How does a japanese primary school teacher manage the whole-class discussion named neriage?

Abstract

This research aims at analyzing teacher practices in a Japanese context with a focus on the collective teaching during structured problem solving lessons, the whole-class discussion named neriage. We analyze teacher practices with the specific tools of the double didactic and ergonomic approach: the cognitive component of practices that concerns the choice and organization of the tasks for the students and the mediative component of practices that concerns the interactions of the teacher with the students. Video data gather a research lesson during a Japanese Lesson Study about the logical thinking and collective meetings before and after the research lesson. This research highlights a key element in the teacher’s practices that can explain both the choice of tasks and how the teacher manages the neriage: the variation of the values of the didactic variables of the problem.