lesson study, the school will be able to maintain its competitiveness and market position. During his presentation, he has shown us figures and evidence on before lesson study was conducted and after lesson study was conducted. It is clear that lesson study works for his school. It is indeed a win-win-win situation.

 

I must say that the conference has given me more ideas and ways on how to improve myself. I see lesson study as a professional development to keep on improving my teaching.

 

I would like to thank Mr Yeo and Mrs Cheng for giving me the opportunity, Mun Wai for coordinating.

 

Angela Tan

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Lesson Study Conference

It was a good experience for me as we have not started lesson study in our school yet. It was heartening to see that many people believe in and have done lesson study in their schools. I agree with Seow Koon that lesson study can start small. The most important thing is to get buy-in from a core group of people and to start!

The conference especially Keynote speaker Dr Yoshida corrected my many misconceptions about lesson study. I learnt that lesson study is not about developing a library of "perfect" lessons but is focussed mainly on the professional development of teachers. This certainly put things in perspective and now I know how to pitch the idea of lesson study to the teachers in my school.

Going forward, we will be using lesson study as a tool to test our curriculum design as we have designed some of our units using UBD. We are also interested to integrate the PETALs framework into this.

I also want to thank everyone who so generously shared their knowledge with this LS noob (i.e. me :))and I hope I will have the opportunity to share with you guys about our experiences in North Vista with regards to LS next year.

WALS 09 reflection

Keynote Speech 1: Building on your strengths - Chinese Pegagogy and the necessary conditions of learning
 
Hearing from the keynote speaker Prof Ference Marton from Sweden, I realised that in General, WALS 09 have in mind the idea of learning study instead of lesson study which is the combination of lesson study together with variation strategies.
 
Have come across this learning study in readings before but Bowen did not take it up for our project as variation theory might not work for every topic. It would be beneficial to find a more fitting pedagogy/theory for your own topic.
 
Also, keynote speaker Professor Manabu Sato from Japan brought insight to Japanese lesson study and it's history. How the development of lesson study came about from such a long time ago. I was really intriqued by Dr Makoto Yoshida from USA as I have read his paper when doing my own research and wanted to hear him speak. It's a great privilege to hear what he has to say and his mindset towards lesson study. It brings great encouragement and determination to me towards the current lesson study project we are undergoing in Bowen.
 
Prof John Elliot on the other hand gave a critical examination of lesson study but concluded with a high end note that teachers felt it was beneficial. I believe criticism are necessary for improvement and I'm glad someone actually laid out the fears and doubts instead of covering up all the negatives and laying out only the positives of lesson study.
 
Have learnt a great deal from the WALS and through the parallel sessions. Many schools are engaged in meaningful professional development and it's encouraging to see how educationers seek to work together even on international scale. It's an eye opener to see how other countries work in their schools and benefit from lesson study as well.
 
Thank you Mun Wai for coordinating and thanks to the school for the opportunity.
 
Suping :)

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WALS conference

Dear Mun Wai,

I learnt that we don't have to start doing a lesson in a big scale. It can start from something small. The main purpose is teachers learning from each others and improve the learning process, both for teachers and pupils.

:)
Seow Koon
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Reflection_WALS 08

N1 Cluster Hong Kong Learning Journey cum WALS International Conference

30^th Nov to 4^th Dec 2008

 

Case Study – The HKMA K S Lo College Experience (Parallel Session 3)

 

The school began its LS journey in 2001 by establishing a sense of urgency when it looks hard at the college's competitiveness and market position. There was a risk of school closure due to decline in student population. This was then followed by creating and communicating a Vision to the staff in the following years.

 

The Principal presented the Win-Win-Win situation where

 

Teachers would acquire new knowledge and skills and became better employability and more competitive in job market. Students would also better in learning performance with value-added education. Eventually, school would continue and no closure!

 

Learning Points from the college's journey of change:

• Starts small and assemble a group with enough power to lead the change effort.
• Provides support in terms of common time teaching slots; deduction of teaching load and collective decision making.
• Good and healthy departmental culture with strong sense of security is the key to success LS journey.
• Project Empowerment and Delegation.
• Bringing in external / expert support from HKIEd.
• Fully autonomous by encouraging risk taking and new ideas from teachers.
• Create short-term Wins:
• Emphasis on Team Spirit.
• Sensitive to students' learning through student interview.
• Teaching becomes more reflective.
• Experience-sharing with whole school on a Staff-Development Day.
• Consolidating improvements and institutionalize LS as a key component of the corporate culture.

 

We hope to continue LS as an effective Professional Development tool as it allows teachers to:

• Put equal emphasis on different stages of planning, teaching and evaluating of a lesson.
• Get constant feedback from students
• Find out real cause of learning difficulties
• Reflect on our own teaching

Jane Cheng
HOD Maths
Bowen Sec School
Tel: 63851041
Fax: 63856559

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WALS 08 Conference Reflections

Dear friends,

Please park your reflections about the WALS 08 Conference in this blog.

You may want to take out your notes and related materials to refresh your memories (sweet ones I hope).

Please leave your name and school name behind so that we can acknowledge your contributions.

"Mmm G-Oil" (think cantonese!)
Mun Wai