WALS-Routledge Lesson Study Series – serie

A unique feature of this book is its focus on engaging teachers themselves in changing teaching as a way to bring about teacher change through lesson study and learning study. The sequence – changing teaching, changing teachers – is significant. This approach to professional development is not about telling teachers what and how they should teach to bring about change in their students’ learning outcomes. It is about empowering teachers to make their own decisions about what needs to change. Empowering teachers in this way has been identified as the ‘soul’ of Japanese lesson study (Cheng, 2019). It is the soul which can so easily be compromised when lesson study is adopted and – inevitably it seems – adapted in new contexts around the globe. Without teacher empowerment, top-down curriculum development is almost bound to fail. In presenting the cases of collaborative professional development included in this book, care has been taken to include the teachers’ voices. They are intended to be the subjects and not the objects of our research into teachers’ professional development.

This is a much-needed book for educators who want to learn more than just the surface features of lesson study, to deepen the process and learning. Bringing together current knowledge and resources from lesson study practitioners and researchers all over the world, this book provides models and examples of how teachers can learn more deeply and how to support them to learn more in lesson study. The chapters connect current research/educational theories to classroom practices and are filled with examples to illustrate how deeper learning looks with lesson study; for example, highlighting the research process, paying attention to educative talk, using of case pupils (students) as the teachers’ focus, doing kyouzai kenkyuu well, facilitating mock-up lessons and so forth. This is not a basic "how-to" handbook of lesson study, and readers can choose chapters with topics of interest to learn and use the new ideas promptly in their work. Coming from the global network of lesson study educators, the book not only provides new learning guides but also provides stories of how lesson study has been adopted in different cultures and educational contexts.

This is a much-needed book for educators who want to learn more than just the surface features of lesson study, to deepen the process and learning. Bringing together current knowledge and resources from lesson study practitioners and researchers all over the world, this book provides models and examples of how teachers can learn more deeply and how to support them to learn more in lesson study. The chapters connect current research/educational theories to classroom practices and are filled with examples to illustrate how deeper learning looks with lesson study; for example, highlighting the research process, paying attention to educative talk, using of case pupils (students) as the teachers’ focus, doing kyouzai kenkyuu well, facilitating mock-up lessons and so forth. This is not a basic "how-to" handbook of lesson study, and readers can choose chapters with topics of interest to learn and use the new ideas promptly in their work. Coming from the global network of lesson study educators, the book not only provides new learning guides but also provides stories of how lesson study has been adopted in different cultures and educational contexts.

The philosophy of Lesson Study in Japan—teacher ownership, teacher professionalism, student learning-focused dialogue, teacher collaboration, and teacher professional community—has attracted educators and researchers worldwide. However, Lesson Study does not have the same meaning as its original Japanese expression Jugyou Kenkyuu, a combination of two Japanese words—Jugyou meaning instruction or lesson(s) and Kenkyuu meaning study or research. To bridge the gap between Jugyou Kenkyuu and Lesson Study and therefore maximize the potential of Lesson Study in the world, this edited volume provides two "mirrors" for those who wish to reflect on and implement Lesson Study within their own contexts. One section discusses how Lesson Study is utilized in Japanese teacher education and how this system reproduces the very culture of Lesson Study. The other section addresses case studies showcasing Lesson Study implementation in several countries such as the United States, Germany, Norway, Peru, and Uganda and discusses the opportunities and challenges that arise when Lesson Study-based teacher education expands beyond Japan to the rest of the world. This book will appeal to anyone interested in learning about Lesson Study.

This book elucidates the formation and development of theories of action in school reforms for Schools as Learning Communities (SLC) during ten years from its inception in 1998 in select Japanese elementary schools, junior high schools, and one secondary school. While growing international interest in Japanese lesson study is in pursuit of a standard lesson study, Suzuki offers a unique perspective into school reforms for SLC and how they resisted the standardization of lesson study out of concerns that it would limit a teacher’s autonomous judgment and choice.Through a theory-of-action approach in its examination of the pilot schools for SLC, this book clarifies:• Why did teachers reform lesson study?• What were the difficulties in reforming lesson study?• Why were teachers working on school reform for SLC?• Why did the school reform for SLC evolve from an elementary school to the junior high schools and high schools?This book provides a theoretical foundation for reviewing the past efforts and histories of Japanese lesson study reforms, and will interest academics and practitioners looking for insights into the future of lesson study.Winner of the Seiichi Tejima Research Award (2023 Book Award) and the Academic Research Award by the Japan School Improvement Rescarch Association (2022).

