Sustainability of Lesson Study: A Theoretical Model

• In Event: Designing Lesson Study for Sustainability: What Have We Learned Around the World?

Abstract

Objectives
This presentation:
1. Describes lesson study;
2. Proposes a tentative theoretical model to understand effective, sustainable lesson study; and
4. Sets the stage for two empirical cases of sustained lesson study (Singapore and Hong Kong).

Background
“Lesson study” (translation of the Japanese term “jugyou kenkyuu,”) is the professional learning approach of nearly all Japanese elementary schools and more than 90% of junior high schools (National Education Policy Research Institute, 2011). In lesson study, teachers plan, enact, observe, and refine instruction collaboratively, following a basic four-stage cycle (see left of Figure A1). Lesson study is often used to enact and refine research-based innovations and curriculum changes (Takahashi, 2014). Lesson study gained international attention when The Teaching Gap (Stigler & Hiebert, 1999) credited lesson study for the high-quality of mathematics problem-solving found in Japanese classrooms.

Lesson study’s focus on public examination of instruction epitomizes Dewey’s argument (AERA call, p.2) that “science can best contribute to social progress (including educational progress) through a process of sustained public inquiry, rather than by being asserted or trickling down….” This symposium examines efforts to implement this Japanese process of “sustained public inquiry” in two settings outside Japan: Hong Kong and Singapore. Both theory and empirical findings are brought to bear on the question: How can effective, sustainable lesson study be developed outside its original Japanese context?

Theoretical Framework
Review of empirical research and theory is the primary method, to produce propositions regarding implementing and sustaining lesson study including the following:

1. Implementation of lesson study produces proximal changes in teachers (e.g., knowledge, beliefs, information-seeking, focus on student thinking) and in the organizational norms, routines and tools that support teachers’ learning (Lewis, Perry & Hurd, 2009); see Figure A1.

2. Sustained instructional improvement (including lesson study) is supported by school-wide organizational routines that (a) are anchored in instruction, (b) support and maintain interactions among teachers about instruction, (c) make classroom instruction public, and (d) are linked to the prescribed curriculum or standards (Desimone, 2009; Louis & Kruse, 1995; Resnick & Spillane, 2006; Spillane, et al., 2011).

3. Since changing instruction typically requires back-and-forth cycles of learning outside the classroom and experimentation within (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002), supporting teachers’ motivation to sustain this hard, long-term work is pivotally important. While external sticks and carrots can create temporary changes, instructional improvement is likely to fail without systems that elicit and maintain the internal motivation of educators to do the sustained work of improvement (Elmore & McLaughlin, 1988). Potential motivators within lesson study include enjoyment of collegial interaction, enhanced efficacy from successful lesson redesign, sense of agency through researching practice, and increased coherence for teachers if lesson study can be used to solve pressing problems of practice (e.g., Lewis & Perry, 2015).


Significance
Around the world, effective sustained processes to improve teaching and learning are persistently elusive. This presentation offers a tentative model, based in theory and empirical work, for understanding what might make one such process, lesson study, effective outside Japan.

Author

• Catherine C. Lewis, Mills College