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Characterizing Mathematics Teaching Research Specialists’ Mentoring in the Context of Chinese Lesson Study

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Theory and Practice of Lesson Study in Mathematics

Part of the book series: Advances in Mathematics Education ((AME))

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Abstract

This study examined how mathematics teaching research specialists mentored practicing teachers during post-lesson debriefs of a lesson study in China. Based on a systematic, fine-grained analysis of 107 h of videotaped mentoring meetings of 20 groups of teachers and teaching research specialists from different elementary schools, this study revealed that the Chinese teaching research specialists paid a great deal of attention to practical knowledge which consists of setting student learning goals, designing instructional tasks, formative assessment of student learning, and improving instructional behaviors. Less attention was paid to mathematics content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge in general. Meanwhile, the teaching research specialists tended to comment on lessons in general and addressed anticipated problems based on their previous experience, with less attention to addressing issues raised by the teachers or engaging in dynamic dialogue with them. On the basis of the data analysis, a framework for analyzing mentoring activities emerged. The strengths and weaknesses of the teaching research specialists’ mentoring strategies are identified through the framework, and suggestions for the improvement of teaching research specialists’ mentoring strategies are discussed.

This chapter is built upon an article that formally appeared in ZDM: Gu, F., Gu, L. (2016). Charachterizing mathematics teaching research specialists’ mentoring in the context of Chinese lesson study. ZDM, 48(4), 441–454.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all of the teachers, teaching research specialists, and researchers who were involved in this joint effort for their dedicated time and expertise. We very much appreciate Dr. Rongjin Huang and Dr. Teresa Schmidt from Middle Tennessee State University for their help in editing and proofreading the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Xuhui Institute of Education Shanghai, Shanghai, China

    Feishi Gu

  2. Shanghai Academy of Education Sciences, Shanghai, China

    Lingyuan Gu

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  1. Feishi Gu
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  2. Lingyuan Gu
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, USA

    Rongjin Huang

  2. College of Education, DePaul University, Chicago, IL, USA

    Akihiko Takahashi

  3. College of Education, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    João Pedro da Ponte

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Gu, F., Gu, L. (2019). Characterizing Mathematics Teaching Research Specialists’ Mentoring in the Context of Chinese Lesson Study. In: Huang, R., Takahashi, A., da Ponte, J.P. (eds) Theory and Practice of Lesson Study in Mathematics. Advances in Mathematics Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04031-4_32

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04031-4_32

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-04030-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-04031-4

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