Abstract
This study examines how mathematics teaching
research specialists mentor practicing teachers during
post-lesson debriefs of a lesson study in China. Based on
a systematic, fine-grained analysis of 107 h of videotaped
mentoring meetings of 20 groups of teachers and teaching
research specialists from different elementary schools, this
study reveals that the Chinese teaching research specialists
pay a great deal of attention to practical knowledge which
consists of setting students’ learning goals, designing
instructional tasks, formative assessment of students’ learning
and improving instructional behaviors. Less attention is
paid to mathematics content knowledge and general pedagogical
knowledge. Meanwhile, the teaching research specialists
tend to comment on lessons in general and address
anticipated problems based on their previous experience,
and pay less attention to address issues raised by the teachers
or to engage in dynamic dialogue with them. On the
basis of the data analysis, a framework for analyzing mentoring
activities emerges. The strengths and weaknesses
of the teaching research specialists’ mentoring strategies
are identified through the framework, and suggestions to
improve the teaching research specialists’ mentoring strategies
are discussed
