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School Adopts Lessons from Abroad

By Brian Kladko/The Record

AÒter hearing repeatedly that Asian students outperform their American counterparts in math, the teachers at School Number Two in Paterson, N.J., resorted to a daring strategy: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

They abandoned their heavy, hardcover math books for thin, no-frills paperbacks from Singapore, peppered with references to 20-cent pieces and exotic fruits such as rambutans and durians.

They adopted a Japanese practice known as “lesson study,” in which teachers work together to devise lessons, observe each other, and discuss what works and what doesn’t. As sensible as it may seem, such collaboration is as alien to American teachers as rambutans and durians.

They watched videos of Japanese math lessons, invited Japanese teachers to their school, and tried to emulate what they observed — all with the goal of teaching youngsters to understand why a math problem works, rather than merely memorize a procedure or formula.

Borrowing educational ideas from a foreign culture is daunting enough, especially with language barriers. But it also meant juggling schedules so some of the teachers could spend part of the school day watching other teachers and discussing lessons. It meant that teachers would have to open themselves to the scrutiny of their peers, and in the process, possibly reveal their shortcomings.

And it meant cobbling together a new, untested approach — at least, untested in the United States — in a school where most of the children are from low-income families, in a district where the pressure to raise test scores leaves little room for bold experimentation.

The effort has been gradual, evolving as the teachers and administrators learn more; the Singaporean books only became part of the program in September. Principal Lynn Liptak said it’s too early to look for statistical proof that the effort is working.

“What we’re looking for is incremental changes over time,” she said.

The school began its foray into Asian math in 1997, when math coordinator Bill Jackson attended a district workshop devoted to the Third International Math and Science Study. The study measured the performance of students in 38 countries and examined the differences between Japanese and American math lessons.

The workshop featured videotapes that highlighted the differences: Japanese teachers start a lesson with a question, use props to make a point, and chronicle the entire lesson on the blackboard, so students whose attentions wander can find their way back.

“At the end, it’s almost like a work of art,” said Jackson, a little awestruck. “The students have a complete record of the lesson.”

The Japanese teachers’ ultimate goal, Jackson said, is to demonstrate the underlying logic of math.

“You want to give enough information, but not too much, to get them to think,” Jackson said. “The teaching isn’t just telling them. The teaching is leading them to discover these ideas.”

In contrast, American teachers explain the procedure for solving a problem and then have students practice it — a more direct approach, but also more superficial because students aren’t taught the reason it works.

“I was really intrigued,” Jackson said. “So, I said to the principal, ‘I really like those tapes. I’m going to try to do that.’ So, I wrote down the steps and tried to mimic them, and it worked. The kids were really engaged.”

Jackson started to read more about the comparisons of American and Japanese teachers, and he watched more videotapes. In 1999, he immersed himself even more, going to Japan for three weeks under the Fulbright Memorial Fund Teaching Program. While there, he observed math classes.

Inevitably, Jackson learned about the Japanese custom of lesson study, and persuaded Liptak, the principal, to let him try it at School 2. He was helped by two researchers at Teachers College at Columbia University, who are trying to promote the practice in the United States.

“American teachers are very isolated,” said Makoto Yoshida, one of the researchers at Teachers College. “They don’t have time to get together and talk about teaching.”

In lesson study, teachers meet to devise a lesson — for example, how best to convey the formula for calculating the area of a triangle. (For those who need a refresher: Multiply the height by the base, and halve the result.)

One of the teachers plays the guinea pig, conducting a lesson for her class while her colleagues watch. They discuss the lesson’s strengths and weaknesses and, after refining the lesson, watch her teach it again. When the teachers are satisfied with the results, they bring that same lesson to their own classrooms.

All of those observations and meetings are time-consuming, and even with only half of School 2’s teachers participating, it plays havoc on a school’s schedule. But, by watching their colleagues in action, the teachers gain a perspective they otherwise would not have.

“We’re thinking from the students’ point of view, and how, if we were the student, we would perceive the lesson,” said Heather Crawford, a second-grade teacher.

But all the attention given to teaching technique won’t go very far without a good curriculum. Think of the stand-up comic who has great timing but relies on a terrible joke writer.

Jackson obtained a translated copy of a Japanese math book, published for research purposes only, and started using it to create new lessons for the seventh and eighth grades.

Without textbooks that could be used by teachers and students in the lower grades, it was a piecemeal effort. Then Jackson discovered that Singapore, where eighth-graders are No. 1 in math, is an English-speaking country.

He got some photocopied pages from the math books published by Singapore’s Ministry of Education, and was initially under-whelmed by their simple illustrations and spare design.

“It looks like a comic book,” Jackson said. “It’s not like our books, which are loaded with every kind of bell and whistle you can imagine.”

But he and Liptak soon realized the books’ simplicity was precisely the point.

“They cover a limited number of topics, and the kids are expected to master the topics,” Jackson said. American textbooks, he said, cover far more material, but don’t delve very deeply into any one concept, because the publishers try to accommodate the differing requirements of various states and school districts.

Liptak used her school budget to buy Singaporean books for all classes in Grades 1-6. Roberta Wolff, a third-grade teacher, said she soon came to appreciate the books’ logical, carefully structured progression. Combined with lesson study, she now has a better feel for the school’s math curriculum.

“This program forces me to think of what I’m teaching — where it came from and where it’s going,” she said.