| The purpose of this study was to apply an adaptation of Japanese lesson study to preservice mathematics teacher education. Specifically, this study sought to determine the nature of planning and follow-up meetings that took place during an informal implementation of lesson study with pairs of student teachers and their cooperating teachers in secondary mathematics. The procedures of lesson study were an adaptation of formal Japanese lesson study, where teachers collaboratively plan lessons, observe live lessons, and discuss the lesson after it is taught.;Planning and follow-up meetings were recorded, transcribed, coded, and analyzed using Catherine Lewis' (2002) determination of "essential features" and "key experiences" of lesson study in Japan. The lessons themselves were recorded and analyzed to determine the impact of the planning meetings on the implementation of the student teachers' lessons.;The findings indicate that a structured student teaching model that matches pairs of student teachers with a cooperating teacher might provide preservice secondary mathematics teachers with a field experience superior to one where there is no such structure. Analysis of these meetings allowed for insight into the development of the preactive, interactive, and postactive cognitions of the preservice teachers in this study. It was found that discussions during planning meetings had an impact on the lessons themselves, and classroom events were discussed during follow-up meetings; as a result, the nature of the discussions was different during planning and follow-up meetings.;Although many of Lewis' essential features and key experiences of lesson study were evident during this adaptation of the lesson study process, two were noticeably absent: there were no predetermined long-term goals for students, and teachers did not reference any outside sources other than the textbook from which they were teaching. The absence of outside sources had the most noticeable impact upon the mathematics content knowledge of the student teachers. At times, there was evidence of a lack of understanding of mathematics content among the teachers that might have been mitigated by the teachers' referencing sources besides the text being used to teach the course. In this respect, this study provided new insight into student teachers' approach to their own mathematics content knowledge. |
