The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:https://www.emerald.com/insight/2046-8253.htm

Development of program for“Global Lesson Study” inmathematics education
Takeshi Sakai

Developmentof program for
GLS

317

Human Development Education, Kyoto Women’s University, Kyoto, Japan

Hideyuki Akai
Takeshirodai Elementary School, Sakai, Japan

Hiroki Ishizaka, Kazuyuki Tamura and Hiroaki Ozawa

Received 28 February 2021
Revised 18 June 2021
13 August 2021
Accepted 16 August 2021

Graduate School of Education, Naruto University of Education, Naruto, Japan, and

Yew-Jin Lee
National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore, Singapore
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this exploratory study was to develop Global Lesson Study (GLS) defined as aninternational collaborative lesson study through international exchange of teachers using ICT. Its purpose is tonurture teachers from different countries with intercultural competence to conduct lesson study.
Design/methodology/approach – We developed an initial program for GLS in the subject of mathematics
education between elementary school teachers in Japan and Singapore. The qualitative analysis of activities at
each stage of the Pilot GLS was conducted from two perspectives: (1) intercultural competence for lesson study
and (2) teacher’s competency for subject instruction.
Findings – Through GLS, a new lesson was created that was only possible with discussions from teachers
from different locations. It was clarified that GLS was not only useful for training teachers with interculturalcompetence for lesson study but also has led to the improvement of teacher’s competency for subject
instruction in mathematics.
Originality/value – The GLS is a new attempt in the sense of developing a high-quality lesson study method
for creating new lessons as well as improving qualities and abilities of teachers through international exchange.
Keywords Lesson study, Mathematics education, Intercultural competence, Singapore, Japan
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
1.1 Research purpose
Through the rise of globalization coupled with advances in Information and Communication
Technology (ICT), societies face a diversification and radical changes in their existing social
norms and values. Institutions of schooling and education across many cultures have been
forced to respond to these changes that are both pervasive and inexorable. And even though
Japan has itself long been described as a relatively uniform or monolithic society, the numberof registered foreigners living and working here has been increasing. Commentators havetherefore predicted that the nation will experience an “inner internationalization” resulting ina more multicultural society in near future (Kagata, 2011). Indeed, there are already visible
outcomes of this effect as shown in the increasing number of schools that have enrolled
children with foreign roots (Ota, 2014). In response, the Japanese government has emphasizedThis work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 19K02690.
Conflicts of interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of thispaper.

International Journal for Lesson &Learning Studies
Vol. 10 No. 4, 2021
pp. 317-330© Emerald Publishing Limited
2046-8253
DOI 10.1108/IJLLS-02-2021-0015

IJLLS
10,4318

the importance of aiming for internationalization of education, globalization of teachers
working in schools and acquisition of international experience for teachers whenever there isan opportunity (Tanaka, 2014). Among Japanese researchers and practitioners of global
education, new priorities have likewise appeared. For example, knowledge of Education for
Sustainable Development (ESD) and global citizenship education are regarded as necessity
for nurturing “Intercultural Competence” and “Global Citizenship” (Nishiyama et al., 2015).
While it is important for any society to prepare its people to be active in global society forthe future, teachers in Japan themselves need to have exposure to rich interculturalexperiences such as oversea educational activities. However, there is a limit to the number ofteachers who can go abroad and be involved in overseas educational activities due to time andfinancial constraints. Thus, in-service training for teachers should provide such important
experiences for as many teachers as possible while they are in Japan to obtain multiculturalexperiences in education.
Culture can be interpreted in multiple ways. This research follows Scollon and Scollon(1995)’s definition that culture is “any aspect of the ideas, communications, or behaviors of agroup of people which give them a distinctive identity and which is used to organize theirinternal sense of cohesion and membership” (p. 127). As Ebaeguin and Stephens (2014)
confirmed, in the education system, culture itself influences over the form of pedagogy,classroom practice and teachers’ professional development. Multicultural experiences,
therefore, would be a good opportunity for teachers to reflect on their pedagogy or classroom
practice.
We believe that classroom practice is central role of teachers in schools. Among manydifferent strategies available for teachers, we focus on Lesson Study as it is common
worldwide and recognized as an effective strategy (Stiegler et al., 1999). In this research, we
positioned Lesson Study as a collaborative space where teachers can demonstrate
multicultural abilities through the process of developing a new lesson in the lesson study
with teachers from various cultures and countries. We aim to develop teachers withintercultural competencies for Lesson Study and to explore its effect. Also, through lesson
studies with teachers of other cultures, it is expected that the skills of teaching will be
improved through research discussion with others who are trained from a different cultural
perspective.
1.2 What is intercultural competence in education?
Deardorff (2006) defined intercultural competence as the “ability to communicate effectively
and appropriately in intercultural situations based on one’s intercultural knowledge, skills
and attitudes” (pp. 247–248). This was based on four dimensions from Santerini (2010):(1) Attitude (openness, respect, curiosity, tolerance of ambiguity),(2) Knowledge and skills (cultural awareness, knowledge of one’s own and othercultures, observation, ability to evaluate),(3) Internal outcomes (adaptability, flexibility, empathy, the ability to see things fromanother’s point of view) and(4) External outcomes (situation-appropriate behaviors and communication).
In addition, Deardorff (2006) emphasized the pyramid structure of these dimensions, which
implies the attitudes are starting point and fundamental to achieve appropriate interculturalcompetence and “this model of intercultural competence moves from the individual level of
attitudes and personal attributes to the interactive cultural level in regard to the outcomes”(p. 255). It was believed that intercultural competence not only changes attitudes andconsciousness toward different cultures and improves knowledge and skills related todifferent cultures but also improves communication skills when interacting with different
cultures (Santerini, 2010).
These four dimensions are almost similar to the contents described by Byram (2008) who
defined the elements of intercultural competence as attitude, knowledge, interpretation andassociation skills, as well as discovery and interaction skills and described the gradualachievement of those abilities. Japanese researchers Nishiyama et al. (2015) have also
advocated intercultural education that incorporates the elements of Bryan (2008).
In addition, the general provisions of the Japanese “Course of Study” for elementary
schools, revised in 2017, lists qualities and abilities required in response to modern issues asfollows (MEXT, 2017, p. 53):
(Qualities and abilities) while respecting diversity in globalization, to understand the territory andhistory unique to Japan that have been inherited to date, to respect tradition and culture and to work
towards various goals while working with a variety of others.