This book elucidates the formation and development of theories of action in school reforms for Schools as Learning Communities (SLC) during ten years from its inception in 1998 in select Japanese elementary schools, junior high schools, and one secondary school. While growing international interest in Japanese lesson study is in pursuit of a standard lesson study, Suzuki offers a unique perspective into school reforms for SLC and how they resisted the standardization of lesson study out of concerns that it would limit a teacher’s autonomous judgment and choice.Through a theory-of-action approach in its examination of the pilot schools for SLC, this book clarifies:• Why did teachers reform lesson study?• What were the difficulties in reforming lesson study?• Why were teachers working on school reform for SLC?• Why did the school reform for SLC evolve from an elementary school to the junior high schools and high schools?This book provides a theoretical foundation for reviewing the past efforts and histories of Japanese lesson study reforms, and will interest academics and practitioners looking for insights into the future of lesson study.Winner of the Seiichi Tejima Research Award (2023 Book Award) and the Academic Research Award by the Japan School Improvement Rescarch Association (2022).

A unique feature of this book is its focus on engaging teachers themselves in changing teaching as a way to bring about teacher change through lesson study and learning study. The sequence – changing teaching, changing teachers – is significant. This approach to professional development is not about telling teachers what and how they should teach to bring about change in their students’ learning outcomes. It is about empowering teachers to make their own decisions about what needs to change. Empowering teachers in this way has been identified as the ‘soul’ of Japanese lesson study (Cheng, 2019). It is the soul which can so easily be compromised when lesson study is adopted and – inevitably it seems – adapted in new contexts around the globe. Without teacher empowerment, top-down curriculum development is almost bound to fail. In presenting the cases of collaborative professional development included in this book, care has been taken to include the teachers’ voices. They are intended to be the subjects and not the objects of our research into teachers’ professional development.

Lesson Study has been shown to be a systematic way of building teachers’ knowledge by allowing them to share their knowledge with each other. While much has been written about the benefits of Lesson Study in science and mathematics education, this book analyses its impact on education for children with special needs. It studies the ways in which the Lesson Study process is implemented in different educational contexts in the Netherlands, Singapore, the UK, and Sweden—countries which propagate more inclusive learning environments regardless of varying degrees of student capacities. In addition to making transcultural comparisons regarding concepts, procedures, and instruments in the use of Lesson Study in these four countries, this book will provide practice-based suggestions for teachers to formulate collaborative lesson plans.

The philosophy of Lesson Study in Japan—teacher ownership, teacher professionalism, student learning-focused dialogue, teacher collaboration, and teacher professional community—has attracted educators and researchers worldwide. However, Lesson Study does not have the same meaning as its original Japanese expression Jugyou Kenkyuu, a combination of two Japanese words—Jugyou meaning instruction or lesson(s) and Kenkyuu meaning study or research. To bridge the gap between Jugyou Kenkyuu and Lesson Study and therefore maximize the potential of Lesson Study in the world, this edited volume provides two "mirrors" for those who wish to reflect on and implement Lesson Study within their own contexts. One section discusses how Lesson Study is utilized in Japanese teacher education and how this system reproduces the very culture of Lesson Study. The other section addresses case studies showcasing Lesson Study implementation in several countries such as the United States, Germany, Norway, Peru, and Uganda and discusses the opportunities and challenges that arise when Lesson Study-based teacher education expands beyond Japan to the rest of the world. This book will appeal to anyone interested in learning about Lesson Study.

