Development of Mathematics Teachers’ Moves That Support Students’ Higher Order Thinking Skills through Lesson Study

Abstract

As part of a comprehensive study that aims to develop teaching practices that trigger higher order thinking through the lesson study model, this study focuses on examining the development of teachers' moves. Following a case study design, the study examined the development of the teacher moves that two mathematics teachers did to support their students’ reasoning during the lesson study. The data were based on the video recordings of the research and revision lessons that the two teachers conducted in their sixth grade mathematics classes. With a focus on the teacher moves for supporting students’ reasoning, all lesson transcripts were analyzed according to the “Teacher Moves For Supporting Student Reasoning” framework (Ellis, Özgür & Reiten, 2019). To ensure consistency in coding, each transcript was first parsed into topically related sets. These sets are small episodes with a natural ending, including discussions between: the teacher and student groups, the teacher and the whole class, or the teacher and student(s). Teacher moves in each episode were coded according to the mentioned framework, which organizes 32 different pedagogical moves into four categories: eliciting, responding, facilitating, and extending. The results of the research show that the frequency of the high-potential moves used by both mathematics teachers increased throughout the year. It was also seen that the category of “Extending Student Reasoning” moves, which was used by the teachers at the lowest rate during the first cycle of the lesson study, was the most developed throughout the study. Thus, it was found that the participant teachers’ instructional practices developed as evidenced by their increased use of teacher moves that trigger students’ high-order thinking skills. For future studies it is recommended to introduce the analysis framework to the participant teachers at the beginning of the study and then examine the development of teacher moves with this awareness.