Thus, according to the definition of Deardorff (2006), it can be said that Japan’s interculturalabilities can cover attitude, knowledge and skills and internal outcome, but does not mention
how to deal with real issues by taking advantage of external outcomes—aspects attitudes,
values and skills obtained through learning.
Even in Singapore, where various cultures intersect, qualities and abilities to be pursued
in the policy documents and curriculum of the Ministry of Education are introduced as thetwenty-first century competence. Among them, intercultural competencies are cited as Civic
Literacy, Global Awareness, Cross-Cultural Skills (CGC), as well as Active Community Life,
National and Cultural Identity, Global Awareness and Scio-Cultural Sensitivity andAwareness (Tan et al., 2017; MoE, 2020, January 21). Compared to Japanese students andteachers, it can be easily imagined that students and teachers in Singapore who always live ina cross-cultural environment have relatively better intercultural competencies.
On the other hand, one issue was raised in the report of the Central Education Council
under Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in
August 2012 regarding teacher training in response to globalization. That is, even though
MEXT mentions “teacher themselves need to acquire a global perspective and way of
thinking” (MEXT, 2012, p. 25), it is not clearly stated what the specific qualities andabilities are.
Advocacy for teacher education and teacher training—based on indicators such as (1)improving language skills, (2) increasing number of people studying abroad and (3)increasing experience of activities overseas—is carried out. But, due to time and money
constraints described in previous section, only small number of teachers benefits from this.
Also, many people misunderstand that simply obtaining language skills is equal tounderstanding different cultures.
1.3 Previous research on lesson study and improvement of abilities
Since “The Teaching Gap” by Stigler and Hiebert (1999) was published, Jugyou Kenkyuu or
Lesson Study from Japan has spread far and wide internationally in schools. Two main
trends of studies on Lesson Study are (1) teaching methods, including improvement ofteacher’s pedagogical expertise (Rock and Wilson, 2005) and (2) improvement of teacher’s
subject expertise (Fernandez, 2008). Results of all these studies have shown that Lesson
Study has contributed to improving teacher’s skills and abilities through its processes
involving collaborative planning and solving educational issues.
Also, it was shown that improvement of qualities and abilities for subject teaching can beachieved through global educational experience (Sakai et al., 2019). This improvement was
believed to be triggered by “Dilemma causing confusion” (Taylor, 1994). In other words,
teachers can obtain new perspectives toward subject teaching by being exposed to unfamiliar

