Collaborative Lesson Study: Using the Power of Technology
Lesson study is an instructional inquiry model where teachers work face-to-face in small collaborative groups to craft, deliver, observe, and refine teaching practice. During traditional lesson study, colleagues watch one teacher deliver a co-created lesson, meet afterward to discuss the observed lesson, and plan revisions for a subsequent delivery within a colleague’s classroom.
Technology-Mediated Lesson Study (TMLS) uses the same cycle of engaging teachers in iterative, collaborative processes of lesson design, teaching, observation, and lesson redesign but uses technology resources that notably allow teachers to interact and learn together when not co-located. This model of professional learning builds on the strong evidence that lesson study is an effective professional learning strategy and can be adapted to rural settings using innovative technology.
Because of the geographic distance between rural science teachers, traditional lesson study is geographically prohibitive, but in TMLS, technology is utilized to connect otherwise isolated teachers to co-create lessons and offer feedback on teaching and lesson material.
In TMLS, colleagues observe the lesson via video recording, then meet online, transforming teacher collaboration. The TMLS process invites participants virtually into their colleagues’ classrooms, an intimate, vulnerable act that we believe will support strong collegial relationships, even though the teams meet via technology.
In this presentation we will develop participant understanding of TMLS and share our experience as teachers within the TMLS process and a 3-Dimensional Rural Science Teacher Grant. We will provide examples in which the TMLS process was used successfully to create, analyze, and refine Utah standards-based lesson plans.
About the Presenters
Doug Morris is a teacher at Carbon High School in Price, Utah. He began his career in 2007 teaching 7th and 8th grade Integrated Science at Mont Harmon Junior High. After six years, Doug moved to Carbon High School to teach Biology and currently teaches Chemistry, concurrent enrollment Physics, and concurrent enrollment Anatomy and Physiology. Doug graduated from Brigham Young University-Idaho in 2004 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with a Chemistry minor. In 2019, he graduated from the University of Utah with a Masters of Science degree in Physics. He serves as the Science Department Chair, the District Science Fair Chairperson, and as a member of the School Leadership Team. He is the Carbon School District Secondary Science Specialist. Doug has served on multiple committees, including the Portrait of a Graduate committee in 2020, the Physics SEEd Standards Writing Committee in 2019, and was a writer on the Open Education Resource textbook for Chemistry. Doug is happiest when spending time with his lovely wife and his two sons, both of whom he has had or will have the pleasure of teaching in class and coaching on the soccer field.
Thomas Wilder is a teacher at Richfield High School where he has worked since 2013 teaching Biology, Genetics, Psychology, and various Social Science classes. He graduated in 2013 from Utah Valley University with a Bachelor of Science in History Education and a Biology minor. In 2019 he graduated with his Master of Science degree in Educational Leadership. Thomas grew up in Orem, UT where he was able to develop a love of people and of the natural world. He considers himself a naturalist with a particular passion for reptiles and amphibians. His love of nature has afforded Thomas the opportunities of working as a research assistant in a university genetics lab, as well as working as a collaborator with various state and academic entities on wildlife research projects. Thomas loves nothing more than spending time with his wife and their five children.