Beyond Lesson Studies And Design Experiments: Using Theoretical Tools In Practice And Finding Out How They Work

Abstract

This paper aims to illustrate how fruitful insights into the link between school teaching practice and student learning outcomes can be theoretically grounded by the variation theory from the field of phenomenography; and from this framework demonstrate how a ‘pedagogy of awareness’ can be implemented in the classroom. In this study, five teachers and 162 students at Primary Four level of school education in Hong Kong participated and the practice of the ‘learning study’ was adopted. Within this approach the teachers worked out a shared lesson plan, which was implemented in five different classrooms. All of the lessons were videotaped and subsequently analysed. Pre- and post-tests were administered to complement the evaluation of student learning. By comparing the results of the pre- and post-tests significant gain was observed in the students’ learning outcomes. The findings contribute knowledge to how the variation theory can be put into classroom practice and how a ‘pedagogy of awareness’ grounded on a classroom-based theory of learning can be implemented. The notion of a ‘pedagogy of awareness’ was introduced as consisting of three dynamically linked elements: variation in students’ ways of experiencing the object of learning, variation in teachers’ ways of experiencing the object of learning, and the use of variation as a pedagogical tool to enhance students’ learning. It promotes the ‘mutual awareness’ between teachers and learners by creating appropriate space of learning that makes learning possible.