Developmentof program for
GLS

319

IJLLS
10,4

320

pedagogies of other cultures—Dilemma in GLS—that is outside of existing “framework tointerpret experiences (Mezirow, 1991)” for them.
For example, international cooperative distance lectures and seminars among
undergraduate and graduate students in Japan, Germany and Thailand have successfully
improved students’ scholastic abilities to teach mathematics much more than they are
conducted separately in each country (Moriya et al., 2016). Furthermore, it was clarified thatthe experience of collaborative lesson making at a secondary school in Thailand by Japanese
undergraduate students led to a reconsideration of the mathematics education in Japan(Nakamura et al., 2018). However, issues such as international experience have been limited to
studying teaching materials and more importantly, actual lesson practice has not been
conducted remain to be improved. Other problems included shortness of time for sharing andrelative inexperience of student teachers who were participating.
As another example of Lesson Study by in-service Israeli and Japanese mathematics
teachers through observation of lessons, it has been reported that productive discussions
took place when Israeli teachers watched Japanese videos and came into contact with
culturally far lessons, resulting in some dissonances that promoted reflective thoughts andactions (Schwarts and Karsenty, 2020). However, in this research, international experience
was limited to observing lessons and activities like collaborative lesson making withstudying teaching materials together were missing.
Even though there are studies like these, there are few studies focusing on new lesson
development by creating contents and methods together incorporating perspectives ofdifferent cultures. The GLS conducted in this study, therefore, is a new attempt in the sense todevelop a high-quality lesson study method for developing a new lesson as well as improving
qualities and abilities of teachers and is expected to be effective.
To clarify the domain of this research, we briefly mention about adaptation of the Lesson
Study in Singapore. As well as other countries, feasibility of Lesson Study in Singapore isquestioned by some researchers. Among them, e.g. Lim-Ratnam et al. (2019) indicated that the
Lesson Study is a sociocultural teacher practice, being “organic” to the Japanese education
culture. Also, in the examination-oriented education system in Singapore, the short-run and
immediate results of academic ability would be more favorable or attractive than the long-run
effects supposed to be achieved in the Lesson Study. In addition, according to Lim-Ratnam
et al. (2019), it was mentioned that indispensable elements of the Lesson Study are (1)existence of learning community of practice among teachers and (2) teachers’ professional
development through research. Based on the above conditions and due to the culturaldifference between Japan and Singapore, it was concluded that indigenization of these twoelements would be big challenge in Singapore.
However, teachers of the Host school selected for this pilot study have been conducting theirown lesson reviews internally. Therefore, when the Japanese researchers and teachers haveapproached to the faculty member at the National Institute of Education, asking for possible
primary schools for exchange activities, they are willing to participate in this international
collaboration from the beginning. Also, the aim of this research is not to clarify the acceptabilityof the Lesson Study in Singapore as their school culture in general, but, to analyze any changeof the teachers’ pedagogy or classroom practice, facing multicultural experience such as the
GLS. Given a condition that the partner Singaporean school in this research had alreadyaccepted the Lesson Study as a subject based learning community and research based
professional development, the GLS was conducted as explained in the next section.
1.4 Definition of Global Lesson Study
Based on the discussion about intercultural competence and lesson study mentioned above,
we expect teachers with intercultural competence for lesson study required in the field of
education are teachers who can:(1) Flexibly understand contents and methods of education in different cultures throughcommunication with teachers of different cultures (Intercultural Communication) and(2) Proactively and collaboratively develop new lessons that are integrated andexpanded other cultures’ contents and methods of education into those of own culture(Intercultural Creativity).
Also, with the intercultural competence of Deardroff (2006), the specific interculturalcompetence for lesson study of such teachers is defined as follows:(1) AttitudeOpenness, respect and curiosity toward contents and methods of education of theother cultures (Attitude #1).

Tolerance for ambiguity about difference in contents and methods of education(Attitude #2).

(2) Knowledge and Skills
Awareness toward contents and methods of education of other cultures(Knowledge and Skills #1).



Understanding of contents and methods of education in own and other cultures(Knowledge and Skills #2).

Observation and ability to evaluate contents and methods of education of othercultures (Knowledge and Skills #3).

(3) Internal Outcomes

Adaptability, flexibility, empathy and the ability to see things from another’s
point of view toward proposals and suggestions from the other cultures.

(4) External Outcomes

Situation-appropriate behaviors and communication during lesson studies.

Intercultural competence for Lesson Study as mentioned above is related to the Intercultural
Communication of teachers with intercultural competence for lesson study that is expected.
Based on such intercultural competence for lesson study, it is also expected to develop a
new lesson as indicated as Intercultural Creativity. Therefore, we define newly developed
lesson as follows:(5)

Outward ImpactBased on the proposals/suggestions from the other cultures, new contents andmethods of education integrated and developed with own culture as a New Style/
Product of lesson study.

Regarding “communication with teachers in different cultures,” teachers can utilize ICT suchas e-mail and on-line conference system like Zoom or Google Hangouts without physicaltraveling.
Also, for “flexibly understanding the contents and methods of education in different
cultures,” teachers can learn a new perspective for interpreting teaching materials andinstruction methods by exchanging ideas. This may lead to an understanding of different
values of education and is considered related to the attitude, knowledge and skills, andinternal outcomes of intercultural competence for lesson study defined above.

