Catherine Lewis

The purpose of this study is to test the independent and combined impacts of lesson study and a fractions resource kit, developed and pilot tested with IES funding (Improving the Mathematical Content Base of Lesson Study: Design and Test of Two Research-Based Toolkits). In this efficacy study, the team will incorporate more extensive and rigorous control conditions in a field-based randomized test to gauge the impact of the interventions on student learning. The researchers are also making ...

Problem-solving is a central component of mathematics but not one that U.S. students master well. This research team intends to develop and refine English language resources for "structured problem solving" (SPS), an approach to teaching through problem-solving that is successfully used by a broad spectrum of elementary teachers in Japan. The resources will be developed and refined over a 2-year period and tested in Year 3 with a new group of U.S. educators.

The Mathematics for Elementary School curriculum is the most widely used elementary textbook in Japan. The curriculum is organized around well-established cognitive science principles of learning including eliciting students' prior knowledge, helping students to organize their knowledge around important concepts, promoting students' reflection on their learning, and using contrasting or conflicting ideas to stimulate conceptual development. These principles are central to Japanese curriculum...

In lesson study, teachers work together in a cycle of improvement that includes planning, teaching, and debriefing an actual classroom lesson. Lesson study originated in Japan and has been initiated by U.S. teachers since 1999. Preliminary evidence suggests that lesson study can produce improvements in mathematics teaching. This project aims to develop and test a research-based toolkit designed to help mathematics lesson study groups access and use content knowledge effectively. The tool...