16 Years of University Lesson Study: Sustaining a Faculty Learning Model

• In Event: Implementing Lesson Study for Professional Development in Higher Education

Abstract

In 2003, four teams of instructors (n=16) in economics, psychology, English and biology undertook year-long lesson studies in one of their discipline’s core courses at a comprehensive public university. Each team followed a process based on the Japanese form of lesson study (Lewis & Tsuchida, 1998; Lewis, 2002; Yoshida, 1999; Stigler & Hiebert, 1999). The project was a first attempt to adapt lesson study practices to college teaching. The College Lesson Study Project evolved into a center to support college teachers to improve their teaching and student learning through lesson study (Cerbin, 2011). As of 2019, more than 500 instructors have engaged in lesson study with the support and guidance of project staff and training materials.

Based on 16 years of experience, this paper describes lesson study practices in a university setting. Drawing on evidence from anecdotal observations, interviews and surveys with lesson study practitioners, as well as analyses of lesson study reports from college teachers, it focuses on issues related to:

Training college teachers to do lesson study. We developed several types of training opportunities for teachers to learn how to do lesson study, and found that training is necessary, but rarely sufficient to produce fluent lesson studies. Instructors need to practice doing lesson study itself. The first iteration of lesson study serves as practice for teams to try out lesson study procedures. Teams show marked improvement in their second iteration.

How college teachers interpret and practice lesson study. Teams vary widely in how they interpret and practice lesson study. One major difference is that more successful teams tend to focus extensively on student learning problems. Less successful teams talk much less about student learning, and much more about how they teach the subject.

How the practice of lesson study influences college teaching. Participants report significant changes in their pedagogical beliefs and practices, including:
• Using learning goals to guide decisions about what and how to teach, instead of planning a course solely around content coverage.
• Taking student learning into account in teaching, e.g., consider what students already know about the subject, what kinds of problems they are likely to experience, and how different teaching strategies are likely to influence student learning.

Institutional factors that support or constrain lesson study among college teachers. We suggest that some combination of the following factors has enabled us to sustain lesson study for 16 years:
• Institutional recognition that lesson study is a viable approach to improve teaching and learning.
• Faculty leaders who can provide training and support for colleagues to engage in lesson study.
• Extrinsic incentives to participate in lesson study, e.g., small grants, using lesson study as evidence of teaching improvement, publications of lesson studies.
• Intrinsic incentives to participate in lesson study, e.g., activities consistent with instructors’ personal teaching improvement goals, collaborating with colleagues to improve student learning, and as one participant said, “I just enjoyed the kind of discussions we had.”

Author

• William J. Cerbin, University of Wisconsin - LaCrosse