Rongjin Huang

Purpose: This study explores the potential of community-based STEM projects, supported by Lesson Study (LS) framework, to foster data literacy (DL) among elementary school students. Design/methodology/approach: An LS team conducted two iterations centered on a community-based STEM project in which students designed flotation devices to address local flooding. Data sources included pre- and post-assessments, student surveys, video recordings of lessons and planning meetings. Quantitative data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, while qualitative analysis of research lessons identified four types of learning opportunities. Student surveys were examined using descriptive statistics and qualitative approaches. Findings: Although no statistically significant gains in DL knowledge were found, qualitative results indicated high student engagement and improved understanding of the DL process and its relevance to community issues. Classroom discourse revealed opportunities for students to formulate investigative questions, explore data through graphical representations and interpret results. Challenges included supporting students in posing meaningful statistical questions and analyzing relevant data. Research limitations/implications: Embedding a DL lesson within an LS cycle and analyzing classroom discourse provides insight into how learning opportunities emerge through task design and targeted questioning. Limitations include limited capture of small group talk, partial assessment of DL, and the focus on a single project in one grade band. Practical implications: The study highlights the need for sustained integration of DL across multiple iSTEM cycles, clearer scaffolds for formulating statistical questions, and stronger synthesis routines to support coherence-building. Originality/value: This study offers empirical insights into how community-based STEM projects supported by LS can create meaningful opportunities for developing students' DL and inform the design of innovative, practice-based instruction.

Purpose: This article examines a lesson study (LS) approach bringing teachers and university faculty together to develop a lesson in data literacy using transformative technologies, including Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen-AI) such as ChatGPT. Design/methodology/approach: An LS team with four teachers from a private school, facilitated by three researchers, conducted two iterations of LS on teaching scatterplots using technologies. Multiple data were collected: Videos of research lessons, videos of lesson planning and post-lesson debriefings, and post-LS focus student group and teacher interviews. Based on an enriched LS framework (Lewis, 2016), this study investigates both students’ and teachers’ learning. Findings: The students learned new concepts and skills to investigate contextual problems using technologies through the data literacy cycle. Teachers developed an understanding of relevant statistical concepts and pedagogical content knowledge needed for teaching the topic in a technology-rich environment. Teachers realized the potential of using Gen-AI for planning lessons and were eager to explore the effective use of Gen-AI further. Meanwhile, some challenges in using Gen-AI in LS were identified. Research limitations/implications: This study focuses on both teachers’ and students’ perceived learning based on interview data. However, the integration of classroom teaching data and debriefing data could provide a richer picture of their learning processes. Practical implications: This study demonstrates how data literacy could be taught through addressing contextual problems using various technologies, revealing both positive effects and associated challenges. Originality/value: The study contributes to a better understanding of how transformative technology like Gen-AI could be incorporated into LS to strengthen teachers’ and students’ learning.

Purpose: This study aimed to explore teachers' learning processes through a hybrid cross-cultural lesson study (LS) because little is known about the learning process through this novel and promising LS approach.Design/methodology/approach: This cross-cultural LS lasted over six months focusing on developing a research lesson (RL) related to linear functions/equations by addressing a commonly concerned student learning difficulty. The data collected were lesson plans, videos of RLs, cross-culture sharing meetings and post-lesson study teacher interviews. A cultural-history activity theory (CHAT) perspective (Engeström, 2001) was used as a theoretical and analytical framework, and contradictions were viewed as driving forces of teachers' learning. The data were analyzed to identify contradictions and consequent teachers' learning by resolving these contradictions.Findings: The results revealed four contradictions occurring during the hybrid cross-cultural LS that are related to the preferred teaching approach, culturally relevant tasks, making sense of the specific topic and enactment of the RL. By addressing these contradictions, the participating teachers perceived their learning in cultural beliefs, pedagogical practice and organization of the lesson.Research limitations/implications: This study details teachers' collaborative learning processes through hybrid cross-cultural LS and provides implications for effectively conducting cross-cultural LS. However, how the potential learning opportunity revealed from this case could be actualized at a larger scale in different cultures and the actual impact on local practices by adapting effective practices from another culture are important questions to be investigated further.Originality/value: This study expands teacher learning through cross-cultural LS by focusing on contradictions cross-culturally as driving forces.

Purpose: This paper examines how mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) learn to enact equitable mathematics instruction using technology through lesson study (LS).Design/methodology/approach: A LS team with three MTEs conducted three iterations of LS on teaching the Pythagorean Theorem in an in-person, technology-mediated environment. Many forms of data were collected: Desmos activities, videos of research lessons (RLs), videos of MTE RL debriefings, artifacts of student learning in the Desmos Dashboard, and MTEs' written self-reflection. The authors investigate the teacher educators' learning through LS by analyzing the MTE debriefings of the RLs using Bannister’s (2015) framework for teacher learning in communities of practice.Findings: The MTEs learned to enact equitable mathematics instruction using technology through addressing emerging issues related to intellectual authority and use of student thinking. Throughout the LS, the MTEs sought ways of promoting students' mathematical authority and using student thinking through features of the Desmos platform.Research limitations/implications: This study focuses on MTEs' learning without examining participating preservice teachers' learning. It demonstrates the benefits of LS for MTEs' professional learning.Practical implications: This study showcases how a research-based Desmos activity is used and refined to promote MTE learning how to implement equitable mathematics instruction.Originality/value: The study contributes to better understanding of how LS could be used to develop MTEs' professional learning. Moreover, the dual process of participation and reification was concretized through diagnostic and prognostic frames in the LS context, which enriches the concept of community of practice.

This introductory chapter provides the background of this book and situates it in the current research literature and theoretical perspectives. An overview of the structure as well as a brief description of the chapters in each section is given.