Revitalizing Lesson Study in Japanese High Schools

This study documents a group of teachers participating in a teacher-learning process in Japan known as ‘Jugyokenkyu’, referred to internationally as ‘Lesson Study’ (LS). Teachers participated in several stages, constructing knowledge as they go through a cycle working in collaboration from planning and teaching a lesson to reflecting on the lesson. Social interaction is at the core of classroom inquiry as teachers build a lesson by actively collaborating at each stage of the LS process. LS originated in Japan as a method to facilitate professional development among teachers. However, in secondary schooling, and especially in high school, where this study took place, opportunities for teachers to collaborate with peers is drastically lower in the actual implementation of LS in Japan. The purpose of this research project is to revitalize LS in high schools by specifically designing the LS process with an added emphasis on collaboration during the planning stages of a lesson. Qualitative data were collected in the following ways: post and pre-lesson planning stage meetings, classes including the demonstration classes and the actual research lesson were video-taped; interviews with the participants were conducted, and data were also gathered through the use of questionnaires and field notes. In this study, data from one teacher out of three who went through the LS process are detailed. Three themes emerged that depict professional growth resulting from 'Professional Knowledge Gain'; A deeper 'Focus on the Learner' and outcomes of the 'Demonstration Lesson'.

Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research …, 2000

This paper describes research lessons, which form the core of a larger process called lesson study within Japanese elementary science faculty development. Research lessons are actual classroom lessons with students which are: observed by others; planned for a long time, usually collaboratively; designed to bring to life particular goals of education; recorded; and discussed. Types of research lessons include within-school lessons, lessons open to teachers outside the school, and lessons as part of national conferences. After presenting an example, the paper discusses the impact of research lessons, examining how they contribute to the improvement of education. The strengths of research lessons are: individual professional development; learning to see children; spreading new content and approaches; connecting individual teachers' practices to school goals and broader goals; competing views of teaching bump into each other; creating demand for improvement; shaping national policy; and honoring the central role of teachers. Several features of Japanese education support research lessons: a shared, frugal curriculum; established collaboration; belief that teaching can be improved through collective efforts; self-critical reflection; stability of educational policy; instructional improvement time focused on instruction; and focus on the whole child. The paper concludes by discussing lesson study's future role in the United States. (Contains 25 references.) (SM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.

2014

"Purpose – Over the last 15 years, Japanese lesson study has attracted growing interest as an alternative to conventional teacher professional development. Despite its popularity and results, the descriptive knowledge base of authentic lesson study in Japan is still limited to a few cases from elementary math and science teachers. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the expansion of the lesson study descriptive knowledge base by offering a first-hand account of two American educators’ experience with lesson study at the secondary level while working as licensed teachers in a Japanese school. Design/methodology/approach – Using an autoethnographic case study methodology, the authors document their personal experience working through a complete lesson study cycle with a ninth grade English course in Japan, systematically reconstructed from field texts and deliberate co-construction techniques. Findings – The paper describes significant cognitive and socio-cultural adjustments that were required to participate in the process, and highlights essential skills and mindsets for lesson study: fashioning a coherent lesson storyline, articulating and testing working hypotheses, relying on evidence to guide planning and reflection, embracing collective ownership of improvement, and persisting with problems over time. Originality/value – This first-hand account provides a distinctive inside look at lesson study from an American perspective and offers a rare description of Japan-based lesson study at the secondary level. The detailed records and insights contribute to researchers and practitioners emerging understanding of prerequisite skills for lesson study."

The Australian mathematics teacher, 2013

There is growing worldwide interest in Japanese lesson study as a model for professional learning, with large-scale adaptations of lesson study taking place in many countries. This paper describes how teachers and researchers collaborated in a lesson study project carried out in three Victorian schools. It describes Japanese lesson study and the typical structured problem-solving research lesson that forms the basis for lesson study; and discusses how the collaborative planning process and the resulting research lessons, together with the post-lesson discussions, provided teachers and researchers with the opportunity to collaborate in the research process.

