Lesson Study

RBS Currents, Volume 5, Issue 2

Developing Effective Use of the Blackboard Through Lesson Study

By Makoto Yoshida, based on an article by Makoto Yoshida that will appear in a forthcoming book by Catherine Lewis on Lesson Study to be published by Research for Better Schools.

(© 2001 Makoto Yoshida, Global Education Resources, L.L.C., used with permission)

Lesson Study's Impact on the Blackboard

Lesson study, the primary form of professional development in Japan, allows teachers to examine many aspects of teaching and learning, and one recurrent theme is the effective use of the blackboard. So prevalent is this topic that the Japanese education community has developed a technical word for it: bansho. Bansho is translated into English as "use or organization of blackboard," or in a literal translation, "board writing." Bansho is considered a critical teaching skill in Japan, particularly when conducting child-centered discovery-oriented lessons in mathematics and science.

Through years of refining the use of the blackboard during lesson study, Japanese teachers have learned to use the blackboard for far more than simply posing problems, demonstrating solutions, and presenting formulas. Japanese teachers have learned to skillfully organize the blackboard for the following purposes:

To help organize students' thoughts and thought processes
To model good organization and foster organized note-taking skills
To give structure to student discussion
To provide a place to record student discussion
To record the collective student ideas that evolve from the discussions
To impart a mathematical idea through collective student ideas
To provide a visual summary of the entire lesson
To enhance students' learning experiences.

The Blackboard Plan

Meeting the purposes above requires a good deal of advance planning. One component of lesson study is the collaborative planning and writing of lessons, which allows teachers a setting in which to plan for the effective use of the blackboard. Bansho-keikaku, another term coined through lesson study, is translated as "planning for the use of the blackboard." A lesson plan is not complete until it also contains an explicit blackboard plan.

The following diagram shows an example of a plan for blackboard use developed during a course of lesson study. In this lesson, five teachers from first and second grade in Hiroshima, Japan collaboratively planned a lesson on a subtraction using borrowing. (For a more detailed description, see Yoshida 1999).

Presenting the Lesson

The picture at right was taken from the actual lesson the teachers planned above. Slight changes were made, but the general plan for presenting an organized blackboard was maintained. When the lesson was complete, the board provided a visual summary of the lesson in a format that helped to organize student thinking and note taking.

Evaluating the Use of the Blackboard During Lesson Study

Another critical component of lesson study is the debriefing session, in which observers discuss the lesson. What criteria do Japanese teachers use to evaluate the use of the blackboard? The following list shows some of the important points that I have compiled through my discussions with Japanese teachers:

Is it easy for the students and the teacher to follow the flow of the lesson?
Is it logically and coherently organized in order to help students' understanding of the lesson?
Is the goal and task of the lesson clear on the board?
Does it reflect students' voices, ways of thinking, and ideas?
Can you tell how individual students' ideas were challenged and developed through collective ideas?
Are the materials presented on the board meaningful and effective for the students' understanding of the lesson?
Is there any summary statement on the board at the end of the lesson?
Were there students' explanations or words that were helpful referring or tying up with the summary of the lesson?

Other Impacts of an Organized Blackboard

Another interesting point that many Japanese teachers told me is that the effective use of the blackboard goes beyond simply imparting the day's lesson effectively. Through presenting an organized blackboard, teachers model organized thinking. As a result, students can learn how to organize their own thinking, and to take notes in an organized manner.

Japanese teachers further encourage good note taking by creating handouts that are based on the blackboard organization plan. These handouts are pasted into the students' notebooks to guide them in note taking. As the year progresses, the handouts become less detailed, so that the students have to rely on their own organized thinking in order to take good notes.

Questions for Reflection

It is interesting to think about our use of the blackboard in the United States. Please take a moment to consider the following questions for reflection.

How much of your blackboard is available for your and your students' use?
How much of the blackboard content remains at the end of the lesson?
How do you and your colleagues organize use of the blackboard? Do you organize your blackboard to provide a clear summary of the lesson?
Have you discussed effective use of the blackboard with your colleagues?
Have you considered how your use of the blackboard may influence/enhance
your students' note taking ability?

Professional development models that provide collaborative discussion forums, such as the lesson study model, can lend themselves to exploring new and effective ways to use the blackboard to enhance student thinking and understanding. Improving the use of the blackboard is a process that takes time, and through collaborative efforts such as lesson study, teachers can examine, discuss, revise, and improve their use of this important tool.

Reference

Yoshida, M. (1999). Lesson Study: A Case Study of a Japanese Approach to Improving Instruction Through School-Based Teacher Development, Doctoral dissertation, Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago.

Makoto Yoshida is President of Global Education Resources, LLC, a company dedicated to improving elementary and middle school mathematics instruction and learning by providing workshops and consulting services to teachers, schools, and districts. He specializes in lesson study, and facilitates the lesson study efforts at Paterson Public School 2 in Paterson, NJ.