Using illustrative teaching case studies, this book demonstrates how teaching informed by a learning theory, specifically Variation theory, can equip teachers to facilitate possibilities for students’ learning in effective and powerful ways.For a long period of time teaching has been “black-boxed”, in favour of other explanations of why students learn or not, such as motivation and social interaction. A large amount of research on teaching and learning, not the least made using Variation theory, has shown that students often need to experience the same aspects of the focused content or capability in order to learn, indicating that relationships between teaching and learning are not unique or even qualitatively different for every individual and every situation. This perspective on the relationship between teaching and learning emphasizes content-specific aspects and in that sense structural components of teaching, while other aspects of schooling such as social interaction and general well-being recede into the background. The authors argue for the importance of this in the direct development of teachers' independent collective professional knowledge about teaching, and the leverage this gives for developing student learning. They introduce theoretical tools to help teachers to increase the probability that teaching focusing a specific content or capability is predictive of students learning of that specific content or capability, while decreasing contextual dependency without assuming that teaching and learning have a one-to-one relationship.Intended for teachers, graduate students in education, teacher educators, student teachers, and researchers, this book shows that while there is no simple equation between teaching and learning, there are general, though content specific, aspects of teaching that can be systematically planned and analyzed and used to improve the quality of student learning.The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Using illustrative teaching case studies, this book demonstrates how teaching informed by a learning theory, specifically Variation theory, can equip teachers to facilitate possibilities for students’ learning in effective and powerful ways.For a long period of time teaching has been “black-boxed”, in favour of other explanations of why students learn or not, such as motivation and social interaction. A large amount of research on teaching and learning, not the least made using Variation theory, has shown that students often need to experience the same aspects of the focused content or capability in order to learn, indicating that relationships between teaching and learning are not unique or even qualitatively different for every individual and every situation. This perspective on the relationship between teaching and learning emphasizes content-specific aspects and in that sense structural components of teaching, while other aspects of schooling such as social interaction and general well-being recede into the background. The authors argue for the importance of this in the direct development of teachers' independent collective professional knowledge about teaching, and the leverage this gives for developing student learning. They introduce theoretical tools to help teachers to increase the probability that teaching focusing a specific content or capability is predictive of students learning of that specific content or capability, while decreasing contextual dependency without assuming that teaching and learning have a one-to-one relationship.Intended for teachers, graduate students in education, teacher educators, student teachers, and researchers, this book shows that while there is no simple equation between teaching and learning, there are general, though content specific, aspects of teaching that can be systematically planned and analyzed and used to improve the quality of student learning.The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Offering voices from the field – the first of its kind outside of Japan – this guide to teaching and learning elementary mathematics highlights real case examples from teachers and educators who share what they have learned through Lesson Study.The teachers’ reports provide vivid examples of new insights and ideas about mathematics, about pedagogy and lesson design, about student learning, and about professional collaboration gained through Lesson Study. Each report includes an abbreviated plan of the specific research lesson that led to the new insights, which readers can draw from to replicate the powerful learning in their own community. The case examples of this book are from Lesson Study in mathematics, elementary to lower secondary grade levels, focused on what teachers and educators have learned about improving mathematics teaching and learning; but many ideas from each report can be applied to other subjects and different grade levels.This unique book will be an excellent resource for mathematics teachers in training and practice who seek to improve mathematics teaching and learning in their own and others’ classrooms, including researchers and school administrators who lead professional development.

Offering voices from the field – the first of its kind outside of Japan – this guide to teaching and learning elementary mathematics highlights real case examples from teachers and educators who share what they have learned through Lesson Study.The teachers’ reports provide vivid examples of new insights and ideas about mathematics, about pedagogy and lesson design, about student learning, and about professional collaboration gained through Lesson Study. Each report includes an abbreviated plan of the specific research lesson that led to the new insights, which readers can draw from to replicate the powerful learning in their own community. The case examples of this book are from Lesson Study in mathematics, elementary to lower secondary grade levels, focused on what teachers and educators have learned about improving mathematics teaching and learning; but many ideas from each report can be applied to other subjects and different grade levels.This unique book will be an excellent resource for mathematics teachers in training and practice who seek to improve mathematics teaching and learning in their own and others’ classrooms, including researchers and school administrators who lead professional development.

Offering a rich, critical investigation of how technology can be used to strengthen and promote lesson study in both virtual and hybrid environments, this edited book presents insights into the numerous challenges as well as opportunities for supporting teachers’ and teacher educators’ professional learning in such a novel setting.Providing an international perspective, research in this book highlights on the one hand the necessity of exploring how the known theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches for researching on lesson study and effective characteristics of conducting lesson study can be adapted to the new environments. On the other hand, further analysis reveals the benefits of using various advanced technologies in lesson study, the new practice of professional development of teachers and teacher educators, and also documents related issues of conducting lesson study in such complex contexts. The chapters focus on online cross-cultural lesson study; the key aspects of conducting online lesson study and the effectiveness of it. Features of facilitation and the development of facilitators for online lesson study are explored, alongside the ways in which online lesson study can help address various problems of practice such as implementing equitable teaching, facilitating student interaction in virtual environments, and migration to remote teaching in STEM.This resourceful text provides needed support to both researchers and practitioners, from primary to higher education, with special attention to both teacher and student learning.

