Teaching Multiplication with Lesson Study

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xviii

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2. Introduction: Japanese Theories and Overview of the Chapters in This Book

   • Masami Isoda, Raimundo Olfos

   Pages 1-21Open Access

3. Japanese Approach for Multiplication: Comparison with other Countries, and Theoretical, Historical, and Empirical Analysis for Lesson Study

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 23-23

      PDF

   2. Multiplication of Whole Numbers in the Curriculum: Singapore, Japan, Portugal, the USA, Mexico, Brazil, and Chile

      • Raimundo Olfos, Masami Isoda, Soledad Estrella

      Pages 25-35Open Access

   3. Problematics for Conceptualization of Multiplication

      • Masami Isoda, Raimundo Olfos

      Pages 37-64Open Access

   4. Introduction of Multiplication and Its Extension: How Does Japanese Introduce and Extend?

      • Masami Isoda, Raimundo Olfos

      Pages 65-101Open Access

   5. Japanese Lesson Study for Introduction of Multiplication

      • Raimundo Olfos, Masami Isoda

      Pages 103-131Open Access

   6. Teaching the Multiplication Table and Its Properties for Learning How to Learn

      • Raimundo Olfos, Masami Isoda

      Pages 133-154Open Access

   7. The Teaching of Multidigit Multiplication in the Japanese Approach

      • Masami Isoda, Raimundo Olfos, Takeshi Noine

      Pages 155-195Open Access

4. Ibero and Ibero-American Contributions for the Teaching of Multiplication

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 197-197

      PDF

   2. An Ethnomathematical Perspective on the Question of the Idea of Multiplication and Learning to Multiply: The Languages and Looks Involved

      • Claudia Georgia Sabba, Ubiratan D’Ambrosio

      Pages 199-213Open Access

   3. “Necklaces”: A Didactic Sequence for Missing-Value Proportionality Problems

      • Laura Reséndiz, David Block Sevilla

      Pages 215-239Open Access

   4. Building Opportunities for Learning Multiplication

      • Fátima Mendes, Joana Brocardo, Hélia Oliveira

      Pages 241-264Open Access

   5. Can We Explain Students’ Failure in Learning Multiplication?

      • Maria del Carmen Chamorro

      Pages 265-289Open Access

5. Back Matter

   Pages 291-296

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This open access book is intended to assist teachers, teacher trainers, curriculum designers, editors and authors of textbooks in developing strategies to teach the multiplication of natural numbers based on the experience of the Lesson Study in Japan. This approach to mathematics education dates back to the 1870s and reconciles the emphasis on problem solving with the treatment of the curricular contents. It has gained international recognition since the 1990s and thanks to it mathematics education in Japan has been recognized as one of the most efficient and innovative in the world.

This growing international awareness has led to an effort to apply the principles of Lesson Study to other parts of the world and this book shows how experienced authors from Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Spain and Portugal have worked to adapt some of these methods and techniques to the Portuguese and Spanish speaking countries of Ibero-America. 

Drawing on the impact of Lesson Study on government curriculum decisions and teacher behavior in Japanese classrooms; offering examples of lessons, lesson plans and suggestions for teaching; and presenting examples of the good reception of the principles of Lesson Study in Ibero-America, Teaching Multiplication with Lesson Study – Japanese and Ibero-American Theories for Mathematics Education shows how an efficient and cutting-edge experience in mathematics education can travel the world and help teachers in many different countries.

• Curriculum
• Lesson study
• Teaching multiplication
• Comparative education
• Ethnomathematics
• Mathematics education in Japan
• Mathematics education in Latin America
• Learning to multiply
• Multiply by zero
• Multiplication facts
• Multiplication properties
• Algorithms to multiply
• Vertical multiplication
• Mathematics teacher education
• Instructional activities and practices
• Elementary school education
• Problem solving
• Mathematics textbooks
• open access

“This book offers valuable insights about teaching multiplication and about lesson study. … I highly recommend this book as an excellent resource for those involved with teaching multiplication or teaching elementary teachers. It provides compelling justification for the importance of using proper and consistent terminology, understanding the definitions of multiplication, posing open-ended tasks, and having an insightful questioning strategy.” (Mary Beth Rollick, MAA Reviews, May 9, 2021)

• CRICED, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan

  Masami Isoda

• Mathematics Institute, Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso Science Faculty, Valparaíso, Chile

  Raimundo Olfos

Masami Isoda, PhD, is a professor of the School of Human Sciences at the University of Tsukuba, Japan, where he is also the director of the Center for Research on International Cooperation in Educational Development. He has been a co-project overseer (representative) of the APEC Lesson Study Project (since 2006) and has been working internationally and nationally for innovation in mathematics education. His contributions have earned him the following awards: Honorary Professor by USIL, Peru (2014); Honorary PhD by KKU, Thailand (2011); Most Beautiful Book of the Year 2009 in the Area of Natural Science by Japan Publisher Association (2010); Best Software in Education by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan (2005). His PhD thesis title is "Mathematization for Mathematics Education: an extension of the theory of Hans Freudenthal applying the representation theory of Masami Isoda with demonstration of levels of function up to calculus." He has established the theories of teaching approach such as the planning for argumentation in classroom using the theory of the conceptual and procedural knowledge in mathematics.

Raimundo Olfos, PhD, is an associated professor of the Mathematics Institute of the School of Sciences at the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso, Chile, where he is a teacher of the graduate program in Mathematics Didactics. As an assessor for public policies he has contributed to the ministries of Education in Chile and Peru. As a researcher he has published more than 30 papers and authored 5 books. His main research interests are curriculum development and assessment in mathematics education, and he leads communities of Lesson Study Groups in Chile and Colombia.