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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]

This article describes key elements for mathematics teachers, through the faculty development process, to increase student engagement and motivation in learning mathematics. It addresses common barriers facing student motivation and achievement in the field of mathematics and provides potential remedies from a faculty development viewpoint to alleviate these barriers. The paper offers practical examples from the authors' own faculty development programs and experiences in teaching mathematics to both foster and grow the intellectual curiosity of students and offers suggestions for successful faculty development programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research has demonstrated that males outperform females in mathematics (Hyde, J. S., Fennema, E., & Lamon, S. J., Psychol Bull 107:139–155, ). Research has also shown that encouraging mindful learning–learning information in a conditional rather than an absolute way–can increase mathematics performance in females (Ritchhart, R., & Perkins, D. N., J Social Issues 56:27–47, ). This paper examines the moderating role of mindful learning for gender differences, by manipulating mindful learning for females’ and males’ performance on a novel math task. The results from this study show that males performed better than females when mindful learning was not encouraged (absolute instruction), but males and females performed equally well when mindful learning was encouraged (conditional instruction). Thus we find that mindful learning moderates gender differences in math performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]