Developmentof program for
GLS

321

IJLLS
10,4

322

Furthermore, with regard to “proactively and collaboratively develop new lessons that are
integrated and expanded other cultures’ contents and methods of education into that of own
country,” teachers can develop, implement and exchange teaching materials and instruction
methods adjusted for their culture based on new perspective, resulting in developing a newlesson that fuses and expand different cultural contents and methods of education. This isconsidered as the outward impact mentioned above.
In this research, we, therefore, define “international collaborative lesson study throughinternational exchange of teachers using ICT to understand different interpretations ofteaching materials and instruction methods, and to create lessons with new values that havebeen integrated and developed in education of both countries,” as Global Lesson Study (GLS).
A diagrammatic representation of the theoretical framework of this research is shown in
Figure 1.
By implementing GLS, teachers can improve their intercultural competences for lesson
study while staying in their own countries and may further improve their qualities andabilities for subject teaching. Since this is still a pilot study, verification of the abovementioned expected results will be carried out through qualitative analysis. Therefore, we
extracted the scenes where the majority of participants were corresponding to each elementthat was defined as above for inter-cultural competencies for lesson study and added
consideration. Specifically, we qualitatively evaluate the changes and transitions of contentsof communication and interaction among teachers involved in GLS.
2. Method of research
2.1 Participants of pilot Global Lesson Study
Singapore—an advanced education country with a high level of teacher specialties whilesome similarities and differences in its traditional culture compared to Japan—is selected as apartner of this pilot GLS. It would be beneficial for teachers of both countries to know eachother’s interpretations of teaching materials and instruction methods.
Since 2015—before the idea of GLS—we have been conducting exchange activities withtwo primary schools in Singapore each focusing on Mathematics and Science. Since theteachers of elementary schools where we visit in Singapore have been regularly conducting
subject-based lesson studies internally, they were willing to learn ideas from teachers of othercountry by accepting researchers and school teachers from Japan to join class observations
and discussions afterwards. Also, teachers of both Host and Guest visit each other and areinterested in education of each side. Here, all teachers from Singapore and Japan joining thisPilot GLS are specialized in Mathematics. Therefore, a learning community and researchbased professional development can be considered already developing gradually between the

Figure 1.
Theoretical frameworkof this researchHost and Guest through Mathematics. Among the two schools, we then started discussing
with one school focusing on Mathematics to bring simple exchange activities up tointernational lesson studies as GLS since very similar mathematical contexts are instructed
somewhat differently.
In this project, university faculties are in responsible for planning and managing
exchange of teachers between two countries. They also coordinate dates and time andprovided interpretation and translation as needed for the GLS to make teachers feel noanxiety to join the GLS. However, they did not directly involved in discussions such as
contents of after-class discussion and simply observed the GLS from the third party’s point ofview and provided feedback as needed to teachers on how to discuss based on observation
and analysis of change.
2.2 Program for pilot Global Lesson Study
In GLS, the process of understanding and comparing contents and methods of education in
partner country/culture is important. Therefore, it is necessary to have enough time andopportunities for discussion. For example, other than essential pre- and post-conferences fordemonstration lesson(s), it is important to pre-arrange what to discuss, how to and what torecord and how to share the recorded video and other materials. Furthermore, it is necessary
to consider how to provide translation and/or interpretation between different languages.
We developed five stages of discussion with university professors and primary school
teachers, including head teacher for mathematics in both countries. Those stages are: (1)start-up discussion, (2) pre-lesson conference, (3) recording and observing of thedemonstration lesson, (4) post-lesson conference and (5) closing (summarization). Table 1
shows the detailed contents and methods for each stage of GLS. Table 2 shows the Pilot GLS
program.
2.3 Pilot Global Lesson Study
Before the full implementation of GLS, it is necessary to clarify educational effects and issuesof the program to some extent. Therefore, we conducted the Pilot GLS in 2018 with a primaryschool in Singapore as the “Host” school to conduct the demonstration lesson (Japan as the“Guest”) according to the program shown in Table 2. In the following sections, we describe
some details of learning contents for Stages 2–4. Since Stages 1 (start-up) and 5 (closing) aremostly formal and routine communication, we omit the explanation here.
3. Results of pilot Global Lesson Study
3.1 Discussion in pre-lesson conference
3.1.1 Proposal and confirmation of lesson plan. The pre-lesson conference was started byproposing a lesson plan from Host. The lesson objective is “Make two-step problems aboutareas of square and rectangles and solve them”.
The lesson starts with confirming the meanings of mathematical terms of “more than,”“shorter than,” “twice” and “three times”. Then, based on the presented rectangle(8 cm 3 16 cm), students represent linguistically about relations of length and width.
Students should describe as:(1) Length is 8 cm longer than width.
(2) Length is twice of width.
(3) Width is shorter than length by 8 cm.