2010

Th is research examines "lesson study" as a traditional model of creating professional knowledge in schools. "Lesson study," typically defi ned as teachers' classroom based collaborative research, has a long history in Japan as a shared professional culture with potential for enhancing learning, enriching classroom activities and transforming the school environment. A case study method based on historical data is the primary approach used in this research. Detailed description and analysis of lessons are provided, individual lesson plans are examined and exchanges of views between teachers are discussed. Th e fi ndings are intended to help clarify the cultural and historical role of lesson based research in Japanese schools, and also the signifi cant infl uence that lesson study has exerted on developing a culture of shared professionalism in Japan.

REDIMAT, 2024

Professional teacher collaboration, a fundamental characteristic of lesson study, has been pointed out as a principle of teacher personal and professional growth. This article aims to describe and analyze the development of professional collaboration in a lesson study, highlighting the main stages of this process. The investigation involved six elementary school teachers of Brazilian public schools, in planning, observing, and reflecting on a lesson on the curriculum topic of length measure at grade 4. The participants worked collaboratively planning a lesson about this topic. The methodology is qualitative, with data collected by records and field notes of sessions, conversations, and interviews. The analyses pointed out three remarkable stages of the development of professional collaboration, which constituted the categories of analysis: recognition of collaboration, development of collaboration, and valuing collaboration. The results show that the professional collaboration that developed during the lesson study was facilitated by the dynamics of the different steps of this process and, especially, by the relationship between participants and teacher educators. Collaboration emerged from the activities of planning, teaching, observing, and reflecting on the lesson, and was valued given the encouragement and strengthening of the group insofar as teachers felt confident, encouraged, and welcomed in the group.

2014

The purpose of this paper is to report on an qualitative action research study that was conducted in an elementary school in order to examine teacher perceptions of Japanese Lesson Study as a method of professional development. Of all aspects of teacher professional development, sustaining change is perhaps the most neglected. Japanese lesson study builds continuous pathways for ongoing improvement of instruction (Lewis, Perry, & Hurd, 2004). It is a comprehensive innovation that can provide adults, in this case teachers, with opportunities for practice-based professional development opportunities (Stigler & Hiebert, 1999). There has been relatively little attention, however, within the fields of adult education or professional development literature, to teacher learning situated in the classroom environment among other adults. Educators must be prepared to teach effectively in the schools of the 21 century and be provided with continuing professional development support that enable...

European Economic Review, 2011

This study combines elements of the Japanese Lesson Study approach and teachers’ professional development. An explorative research design is conducted with three upper level high school teachers in the light of educational design research, whereby design activities will be cyclically evaluated. The Lesson Study team observed and evaluated two different research lesson cycles. The first one focused on the concept

Professional Development in Education, 2014

Lesson study is recommended to schools as a powerful approach to the development of teacher learning. This paper reports the outcomes of a 'Lesson Study' project conducted in a Mathematics department with four serving teachers in a secondary school in England. Using Dudley's lesson study framework and, drawing on Hargreaves and Fullan's notion of professional capital, the feasibility and value of collaborative lesson study as a vehicle for the development of teacher learning was explored. Planning and evaluation meetings as well as end-of-project interviews were analysed to investigate how teachers planned research lessons together and how these were evaluated. Despite time constraints, teachers who engaged in lesson study reported that the process improved understanding of their students, that collaboration helped them to develop less-teacher-centred approaches and created a stronger sense of teacher community. The project demonstrated that lesson study has potential as an alternative or complementary model of teachers' learning, but it also throws up substantive organisational challenges if its use is to expand.

Paper, 2023

This paper highlights the beginning of the process of adopting lesson studies in Indonesia through JICA Cooperation projects and three universities in Indonesia (UPI, UNY, and UM) which took place between 1999-2008. The discussion begins with the problems in the professional development of school-based teachers in Indonesia, and school-university partnerships as a prospective solution to solve the problems faced. Furthermore, this paper explains the evolution of lesson study in Indonesia which was facilitated by JICA experts from the collaboration of teacher-lecturer pairs in piloting activities in the implementation of the IMSTEP project to become collaboration involved a more massive number university lecturers and teachers at MGMP-MGMP (subject-based teachers working groups) regular activities in the implementation of the SISTTEMS project called lesson study.