For Each and Everyone: Catering for Individual Differences through Learning Studies

4. Learning Studies: Development and Impact

4 Learning Studies: Development and Impact LO Mun Ling, Pakey CHIK Pui Man, KO Po Yuk, Allen LEUNG Yuk Lun, PONG Wing Yan, Priscilla LO-FU Yin Wah, and Dorothy NG Fung Ping In this chapter, we begin with an overall description of the development of the project over the three academic years. This is then followed by a close examination of what we have achieved, according to the criteria we suggested in Chapter 2. The impact of the project on the development of the two project schools and the project’s dissemination activities within the teaching community is also described. The three-year development of the project The development of the project consisted of three phases, each taking one academic year to accomplish its goals. Phase I: Exploration and preparation Phase I was a year of exploration and preparation. In this phase, we primarily aimed at setting up an infrastructure within the two project schools, to facilitate the research team’s collaboration. This included setting up a website for the maintenance of an on-line database of Learning Studies accessible to all participants. A total of eight research lessons were carried out by four groups of teachers teaching Chinese language (Primary 4) and mathematics (Primary 1 and 4) in the two schools. We also aimed at familiarizing the teachers with the rationale and the theoretical framework of the project, by means of seminars and workshops. In this phase, both researchers and teachers were slowly coming to grips with the ideas of Learning Study and Variation in practice. Although there were many previous studies in mathematics that contributed to the understanding of students’ learning in various mathematics topics and so greatly helped the design of the research lessons, such knowledge was not available for the research lessons on Chinese language. Even so, we 42 Lo et al. were very happy to find that, in all the groups engaging in Learning Studies in both schools, the teachers were discovering diverse ways of making use of variation in their lesson design. Such an approach to theory building and development, which is grounded in practice, contributes greatly to the advancement of the Theory of Variation as applied to the two subjects: Chinese language and mathematics. Phase II: Development and consolidation The second year was a year of development and consolidation. We aimed to enhance the capability of the teacher participants in implementing the approach adopted in the project, and to build on what had been established in the two schools in Phase I. More Learning Study groups were organized to involve more teachers. After one year of experience, both researchers and teachers became familiar with the use of the theoretical framework to locate students’ difficulties or problems and to use variation to plan the research lessons. The methodology of Learning Study also became more complete by adding in some new elements to ensure the effective collection of student data (e.g., carrying out post-lesson student interviews) and modification of the lesson plans (e.g., holding post-lesson conferences immediately after lesson observations). The resulting research lessons were of higher quality. In this phase, a total of sixteen research lessons were conducted by eight groups of teachers teaching Chinese language (two Primary 4 and one Primary 5), mathematics (Primary 1, 2, 4 and 5) and general studies (Primary 3). We also invited the participant teachers to disseminate their experiences to other teachers in their own schools as well as in public seminars open to all teachers in Hong Kong. Phase III: Capacity building and preparation for withdrawal In Phase III, we began to pave the way for our withdrawal from the schools and focused our efforts on the capacity building of the leaders so that the practice of Learning Studies could take root in the schools. To ensure that teachers had a deep understanding of the theoretical underpinnings and how Learning Study works in the four subjects of Chinese language, English language, mathematics, and general studies, we carried out fewer Learning Studies but spent more time with the groups. The methodology of Learning Study was further fine-tuned to enhance more systematic and smooth running of the studies. Six research lessons (one P6 Chinese language, one P4 English language, one P3 and one P6 mathematics, and two P4 general studies) were produced by six groups of teachers. A number of teachers emerged as leaders Learning Studies 43 while taking up more...