Developmentof program for
GLS

323

IJLLS
10,4

Stage 1: Starting up- Decide which school to be the host (host and guest switch their roles every year)- Host proposes a schedule to guest (e-mail)- Host selects grade and unit and proposes them to guest (e-mail)- Conduct further e-mail conversations if necessary
Stage 2: Pre-lesson conference- Host prepares a lesson plan and worksheets and proposes them to guest within a month of stage 1 (e-mail)324- Guest analyzes the lesson plan comparing with usual method used in guest school and prepares a list ofquestions and suggestions- Hold an online/Internet conference before conducting the demonstration lesson(s) and discuss about current
situation of students, nature/essence and value of teaching materials, important points of instruction andflow/development of lesson(s)- Host finalizes the lesson plan and share it with guest (e-mail.)Stage 3: Recording and observing the demonstration lesson(s)- Record the demonstration lesson(s) by several (at least two) video cameras. One camera (fixed) is for the whole
flow and others are for close-up recording of description in notebooks and student activities- University professors conduct a simultaneous interpretation/translation from Japanese to English (for lesson
in Japan)- Host uploads the movie(s) to a cloud storage and proposes a list of view point for lesson observation to guest- Teachers of guest school watch and analyze the lesson(s) based on the list, prepare and share comments withhost (e-mail)- Conduct e-mail conversations if necessity
Stage 4: Post-lesson conference- Teachers of host school read the comments, set points of discussion, and share with guest (by e-mail)- Hold online/Internet meeting and discuss about the demonstration lesson(s)- Host summarizes results and challenges in the demonstration lesson(s) and shares them with guest (e-mail)Stage 5: Closing- Review results and issues in the entire GLS process in each school, summarize points of improvement andTable 1.
Contents and methods share them (e-mail)- Host school finalize the modifications to the GLS program and share with guest (e-mail)in each stage of GLS

Next, one of four Helping Words sets (Figure 2) is distributed to each group. With theseWords, students make two-step problems as a group activity.
To check whether created problems are solvable “two-step problems”, students actually
solve them. They then hide the answer by folding worksheets, leave them for others to solve
while switching tables to solve someone else’s problem. After this, exercises for similar
problems as mastery and then reflection as consolidation were planned.
3.1.2 Discussion about lesson plan. After Guest reviews the lesson plan, an online
discussion was conducted through via Google Hangouts as second pre-lesson conference.
Once Host explained their consideration in making lesson plan, discussion was conductedbased on questions and suggestions from Guest, especially that two kinds of problems—“forward thinking” and “reverse (backward) thinking”—might be created from Helping
Words. Teachers of both countries agreed that problems with forward thinking are easier tomake for students than with reverse thinking. Next, Host came up with an idea to change theword of “7 cm” to “8 cm” in Set 2 considering it can be divided by 4 and Set 2 also have a wordof “4 times.”
In the next part, Guest stated that some Japanese students often select a wrong
mathematical equation depending on words used in the problem sentences without muchthinking. Host shared their experience that some Singaporean students also havemisconception of simply relating addition with “more” and subtraction with “less.” To
improve students’ understanding about this, Guest suggested activities to share problems
each group have made with the whole class and categorize them into forward and reverse

StageDate (approx.)

Appointment

Contents of GLS

Starting up

July 1st to August
1stAugust 2nd

Host and
guest
Host

August 2nd

Host and
guest
Host

- Appoint host
- Schedule adjustment- Select and propose grade and unit
for demonstration lesson- Discuss about grade and unit
selected- Propose a lesson plan andworksheets- Check the lesson plan andworksheets- Discuss about the lesson plan andworksheet- Finalize the lesson plan
- Conduct the demonstration lesson
and record- Upload the recorded movie- Watch the movie and analyze thelesson- Discuss about the lesson
conducted- Summarize the results andchallenges- Summarize improvement points

Pre-lesson conference

August 3rd to
September 2nd
September 3rd
September 3rd

Recording and observing thedemonstration lesson

Post-lesson conference

September 3rd
September 4th

Host and
guest
Host
Host

September 4th

Guest

October 1st

Host and
guest
Host

October 1st
Closing

Guest

October 2nd
October 2nd

Host and
guest
Host

Developmentof program for
GLS

325

Table 2.
- Finalize modifications to the GLS The program timetable
programfor Pilot GLS

