Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.
On this week's programme I am joined by Professor Akihiko Takahashi from the College of Education at De Paul University who talks about the teaching of mathematics, about Lesson Study as a form of professional development for teachers and other matters. I spoke with Professor Takahashi after he addressed an event hosted by the UCD Japan Group. Among the items we discussed were the following:
- Why learn mathematics?
- How do children learn to solve problems?
- What is lesson study?
- Why in Japan lunch is considered to be an opportunity for teaching
- How lesson study helps teachers to grow
- Why collaboration is the foundation to being an effective teacher
- Why live classroom observation is better than observing teaching on video
- How the Japanese learn from other cultures
- Are teachers born or made?