Cross cultural analysis of an Iranian mathematics lesson

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine an Iranian mathematics lesson through the eyes of Japanese educators, and the critiques of Iranian teachers for raising the quality of teaching. In this paper, the Japanese lesson study process is considered as an approach to raising the quality of teaching. Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative methods including pre-lesson planning, peer observation of the lesson, post-lesson discussion, and semi-structured interviews with the participants of the post-lesson discussion meetings in Iran and Japan were employed for data collection. A detailed description and analysis of the lesson is provided for deep understanding of students’ mathematical communication in the class and teachers’ points of view in the post-lesson discussions about raising the quality of teaching. Findings – The findings are intended to clarify the significant influence that cross-cultural analysis has exerted on raising the quality of teaching and developing a culture of transnational learning that supports teachers to design appropriate learning tasks, to conceptualize mathematical phenomena, and to provide mathematical communication which encourage students to participate more in classroom activities. Research limitations/implications – This study provides a transnational learning opportunity for Iranian teachers to learn from Japanese educators how to deliver evidence-based analysis of a lesson for raising the quality of teaching in practice, look culturally and differently at what actually goes on in the classroom, and localize lesson study as a global approach to the “science of improvement.” However, issues to be considered in future studies include how such “small changes” can be linked together in local communities to expand the improvement from bottom up, and how to facilitate collaboration with the global community to expand transnational learning. Practical implications – Traditionally in Iran, there are a variety of teacher training programs but there are no examples of lesson study like those that take place in Japan as a model of practitioner inquiry for raising quality of teaching. Hence, it can be said that Japanese lesson study may provide a new approach of transnational learning in the Iranian education context for building a “science of improvement.” Social implications – In the case of Iran, especially at the elementary school level, teachers do not have enough preparation or experience. Therefore, raising the quality of teaching through lesson study that has an actual impact on teacher and teaching quality and developing a “science of improvement” has become a pressing concern in national and international contexts. Originality/value – The case study shows that the transfer of the Japanese model of lesson study plays a significant role in harnessing the potential of students and teachers as well as teachers themselves by improving teaching. Efforts by teachers to communicate and learn from each other’s strengths, in fact lead to the realizing of the students potential and thinking process. In particular, it helps supply more open-end and in-depth task learning, which anticipates student thinking, understanding, recognizing and questioning.

Exploring teacher learning through a hybrid cross-cultural lesson study in China and the United States

“…Expanding teachers' learning in a hybrid cross-cultural LS context Research has shown that analyzing RLs from cross-cultural LS can help researchers identify the cultural script of teaching and seek alternative ways of raising quality of teaching (Sarkar Arani, 2015, but what participating teachers learned from cross-cultural LS has been missing. Some cross-cultural LS research evidenced changes in participants' knowledge, but the learning mechanism has been largely unclear (Huang et al, 2021;Isoda et al, 2021).…”

“…Stigler and Hiebert (1999) argued that teaching is a cultural activity that is determined by the cultural script of teaching. Moreover, within the LS context, Sarkar Arani (2015Arani ( , 2016 developed a perspective for raising the quality of teaching through crosscultural lesson analysis which could help explicate the locally hidden cultural script of teaching and seek alternative effective practices from another culture. A few researchers explored how cross-cultural online LS could promote participating teachers' development of knowledge and digital literacy (Huang et al, 2021;Isoda et al, 2021), but learning processes and outcomes of online cross-culture LS are lacking rigorous and systematic investigation.…”

“…The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/2046-8253.htm Introduction Educators recognize cross-cultural studies offer insights into effective practices, and by adapting these approaches to their local sites, education can be more dynamic and adaptable (Clarke, 2006;Leung, 2001). Specifically, researchers have explored how teachers extend their learning through cross-cultural lesson study (LS) (Huang et al, 2021;Isoda et al, 2021;Sarkar Arani, 2015), yet teachers' learning processes and outcomes through LS across different cultural contexts are largely unclear (Huang et al, 2021(Huang et al, , 2023Isoda et al, 2021). This study aims to fill the gap by examining teacher learning from a hybrid cross-cultural LS in China and the US from a perspective of cultural-history activity theory (CHAT) (Engestr€ om, 2001).…”

Raising the quality of teaching through Kyouzai Kenkyuu – the study of teaching materials

“…From the Japanese context of lesson study, lessons that give rise to “turns” are rich in “conversation, dialogue and discourse” (Shigematsu et al , 1963). This possibly refers to a deepening, changing of perspective, moving toward a new path, thinking of new methods, changing of view or paving the way for a new direction (Elliott, 2016; Lo, 2016; Sarkar Arani et al , 2014; Sarkar Arani, 2015, 2016b) in pedagogical improvement.…”

From “chalk and talk” to “guide on the side”: A cross‐cultural analysis of pedagogy that drives customised teaching for personalised learning

“…These four poem sections are known in Japanese as ki (introduction: provide learning task), sho (development: accumulate knowledge), ten (turn: expand dialogue) and ketsu (conclusion: internalise outcomes). The reason for applying this approach emerged from the findings of some of our recent studies (Sarkar Arani, 2015, 2016Sarkar Arani et al, 2014) which had innovatively applied this structure as a useful analytic framework for capturing the logic of the stages of teaching that occur in a lesson. It is widely accepted that the most important stage is ten.…”