Figure 2.
Four sets of
Helping Words

IJLLS
10,4

326

thinking. However, Host replied that the learning to discriminate into forward and reverse
thinking had already been instructed in domain of Numeracy at second grade, so this activity
might not be necessary. Furthermore, there was a concern that it might be too difficult tomake and solve two kinds of problem within a lesson time.
After exchanging thoughts, Host decided to revise its lesson plan so that Helping Words
related with multiplication and division used in Set 2 and 4 will not be used. Instead, students
will make two problems—forward and reverse thinking—with only Words related toaddition and subtraction. Words related to multiplication and division will be used in the next
lesson with similar activities.
As described above, based on the reality of students and the curriculum of their own
country, Host understood the essence of Guest’s opinion and suggestion then came up with a
new lesson plan.
3.2 Implementation, recording and observation of the lesson
At least two cameras are used for recording: fixed camera for recording with wide field ofview chasing teacher’s movement and other(s) is for recording a close-up of activities andstudents’ notebook.
Host uploaded the video and pictures of the lesson, PDF data of students’ worksheets andreflections for sharing. Guest school observed them and summarized questions before thepost-lesson conference.
3.3 Discussion in post-lesson conference
An online discussion with the same members as pre-lesson conference was conducted. At the
beginning, Host explained that only a few groups created reverse thinking problems.
Although students successfully solved those problems, they had difficulties creating
questions with reverse thinking. To avoid repeating such situation, Host suggested
introducing reverse thinking problem at the beginning of lesson to promote student’s
understanding.
Guest proposed children to use small whiteboards for rearranging the Helping Words tocreate various problems (Figure 3). With this suggestion, Host came up with an idea to fix thefirst sentence as “the length of photo frame is 8 cm,” hoping students can manipulate thesecond sentence as “the breadth is 6 cm more than the length” (forward thinking) or “thelength is 6 cm more than the breadth” (reverse thinking) for the Set 1 of Helping Words.
From this discussion, Host concluded that it is easy to make different problems throughmanipulation and decided to try it out in other classes.

Figure 3.
Proposed way of using
Helping Words forreverse thinking

Analyzing the uploaded data, Guest noticed that most groups did not draw figures inproblem setting. Host also recognized that drawing figures is essential to help students
conceptualize learnings about perimeters and areas. Therefore, Host agreed that if students
had drawn figures, they could have noticed that the two statements “the breadth is 8 cm andthe length is 6 cm more than the breadth” and “the length is 8 cm and the breadth is 6 cm morethan the length” represented the same rectangle. By drawing figures, students can focus on
making problems related to rectangles with different shape and size. This prospect is related
to the suggestion from Guest as shown in Figure 3.
A few weeks after post-lesson conference, Host reported through e-mail the result ofpractice in other classes with an improved lesson plan. According to the report, students
successfully made different problems of forward and reverse thinking by using small
whiteboards and Helping Words.
4. Discussion on pilot Global Lesson Study
Host presented a lesson theme with two-step problem with forward and reverse thinking
using Helping Words. Discussion about making problems with forward and reverse
thinking—usually not being conducted in Japan—is connected to “understanding contents
and methods of education in different cultures flexibly” for teachers. Especially for Japaneseteachers, we found “openness, respect and curiosity (Attitude #1)” and “awareness(Knowledge and Skills #1)” toward contents and methods of education among interculturalcompetence for lesson study strongly appeared.
For Japanese teachers, this imply that instead of simply solving questions with forward
and reverse thinking, this activity makes possible the instruction to deepen understanding
the difference between two values by thinking about the relationship between them.
Therefore, conducting GLS with Singaporean teachers is expected to make theirunderstanding of contents in mathematics education deeper.
On the other hand, making two kinds of problem based on forward and reverse thinking
with Helping Words were not initially proposed by Host in pre-lesson conference. This can beconcluded as a result of “External Outcomes” of discussion. During the discussion, Guest“flexibly understood contents and methods of education in different culture” about problem
solving and problem making based on the theme of “two-step problems” and tried to“proactively and collaboratively develop new lessons that are integrated and expanded” withproblems of forward and reverse thinking commonly seen in Japan. Analyzing the former
part, Attitude #1 and #2 (Tolerance for ambiguity) as well as Knowledge and Skills #2(Understanding) and #3 (Observation) of intercultural competence for lesson study arethought to be appeared. And for the latter part, “Internal Outcomes” appeared. Host, who
accepts and reflects suggestions from Guest is, therefore, trying to “develop proactively andcollaboratively new lessons that are integrated and expanded” for mathematics educations.
Here, Knowledge and Skills #2 and #3 are in action.
These show that GLS could successfully promote development of teachers withintercultural competence for lesson study. The lesson plan presented in the pre-lesson
conference was discussed six times within host school and was thought to be the best plan atthat time. Yet, the Host found a new viewpoint through discussion with Guest. This discovery
is, therefore, a result that could not be achieved only with internal discussions of one school.
For teachers in Singapore, this means that GLS with Japanese teachers successfully lead todeeper understanding of contents and methods of mathematics education. The lesson plancorrected based on the pre-lesson conference, therefore, is an example of Outward Impact.
During post-lesson conference, Guest proposed an activity of actually manipulating
Helping Words with small whiteboards that was unexpected for Host. This can beunderstood as a result of “External Outcomes” of Japanese teachers. Host then accepted thisDevelopmentof program for
GLS

