Project Activities
In this two-phase project, researchers will revise, adapt, and test a widely used Japanese elementary mathematics curriculum for use in the United States. During Phase 1 of the study, the team will: (1) translate the K–5 teacher's manual for Mathematics for Elementary School; (2) align Mathematics for Elementary School with U.S. Common Core State Standards and the U.S. number system; and (3) use information from the curriculum field studies to refine and develop any additional material needed by teachers. Lesson study will be used as a professional development tool to build high-quality implementation of the Japanese curriculum. The researchers anticipate that two rounds of revisions will be needed to produce a full, U.S. version of the curriculum for grades K through 2. During Phase 2, a small pilot test of the promise of the revised curriculum will be conducted.
Structured Abstract
Setting
This study will take place in elementary schools with grades K–2 in diverse socio- economic and geographical settings. In Phase 1, schools currently using the Japanese curriculum will be recruited. In Phase 2, schools interested in using the Japanese curriculum will be recruited.
Sample
Phase 1 will include up to 30 elementary school teachers (K-5). Phase 2 will include educators from 16 elementary schools, and approximately 608 Grade 1 students. Most teachers will be from the K-1 grade range, but second grade teachers, coaches, and site administrators will be included in some components of the study.
By focusing on a few important mathematics topics in each grade, Japanese textbooks promote mastery at each level. The selected mathematics topics in the revised U.S. curriculum will be aligned with the Common Core State Standards for Grades K–2. These topics include representing and solving problems involving addition and subtraction, understanding place value, and reasoning with shapes and their geometric attributes. While the Mathematics for Elementary School curriculum uses problem solving to develop conceptual understanding of new ideas, it also makes computational fluency an explicit goal. This is accomplished by providing sufficient time and activities to achieve fluency. Coherence is another important quality of the curriculum. The curriculum sequences its contents carefully and logically, developing new ideas and skills to mastery and then moving on. In addition, the curriculum supports quality teaching through the teacher's manual. The teacher's manual includes detailed information about how the topics in a unit connect to previous and later units (both within and across grade levels); it provides the rationale for the design of each lesson; it highlights key points of consideration for teaching each lesson and key questions to stimulate student thinking; and it also provides likely student responses beyond those in the pupil book, including difficulties and common errors that have been observed in practice and suggestions for how to deal with them.
Research design and methods
During Phase 1 (Year 1), data from sites using the current version of the Japanese curriculum will be collected and summarized to identify challenges in current use and develop a K–1 pacing guide. The curriculum will be aligned with the Common Core State Standards and translation of the teacher's manual will begin. The resulting Japanese curriculum version 1 ("JC–1") will be implemented in eight schools during Phase 2 (years 2 and 3). These schools will then be compared with eight control or comparison schools. Data on use of JC–1 will be collected in study schools and fed back into curriculum redesign, producing Japanese curriculum version 2 ("JC–2") by the end of the project. A second goal of Phase 2 is to assess student and teacher learning from JC–1 by administering pre- and post-test knowledge assessments to teachers during Years 2 and 3, and to students at the beginning and end of Year 3. Across the study phases, participating teachers and students will use successive versions of Japanese curriculum materials, and teachers will participate in webinars and lesson study during the school year and summer institutes. These activities are intended to: (1) support teachers' and students' learning from the curriculum; and (2) help investigators understand the challenges in curriculum implementation and the needed modifications.
Control condition
To assess the promise of the intervention, students in the control condition will receive the business-as-usual mathematics curriculum and materials.
Key measures
During the development and revision process, data collection will include video reviews, observation notes, lesson study artifacts, teacher curriculum use surveys, and teacher focus group data. Teacher knowledge assessments, student number and operations assessments, end-of-unit tests, and district-administered assessments will also be used. Key outcome measures include teachers' and students' mathematics knowledge. Student performance on research-based tests of number and operations (e.g., number composition, addition and subtraction) will be tracked during Years 2 and 3 (end-of-unit tests, number and operations assessments, district-administered test), and teachers' mathematics knowledge for teaching of number and operations will be tracked over Years 2 and 3.
Data analytic strategy
Analysis in both phases will summarize data about curriculum use and challenges, drawing out implications for curriculum redesign. Analysis in Phase 2 will also investigate the promise of the curriculum intervention on students and teachers, using hierarchal linear modeling to address the nested data structure.
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Project contributors
Products and publications
Products: This project will produce a fully developed version of a current Japanese mathematics curriculum, Mathematics for Elementary School, translated and revised for use in K-2 classrooms in the United States. Peer-reviewed publications will also be produced.
ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.
Journal article
Lewis, C., and Takahashi, A. (2013). Facilitating Curriculum Reforms Through Lesson Study. International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies, 2 (3), 207-217.
Working paper
Lewis, C.C. (2013). How do Japanese Teachers Improve Their Instruction?: Synergies of Lesson Study at the School, District and National Levels . Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences Working Paper.
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