Teachers' values and valuing process of mathematics teaching and learning in school-based lesson study : a Brunei Darussalam case study

Abstract

This study seeks to explore the values of mathematics teachers and the process of valuing these values during their involvement in a Lesson Study program. This study focuses on identifying the dominant values and the processes involved within the context of mathematics teaching and learning. Emphasis is placed on studying the factors within Lesson Study aspect as well as the contextual factors that may influence the values and the valuing development. The teachers’ interactions during their collaborations and lesson implementations have been carefully explored.

The major findings of this study showed that teachers practiced a mixture of dominant values in the teaching and learning of mathematics. However, there seems to be a value focus shift at different levels of the curriculum, from intended to implemented and attained. These teachers’ value focus shifts are between two values at seemingly opposite ends of a continuum. This study also found that the Lesson Study practices of the teachers were influential towards the configuration and devaluation of teachers’ values about mathematics education, both towards their own value system as well as towards others.

Contextual factors at individual, pedagogical, institutional, societal and cultural levels were also explored in search of explaining the results found. Apart from the observed factors that examined the teachers, classroom practices and school system, this study also explored the societal and cultural factors, especially of the Brunei Malay culture to understand the reasons for the manifestation of the teachers’ dominant values and their focus shift.