327

IJLLS
10,4

328

suggestion and obtained the new idea of fixing the first sentence in a problem to improve
lessons. This clearly shows that teachers in Singapore were trying to “flexibly understandcontents and methods of education in different cultures” and “proactively and collaboratively
develop new lessons that are integrated and expanded other cultures’ contents and methodsof education into that of own country.”
These shows that “Attitude #1,” “Knowledge and Skills #2 and #3” and “Internal
Outcomes” of “intercultural competence for lesson study” are in effect. And the modified
lesson plan and actual lesson conducted after the post-lesson conference is an example of“Outward Impact.” This also provides some evidence that GLS can be used to promote
development of teachers with “intercultural competence for lesson study”.
Furthermore, a comment that only a few groups drew figures of rectangles in problem
making led to share recognition of the importance of drawing figures to help students solidify
their learnings. Before the meeting with Japan, Host conducted five internal meetings to
discuss about the lesson plan, where discussion focus on learning activity of making two
kinds of two-step problems, but discussion about characteristics of those two problems was
not conducted. However, when Japanese teachers pointed out that the value of this lesson is“these 2 problems can be one for forward thinking and the other for reverse thinking,”
teachers of the Host shift their thinking from including all of addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division to only use addition and subtraction. This results in making
students focus on creating questions with forward and reverse thinking for sure. The use ofmultiplication and division are carried over to the next lesson. For teachers in Singapore, thismeans conducting GLS with Japanese teachers lead to break through a wall for deeper
understanding about method of instruction in mathematics education.
From the analysis above, we found all components of intercultural competence for lesson
study (i.e. Attitude, Knowledge and Skills, Internal Outcomes and External Outcome) arepromoted and linked to the Outward Impact. We also found evidence that teachers
participated in this Pilot GLS were able to “flexibly understand contents and methods ofeducation in different cultures through communication with teachers in different cultures”
and “proactively and collaboratively develop new lessons that are integrated and expanded
other cultures’ contents and methods of education into that of own country” at each stage.
Therefore, we are confident that GLS as an international and collaborative lesson study isuseful for training teachers with “intercultural competence lesson study”.
In addition, it is considered that all teachers in Singapore and Japan can deeply understandabout contents, teaching materials and methods of instruction in mathematics education andre-discover about students through GLS. Therefore, we wish to affirm that GLS will lead to
improvement of teacher’s competency and skills about subject instruction as well.
5. Conclusion
5.1 The effect of Global Lesson StudyIn this research, we developed a pilot program for GLS in mathematics education between
teachers in Singapore and Japan and carried it out with a school in Singapore as a host. From
the analysis of activities at each stage, we found three important results.
(1) Components of intercultural competence for lesson study are promoted in each stageof the GLS, and all those together lead to the “Outward Impact.”(2) GLS is useful for training teachers with intercultural competence for lesson study.
(3) GLS will lead to the improvement of teacher’s qualities and skills for subject
instruction.

