Lesson Study: A Japanese Approach To Improving Mathematics Teaching and Learning

This study of how Japanese teachers think about instruction and student learning focuses on an activity called Lesson Study. A better understanding of this activity could be helpful to thinking about how to improve American teacher education.

Makoto Yoshida is President and Founder of Global Education Resources (GER)--a company that provides consulting services to teachers and schools relating to lesson study and mathematics teaching and learning. GER works with schools and school districts across the United States assisting them in many capacities with lesson study activities. In addition, GER is collaborating with educational organizations, such as Research for Better Schools (Philadelphia, PA), TERC (Boston, MA), and Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (Portland, OR) to host conferences and workshops promoting lesson study. Prior to founding GER, Yoshida has gained extensive research experience working with Dr. James Stigler at UCLA and Dr. Clea Fernandez at Teachers College, Columbia University in
the field of cross-cultural mathematics classroom teaching and learning and lesson study in Japan and the U.S. His doctoral dissertation, presented to the University of Chicago, was entitled, Lesson Study: A Case Study of a Japanese Approach to Improving Instruction Through School-Based Teacher Development. Part of his dissertation served as the basis of Chapter 7, Beyond Reform: Japan's Approach to the Improvement of Classroom Teaching, in Stigler and Heibert's book The Teaching Gap. He received his Ph.D. in Education from the University of Chicago in 1999.