Professional Development 2

23rd November 2010
Reflection 10
Today’s lesson focused on the use of a facilitation tool such as Lesson Study in a Professional Learning Community. There are 5 steps in a lesson study cycle . They are :
a) Identify Research Theme—Learning Goals aligned to school Vision and Mission
b) Plan lesson ( teacher who is to conduct the research lesson is not selected yet)
c) Research Lesson
d) Post-Lesson Discussion
e) Lesson Plan Revision

Lesson Study is a platform for sharing and teachers are always involved in studying lessons. Teachers become more knowledgeable about the teaching and learning in the process and so are able to perfect their craft.

We viewed a lesson study conducted in Fuchun Primary School. Dr Yeap highlighted that a Lesson study is best observed live and teachers must be conscious of what to observe bearing in mind the lesson goals. Teachers must remain detached throughout the observation and refrain themselves from correcting mistakes observed. A good idea is to spend the last 10 minutes of a 1 hr lesson to interact with the pupils to clarify some things with the pupils. It is important to keep notes of the pupils we are observing so that they would be useful during the post-discussion stage where the 4 critical questions are examined.

Dr Yeap then introduced an article from the newspaper about SMRT overcharging its passengers and posed a question related to it. We had to estimate the average fare that passengers overpaid. It was an interesting way to teach the concept of average. Most importantly, it reflects one of the pedagogy in PERI -- Learning in the real world.

As a closure to the tutorial, Dr Yeap revisited all the initiatives implemented by MOE and its implication on the teaching of Mathematics. I must say, it is an inspiring journey to unravel the rationale behind these initiatives and take them to the next level.