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This theoretical paper focuses on how school-based continuous professional development (CPD) for mathematics teachers in schools located in disadvantaged areas can be carried out using the lesson study approach. School-based CPD is based on the notion that teachers need real-time and on-site professional training tailored to improve the instructional practices unique to their school and classroom contexts. The paper seeks to address the research question: How can a lesson study [or research lesson] be used in the school-based CPD of mathematics teachers in schools located in disadvantaged areas? Empirical evidence from lesson study research suggests that it is an effective tool for CPD activities because it is school-centred, focuses on learner learning, and draws on the collective and collaborative experiences of teachers working in the same school mathematics department. Therefore, this paper significantly contributes to theoretical and practical debates on school-based CPD activities in schools located in disadvantaged areas, using lesson study. Further research would necessitate a focus on understanding how the social learning processes within school-based CPD can be linked to school contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the historical and current translation of educational, psychological and neuroscience research into teaching has not fulfilled its promise because of insufficient focus on previous educational ideas about developing a theory of teaching and on lessons as sites for teacher enquiry. This paper aims to examine how the relationship between psychology/neuroscience and teaching can be enhanced through a strategy in which teachers and psychologists collaborate in the study and development of a range of teaching and learning techniques in teaching settings. It is suggested that Lesson Study with its principles of collaborative reflective professional learning about teaching and learning has the potential to enhance meaningful professional learning and teaching developments. A model is proposed which reaffirms the central role of teacher research through Lesson Study in enhancing the relationships between research, knowledge and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article documents teacher learning through participation in lesson study, a form of professional development that originated in Japan and is currently practiced widely in the US. Specifically, the paper shows how teachers in three different lesson study teams 1) expanded their mathematical content knowledge, 2) grew more skillful at eliciting and analyzing student thinking, 3) became more curious about mathematics and about student thinking, 4) emphasized students' autonomous problem-solving, and 5) increasingly used multiple representations for solving mathematics problems. These outcomes were common across three lesson study teams, despite significant differences among teams composition, and content foci. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching standards are regularly described as a mechanism for improving the status of the teaching profession and as a means to develop high-quality teachers. Less attention has been paid to the difficulties of fostering professional learning when externally produced standards are imposed on teachers. This paper outlines how lesson study can inform the use of teaching standards to shift the focus to centre on learning rather than teaching to richly inform national and international views on the use of teaching standards. More specifically, it explores how lesson study was a powerful process that developed a lived understanding of teaching standards and fostered two significant discursive shifts in teacher understanding of standards: from individual to collegial activity; and secondly from statements of teaching to centring the focus on processes of learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]