Offering a rich, critical investigation of how technology can be used to strengthen and promote lesson study in both virtual and hybrid environments, this edited book presents insights into the numerous challenges as well as opportunities for supporting teachers’ and teacher educators’ professional learning in such a novel setting.Providing an international perspective, research in this book highlights on the one hand the necessity of exploring how the known theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches for researching on lesson study and effective characteristics of conducting lesson study can be adapted to the new environments. On the other hand, further analysis reveals the benefits of using various advanced technologies in lesson study, the new practice of professional development of teachers and teacher educators, and also documents related issues of conducting lesson study in such complex contexts. The chapters focus on online cross-cultural lesson study; the key aspects of conducting online lesson study and the effectiveness of it. Features of facilitation and the development of facilitators for online lesson study are explored, alongside the ways in which online lesson study can help address various problems of practice such as implementing equitable teaching, facilitating student interaction in virtual environments, and migration to remote teaching in STEM.This resourceful text provides needed support to both researchers and practitioners, from primary to higher education, with special attention to both teacher and student learning.

This insightful volume offers an overview of the fundamentals of lesson student practice in US teacher education as well as examples from math and science teacher educators using lesson study in their local contexts.The number of teacher educators using lesson study with preservice teachers is small but growing. This book is aimed at teacher educators who may want to try lesson study in university contexts without the challenge of translating the practice from the K-12 context on their own. In this volume, lesson study is broadly overviewed, attention is given to its constituent steps, and examples of lesson study in preservice contexts are shared. Given the broad array of teacher education program designs, numerous contingencies guide teacher educators in their implementation of lesson study, given their contextual affordances and limitations. The lesson study descriptions and cases in this book will support teacher educators and scholars across subject specialities and geographic lines, as they seek instructional frameworks to advance their pedagogical goals.

This insightful volume offers an overview of the fundamentals of lesson student practice in US teacher education as well as examples from math and science teacher educators using lesson study in their local contexts.The number of teacher educators using lesson study with preservice teachers is small but growing. This book is aimed at teacher educators who may want to try lesson study in university contexts without the challenge of translating the practice from the K-12 context on their own. In this volume, lesson study is broadly overviewed, attention is given to its constituent steps, and examples of lesson study in preservice contexts are shared. Given the broad array of teacher education program designs, numerous contingencies guide teacher educators in their implementation of lesson study, given their contextual affordances and limitations. The lesson study descriptions and cases in this book will support teacher educators and scholars across subject specialities and geographic lines, as they seek instructional frameworks to advance their pedagogical goals.

Drawing from a comprehensive collection of university-funded teaching development projects, this edited volume explores the theories and practices behind developing pedagogies through Lesson Study for a 21st-century curriculum. It encompasses various aspects such as lesson observation, assessment literacy, online teaching pedagogy, values education, STEM education, language education, and mathematics education. The chapters investigate the application of Lesson Study in diverse contexts, highlighting its use in ICT-based teaching and learning environments, the development and refinement of e-pedagogies, as well as the integration of AI in education. Through these cases, the content demonstrates how Lesson Study empowers teachers to craft pedagogies that enhance student learning, while emphasizing its pivotal role as an innovative approach to address the evolving landscape of education in this digital era.Implementing a 21st Century Competency-Based Curriculum Through Lesson Study is the first to address the academic discussion of using Lesson Study to develop pedagogies for effective curriculum implementation to tackle the impact of Industry 4.0 on school education. It offers valuable insights, reflections, and practical guidance to policy makers, school leaders, teacher educators, and teachers who are dedicated to enhancing student learning and nurturing the essential skills required for success in the 21st century.

Drawing from a comprehensive collection of university-funded teaching development projects, this edited volume explores the theories and practices behind developing pedagogies through Lesson Study for a 21st-century curriculum. It encompasses various aspects such as lesson observation, assessment literacy, online teaching pedagogy, values education, STEM education, language education, and mathematics education. The chapters investigate the application of Lesson Study in diverse contexts, highlighting its use in ICT-based teaching and learning environments, the development and refinement of e-pedagogies, as well as the integration of AI in education. Through these cases, the content demonstrates how Lesson Study empowers teachers to craft pedagogies that enhance student learning, while emphasizing its pivotal role as an innovative approach to address the evolving landscape of education in this digital era.Implementing a 21st Century Competency-Based Curriculum Through Lesson Study is the first to address the academic discussion of using Lesson Study to develop pedagogies for effective curriculum implementation to tackle the impact of Industry 4.0 on school education. It offers valuable insights, reflections, and practical guidance to policy makers, school leaders, teacher educators, and teachers who are dedicated to enhancing student learning and nurturing the essential skills required for success in the 21st century.