5.2 Future challenges
In a GLS between two countries, one cycle is a two-year span where each country is in chargeof the host school for a year. In this paper, we introduced the case for a half cycle where
Singapore became the host school for a year. The next challenge is, therefore, to verify theeffect when Japan conducts this GLS as the host school.
Additionally, we only conducted qualitative analysis of the GLS by interpretationof practices in this paper. In the future, it is necessary to conduct some quantitative
analysis about the effect of the GLS by using questionnaire items relate to not
only teachers with intercultural competence for lesson study but also teacher’scompetency and skills about subject instruction. Also, it is necessary to verify
whether the GLS can contribute to the remaining issues of lesson study in Singapore
on creating learning community and on realization of research-based professional
development.
References
Byram, M. (2008), From Foreign Language Education to Education for Intercultural Citizenship: Essay
and Reflections, Multilingual Matters, Clevedon.
Deardorff, K.D. (2006), “Identification and assessment of intercultural competence as a student
outcome of internationalization”, Journal of Studies in International Education, Vol. 10 No. 3,
Fall, pp. 241-266.
Ebaeguin, M. and Stephens, M. (2014), “Why lesson study works in Japan: a cultural perspective”,
Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Mathematics Education Research Group ofAustralasia (MERGA), 37th, Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, Sydney,
New South Wales, Australia, pp. 199-206.
Fernandez, M.L. (2008), “Developing knowledge of teaching mathematics through cooperation andinquiry”, Mathematics Teacher, Vol. 101 No. 7, pp. 534-538.
Kagata, T. (2011), “Instructing ‘cultural understanding’ in English activities at elementary schools inJapan”, International Education, Vol. 17, pp. 4-12.
Lim-Ratnam, C.T.-L., Lee, C.K.-E., Jiang, H. and Sudarshan, A. (2019), “Lost in adaptation? Issues ofadapting Japanese lesson study in non-Japanese contexts”, Educational Research for Policy andPractice, Vol. 18, pp. 263-278.
Mezirow, J. (1991), Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (2012), “Measures for comprehensive
improvement of teacher’s ability through their teaching life (central education council report ofAugust 28, 2012)”, available at: https://www.mext.go.jp/component/b_menu/shingi/toushin/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2012/08/30/1325094_1.pdf.
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (2017), “Elementary school course of
study, general rules”, available at: https://www.mext.go.jp/component/a_menu/education/
micro_detail/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2019/03/18/1387017_001.pdf.
Ministry of Education (MoE) (2020), available at: https://www.moe.gov.sg/education/educationsystem/21st-century-competencies.
Moriya, S., Takuma, K., Hartmann, M., Borys, T., Watanabe, N., Sasaki, N. and Theerapuncharoen, N.
(2016), “A study on the international cooperative distance lecture and seminar between Japan,
Germany and Thailand to train the elite arithmetic and mathematics teachers using ateleconference system (II)”, Journal of Japan Society of Mathematical Education, Vol. 57
Nos 1-2, pp. 1-12.
Nakamura, Y., Honda, T., Yamazaki, T. and Hall, J. (2018), “International internship program ofmathematics education at satit PIM demonstration school”, Japan Journal of Mathematics
Education and Related Fields, Vol. 59 Nos 1-2, pp. 31-42.

Developmentof program for
GLS

329

IJLLS
10,4

330

Nishiyama, T., Hosokawa, H. and Ooki, M. (Eds) (2015), What Is Intercultural Education? For Raising
Human Resource for Globalization Development, Kuroshio Shuppan.
Ota, M. (2014), “The significance of self-esteem and understanding of culture in Japanese-Migrants
study: a case of “we are living in the multi-cultural society”, a developed unit of the third
graders in primary school”, International Education, Vol. 20, pp. 24-33.
Rock, T.C. and Wilson, C. (2005), “Improving teaching through lesson study”, Teacher Education
Quarterly, Vol. 32 No. 1, pp. 77-92.
Sakai, T., Akai, H., Ishizaka, H., Tamura, K. and Ozawa, H. (2019), “Study on possibility of improvingof competency for the subject teaching through global experience of education”, NUE Journal ofInternational Education Cooperation, Vol. 12, pp. 27-36.
Santerini, M. (2010), “Intercultural competence teacher-training models: the Italian experience”, inOECD (Ed.), Educating Teachers for Diversity, Meeting the Challenge, OECD, Paris, pp. 185-201.
Schwarts, G. and Karsenty, R. (2020), “‘Can this happen only in Japan?’: mathematics teachers reflect
on a videotaped lesson in a cross-cultural context”, Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education,
Vol. 23 No. 3, pp. 527-554, doi: 10.1007/s10857-019-09438-z.
Scollon, R. and Scollon, S.W. (1995), Intercultural Communication, Blackwell, Oxford.
Stigler, J. and Hiebert, J. (1999), The Teaching Gap: Best Ideas from the World’s Teachers for
Improving Education in the Classroom, The Free Press, New York.
Tan, J.P.-L., Koh, E., Chan, M., Costes-Onishi, P. and Hung, D. (2017), “The center for global education
at Asia society”, Advancing 21st Century Competencies in Singapore, available at: https://
asiasociety.org/sites/default/files/2017-10/advancing-21st-century-competencies-insingapore.pdf.
Tanaka, M. (2014), The Globalizing Trends in Teacher Education, Annual Report Graduate School of
Education, Tohoku University, Vol. 63 No. 1, pp. 245-261.
Taylor, E.W. (1994), “Intercultural competency: a transformative learning process”, Adult Education
Quarterly, Vol. 44 No. 3, pp. 154-174.

Corresponding author
Takeshi Sakai can be contacted at: sakaita@kyoto-wu.ac.jp

For instructions on how to order reprints of this article, please visit our website:www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/licensing/reprints.htm
Or contact us for further details: permissions@emeraldinsight.com