Optimizing History of Mathematics: A Lesson Study

Reforms are being made as the Philippines adopt a new mathematics curriculum. A part of the curriculum is the integration of the history of mathematics in the Grade 7 lesson for Measurement. Lesson Study was utilized to explore the possible outcomes integrating history in teaching mathematics. An introductory lesson about measurement for grade seven students was carefully planned by the authors and was implemented via a Research Lesson consisting of 17 transitioning sixth graders. The actual lesson and the post lesson debriefing were video-and-audio recorded, then transcribed. Moreover, the students were asked to write a short reflection, expressing their learnings regarding the lesson. The corpus of data were analysed and coded using phenomenological perspectives. The researchers further validated their data through gathering artefacts which consist of the student outputs. Three emergent issues in attaining the objectives of the lesson were identified: (1) Appropriateness of Tasks in terms of Cognitive Demands and Deeper Intellectual Quality, (2) What Teacher Interventions are suitable in terms of Teacher Support and Questioning Skills, and (3) the Importance of the use of Code-Switching in mathematics lessons. The study revealed certain benefits as to how Lesson Study could facilitate in designing lessons that adhere to the notions of Problem-Solving and Critical Thinking, the twin Goals of the new mathematics curriculum. Furthermore, feedbacks from the observers showed that using history of math builds a lesson on measurement effectively by enhancing students' attentiveness and realization about the significance of the lesson in real life. Thus, integrating history of mathematics is worthy of consideration in planning a successful mathematics lesson.