Lesson study as teacher professional development for innovative use of Geometer's Sketchpad (GSP)

Abstract

Review of related research has shown that Geometer Sketchpad (GSP) can be an innovative tool for enhancing students' learning of plane geometry (Elchuck, 1992; Frerking, 1995; Choi, 1996; Choi-Koh, 1999; Driskell, 2004; Thompson, 2006) and solid geometry (July, 2001 ; McClintock et aI., 2002). However, in Malaysian classrooms, the use of GSP in the teaching and learning of mathematics is still very much at its infancy state even though the Ministry of Education has supplied the GSP software to all secondary schools in Malaysia. A study done by Kasmawati (2006) on 151 teachers around Penang state shows that 26% of the mathematics teachers have gone for the GSP training courses but only 2% have used GSP to teach mathematics in class. Two major reasons given by these teachers are (i) lack of time to prepare a GSP lesson and (ii) lack of skill and confidence to use GSP to teach mathematics in class. Hence, there is an urgent need to set up a collaborative group effort such as Lesson Study group in the school that will provide helpful support and sustain the continuous and innovative use of GSP in school mathematics teaching. In fact, a substantial amount of research studies (see Stigler & Hiebert, 1997; Shimahara, 1998; Lewis & Tsuchida, 1998; Stigler & Hiebert, 1999; Yoshida, 1999; Lewis, 2000; Fernandez, & Yoshida, 2004; Lim, White & Chiew, 2005) have shown that Lesson Study improves teachers' learning and supports teachers to grow professionally.