Citation
Brosnan, A. (2015), "A response to Peter Posch’s comment on Anne Brosnan’s paper in Vol. 3 No. 3, 2014", International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies, Vol. 4 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLLS-01-2015-0003
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
A response to Peter Posch’s comment on Anne Brosnan’s paper in Vol. 3 No. 3, 2014
Article Type: Discussion From: International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies, Volume 4, Issue 2.
A response to Peter Posch’s comment on Anne Brosnan’s paper “Introducing lesson study in promoting a new mathematics curriculum in Irish post-primary schools”, in Vol. 3 No. 3, 2014.
I would like to thank Peter Posch’s response to my paper. As he points out “Luckily, after three years, it showed that the experience with lesson study had not been in vain but had shaken some traditional beliefs and had opened a window for change in the professional culture”. This gave us the chance to reintroduce lesson study again to the project schools a second time (2013-2014). Introducing it a second time one would expect significant advances to be made given that the teachers had been through it once. Its second introduction was another unique experience in itself which served as a guide to future action nationally 2015-2015. There were more favourable outcomes and some important seeds sown; ones that can and are being carefully cultivated. However, issues still remained from the teachers involved. They still felt that it was:
Too time consuming.
Unmanageable within a working day.
Hard to focus on one small topic.
To an extent it was being imposed and it requires true commitment by participants. However, it should be stressed that the demands from the Ministry of Education to introduce Project Maths at Junior Cycle and Senior Cycle at the same time created unwelcome pressures. It could have been introduced purely at Junior Cycle in the first instance; this would have sheltered it in its crucial early phase from the “high stakes” end of secondary schooling. Such conditions would be more conducive to cultivating the initiative in an unforced way as the junior students worked their way up through the system.
Faced with the above continuing challenges the team who supported the teachers felt that in many instances the complete Japanese model was not completed. With one or other of the following elements missing: peer observation and/or feedback. With some components missing the team who were trying to introduce it often felt disillusioned. Developments since those presented and reviewed in the paper are proving very interesting and there is a further chapter in the Project Maths engagement with Lesson Study almost ready for analysis now.
Anne Brosnan