November/December 2001

What's Inside:

Features
— New Grants Expand Lab Work
— Mentoring Youth
— Mentoring Center Gains New Director
— What Works in Title I Schools
— Tots and Technology
— Lesson Study for Teachers
— Transition to Teaching

Conference News
— Conference Call

What's New on the Web
— www.nwrel.org

Order
— Document Order Form

Flashback
— Pictures from past events

Credits
— Credits

Lesson Study
Teachers Learning Together

Lesson study, a form of teacher professional development long practiced in Japan, has emerged on the American scene. Across the country, teachers are getting together for lesson study, an ongoing practice in which teachers collaboratively plan, observe, and refine classroom lessons. These cycles of lesson study form the core of teachers' professional growth.

“Lesson study appeals naturally to teachers who long for opportunities to collaborate, learn about their practice, and facilitate their own professional growth,” say coeditors Denise Jarrett Weeks and Jennifer Stepanek in the Spring 2001 issue of Northwest Teacher, Lesson Study: Teachers Learning Together. A growing number of administrators are finding lesson study an attractive alternative to one-shot workshops. From Delaware to Washington, lesson study is being introduced to foster a community of learners among teaching professionals, enhancing student learning in the process.

“The lesson study process integrates a number of effective professional development strategies,” say the editors, “such as peer observation, ongoing collaboration, and looking closely at how students think, both by observing them in the classroom and examining their classwork.”

The Fall 2001 issue of Northwest Teacher, Taking It Outside: Science Inquiry, spotlights teachers and students who've taken to the outdoors, leaving their classrooms to “unearth the mysteries awaiting in school gardens, orchards, forests, and wetlands,” say the editors. “Equipped with the skills of scientific inquiry, students construct an understanding of the natural and built world.”

The National Science Education Standards state that all students should undertake scientific inquiry, and the outdoors can pose an especially rich learning ground for inquiry-based learning.

A free copy is available to individuals in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. Request a copy by e-mail: math_and_science@nwrel.org; telephone: (503) 275-9500; or go to the Web site www.nwrel.org/msec/nwteacher/index.html

If you are outside the region or want multiple copies, purchases can be made through NWREL's Document Reproduction Service. See Order Form.

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