Developing Mathematical Activities to Promote Students’ Self-learning

Abstract

Background and Aims: The promotion of self-learning is both a principle and a crucial goal of education for global citizens in the future. The education sector has sought approaches to manage learning so that learners can learn independently, which is widely believed to be lifelong learning. Lesson Study incorporated with an Open Approach (TLSOA) is utilized to promote self-directed learning. Developing mathematical activity through TLSOA to enhance students' self-directed learning is a significant area of study. This research aims to explain the development of mathematical activities to promote self-directed learning of students using  TLSOA as a tool.

Methodology: It employs qualitative research methods to gather and analyze data. The research focuses on the parallelogram area, six consecutive lessons, and the target group, including 3 researchers, 1 mathematics teacher, 15 third-year students, and 9 fifth-grade students. Instruments for data collection include collaborative planning sheets, field notes to record student ideas, video cameras to record classroom learning activities, and cameras to document student work and learning management boards. Content analysis and self-study are used to analyze the data, employing the mathematical activity framework proposed by Asami-Johansson.

Results: The research findings indicate that the Lesson Study Team develops mathematical activities to promote students' self-directed learning as follows: (1) Development to foster students' willingness to participate in mathematical activities by: 1) Designing challenging problems for students. 2) Using problems that align with students' experiences. 3) Sequencing the questions. 4) Designing media to support students' self-solving of problems. 5) Preparing supplementary media to support students' idea presentations. (2) Development to support students in purposeful mathematical activities by: 1) Teams in the classroom must solve problems from Japanese textbooks. 2) Analyzing the difficulties of problems. 3) Anticipating student’s ideas that will arise in the classroom. 4) Sequencing the problems students will encounter. 5) Analyzing students' experiences. 6) Designing problem situations to help students identify problems or goals for self-solving. 7) Designing instructions. 8) Anticipating student’s ideas and responses to instructions. 9) Preparing media aligned with problem situations. 10) Sequencing presentations based on Anticipating student’s ideas.

Conclusion: The results of the study show that the Lesson Study Team deliberately creates mathematical tasks that foster students' autonomous learning by posing difficult questions, matching them to their prior knowledge, organizing the questions in a logical order, and offering helpful resources. In addition, they encourage intentional mathematical engagement through methodical problem analysis, anticipating student thoughts, and organizing instructions and presentations with care.