2021 Volume 28 Issue 3 Pages 458-481
In order to clarify how a practical research community functions as Toda's theorizing model, this article reported two studies on a design-based implementation research (DBIR) project being jointly implemented by CoREF and regional boards of education. Participating teachers from various districts have been improving their lessons and assessments through generating and sharing hypotheses on learner-centered lessons conducted through the Knowledge Constructive Jigsaw method. Study 1 analyzed the system design of the community in order to extract basic elements to embody Toda's concept of the theorizing model. Study 2 reported the redesign of a lesson study system, the lack of which had been pointed out in Study 1, and verified how the system helped teachers generate hypotheses of student learning by connecting accumulated design principles as constituent theories and revise them based on evidence of student learning. In order for the practical research community to function as the theorizing model, two studies led us to extract four elements: 1) an instructional framework and database of lessons to connect a theoretical framework, actual practices, and constituent theories, 2) a mechanism enabling teachers to become conscious of hypotheses on lesson designs, 3) a mechanism to make complex processes of student learning visible, and 4) a mechanism to foster collaborative reflection. Though being situated, context-dependent, and emergent, the practical research community was considered as a candidate for the theorizing model, inspiring others to design another community as well as to delve into the concrete features of a unified science for societal problem solving.