Focusing on the professional learning journeys of practising teachers and their tutors, this book takes readers through the experiences of teachers on the Developing Innovative Pedagogies through the Lesson Study module at the University of East Anglia.Building on the perspectives of teachers practising Lesson Study, the book delves into the design of a series of action research cycles to solve authentic learning and teaching problems in a variety of educational settings. In addition to theoretical tools and concepts on pedagogy, this book gives voice to teachers who become researchers while crossing the boundaries of school and university and the boundaries of theory and practice. The teacher researchers ask their own questions, test their hypotheses and work collaboratively with their school colleagues to experiment with teaching strategies aimed at learning with understanding. The chapters feature the voices of the pupils themselves and their experiences of learning within a range of educational settings and phases.Written for teachers, leaders in education, teacher educators and researchers, this book shows that the combination of good learning theories and teacher collaboration help bridge the gap between theory and practice in teachers’ professional learning and enable learners to deepen their knowledge and understanding.

Focusing on the professional learning journeys of practising teachers and their tutors, this book takes readers through the experiences of teachers on the Developing Innovative Pedagogies through the Lesson Study module at the University of East Anglia.Building on the perspectives of teachers practising Lesson Study, the book delves into the design of a series of action research cycles to solve authentic learning and teaching problems in a variety of educational settings. In addition to theoretical tools and concepts on pedagogy, this book gives voice to teachers who become researchers while crossing the boundaries of school and university and the boundaries of theory and practice. The teacher researchers ask their own questions, test their hypotheses and work collaboratively with their school colleagues to experiment with teaching strategies aimed at learning with understanding. The chapters feature the voices of the pupils themselves and their experiences of learning within a range of educational settings and phases.Written for teachers, leaders in education, teacher educators and researchers, this book shows that the combination of good learning theories and teacher collaboration help bridge the gap between theory and practice in teachers’ professional learning and enable learners to deepen their knowledge and understanding.

This book examines the sustainability of school reform for Schools as Learning Communities (SLC), from the theoretical perspective of organizational learning of lesson study. Starting with a Japanese pilot school in 1998 and continuing on a global scale over the past quarter-century, school reform for SLC has been one of the most influential styles of school reform in modern times.Suzuki focuses on the difficulties of sustaining school reform which can prove even more difficult than initiating it. His book answers key questions around the sustainability of school reform and how organizational learning of lesson study can contribute to sustained school reform. This book, which analyzes the narrative teaching records of the global pilot school that challenged the sustainability of school reform, is based on the author’s more than 15 years of fieldwork and action research to the school and is distinctive in its adherence to an attitude of listening to the voices and learning from the practices of teachers in the school.It will be of interest to any researcher, practitioner, or postgraduate student looking at school reforms, lesson study and SLC.

Offering theory and practical insights, this publication brings together top-quality contributions by distinguished authors from research and practice as well as students from around the world to flesh out the role of Student Voice in Lesson Study (SVLS).The book provides a comprehensive up-to-date compilation of important issues around SVLS. Chapters guide readers to understand the rich contextual nature of student voice in education and Lesson Study. It includes teachers, their learners, and researchers offering practice-oriented insights into their Lesson Study experience. The book explores and discusses theoretical foundations, social functions, roles, aims and purposes, the impact of attending to student voice, an emerging SVLS-methodology including issues of planning, coordinating, conducting, and reporting about student voice, dialogic teaching and learning, as well as democratic citizenship in Lesson Study.It is a useful guide for practitioners and student educators interested in the benefits of Lesson Study in the classroom.

Offering theory and practical insights, this publication brings together top-quality contributions by distinguished authors from research and practice as well as students from around the world to flesh out the role of Student Voice in Lesson Study (SVLS).The book provides a comprehensive up-to-date compilation of important issues around SVLS. Chapters guide readers to understand the rich contextual nature of student voice in education and Lesson Study. It includes teachers, their learners, and researchers offering practice-oriented insights into their Lesson Study experience. The book explores and discusses theoretical foundations, social functions, roles, aims and purposes, the impact of attending to student voice, an emerging SVLS-methodology including issues of planning, coordinating, conducting, and reporting about student voice, dialogic teaching and learning, as well as democratic citizenship in Lesson Study.It is a useful guide for practitioners and student educators interested in the benefits of Lesson Study in the classroom.