Empowering students to become self-regulated learners through interdisciplinary lesson study: Experience from teachers across subject areas and different levels

Kit Yan LEUNG, Hoi Yee Rachel KWOK

Research output: Contribution to conferencePapers

Abstract

In the era of information explosion, it is surprising to find that most of our students have not learned to self-regulate their own studies well. It might be explained by the common use of spoon-feeding teaching method since the beginning of public schooling in Asian countries. The individual differences in intelligence or diligence of students may not have been taken into careful consideration in mass class teaching. Students seem to be expected to overcome their personal limitations in order to benefit from the school curriculum. In recent studies, it is found that students’ failure to learn may be caused by insufficient ability to manage their own learning due to the lack of learning motivation, effective learning habits and skills. Self-regulated learning is widely perceived as a crucial element of successful, independent and life-long learning. Therefore, equipping students with self-regulated learning skills and empowering them to become self-regulated learners have become the major concerns of educators.
The professional development programme entitled “Integrating Self-directed Learning in Classroom Pedagogy” has been offered to in-service teachers by the Education University of Hong Kong since 2017. It is a five-week block-release programme for practicing teachers. During those five weeks, the participants are encouraged to put theory into practice. They are divided into several learning circles according to their subject disciplines. Each learning circle is asked to develop effective ways of integrating self-regulated elements in their lesson design and implement the research lesson in their own schools.
This paper reports an interdisciplinary lesson study of the professional development programme mentioned. Five teachers teaching the subjects of Business, Accounting and Financial Studies (BAFS), Liberal Studies, History and General Studies in primary and secondary schools were grouped together as a learning circle to plan a lesson on empowering their students to become self-regulated learners. Although there are variations in the subject areas as well as students’ age and learning abilities, the teachers were able to develop a core self-regulated learning and teaching framework including pre-lesson tasks, group work, and extended learning tasks to be applied in their own contexts. Similar innovative teaching and learning strategies were adopted in their lessons so as to enhance their students’ self-regulated skills. The learning activities which required students to acquire knowledge and skills through face-to-face interactions with groupmates have addressed the importance of social experiences in developing self-regulated learning. The essence of Lesson Study (lesson observations across schools, pre- and post- lesson case studies and post-lesson reviews) was embedded in the five teaching cycles taking the learning needs of each class of students into account.
The evaluation of the research lesson shows that the research lessons have enhanced student learning motivation, and thus developed a sense of ownership in their own learning. With regard to professional development, the teacher participants stated that they could better understand the learning needs of their students, thus able to help them plan a lesson which could help develop their students to be self-regulated learners. Copyright © 2018 WALS.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2018
EventThe World Association of Lesson Studies (WALS) International Conference 2018: Lesson Study and Teacher Education: International Dialogue - Beijing Normal University, China
Duration: 23 Nov 201826 Nov 2018

Conference

ConferenceThe World Association of Lesson Studies (WALS) International Conference 2018: Lesson Study and Teacher Education: International Dialogue
Abbreviated titleWALS 2018
Country/TerritoryChina
Period23/11/1826/11/18

Citation

Leung, K. Y., & Kwok, H. Y. (2018, November). Empowering students to become self-regulated learners through interdisciplinary lesson study: Experience from teachers across subject areas and different levels. Paper presented at the World Association of Lesson Studies (WALS) International Conference 2018: Lesson Study and Teacher Education: International Dialogue, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.

Keywords

  • Self-regulated learning
  • Community of practice
  • Group work

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