Professional collaboration in a lesson study with university mathematics professors

Abstract

The article analyzes professional collaboration in a lesson study involving university mathematics professors, with the objective of contributing to professional development. The research was guided by the question, What principles promoted professional collaboration among university mathematics professors participating in a lesson study? The research focused on a lesson study involving university professors of mathematics and mathematics education over twelve weekly meetings of two hours each. The empirical material included the researchers’ field notes and the transcripts of the recordings of the lesson study sessions. A qualitative analysis, based on content analysis, revealed that collaboration involved: <i>professional sharing</i> and <i>decision-making</i>. The research shows that by fostering collaboration the lesson study mobilized different principles of teaching professionalism, such as knowledge that is basic to teaching, values and ways of conducting university teaching, a social and moral commitment to teaching, and teaching autonomy, contributing to the professional development of higher education professors.

Professional Collaboration among Elementary School Teachers in Lesson Study

“…Undertaking professional collaboration in this lesson study led the teachers to engage in an activity related to the daily life of the teaching profession (teaching), of common interest, and from which all participants benefited (Hord, 1997;Robuti et al 2016;Richit et al, 2024), because they were able to reflect on the teaching of mathematics in the classroom and to carry out professional planning in group (Burroughs & Luebeck 2010;Richit & Tomkelski, 2022), in a dialogued, negotiated and shared manner. And this joint work created the opportunity to all those involved for the mutual deepening of professional knowledge (Borko & Potari, 2020;Richit, 2023) and contributed for building professional relationships, promoting their professional development.…”

“…The first limitation of this research is related to the fact that the participants of the lesson study were not familiar with the teaching planning among peers. For this reason, the collaboration appeared more timidly at the beginning of the process and became more developed in the fourth session of the cycle (Richit et al, 2024). A second limitation concerns the categories of analysis (stages of collaboration) generated by a specific theoretical framework (Hargreaves, 1998).…”

“…Professional collaboration characterizes the culturally established forms of interaction between people and the joint realization of professional activities, marked by principles such as effective communication, careful negotiation, joint decision (Boavida & Ponte, 2002;Robutti et al, 2016;Richit et al, 2024), dialogue, support, mutual encouragement, sharing, and trust (Hargreaves, 1998), overcoming professional hierarchies and valuing the voices and roles of all (Richit, Ponte, & Tomasi, 2021). Thus conceived, professional collaboration can promote the development of teachers to create opportunities for them to learn about teaching and to reflect on their role in school and society (Robutti et al, 2016;Richit, 2023), as well on the complexity of mathematical objects (Calle et al, 2022).…”