Developing effective and sustainable communities of teaching practice: a comparative perspective from Shanghai

• In Event: Developing instructional expertise through shared leadership: an international collaboration to implement teacher peer excellence groups

Abstract

Implementing Teacher Peer Excellence Groups (TPEGs) in U.S. public schools provides a unique opportunity to operationalize the much-talked-about “lesson study” model commonly practiced in high-performing educational systems such as Japan, China, and Singapore. From an international and comparative perspective, we see that the Tennessee-Shanghai collaboration explores and demonstrates a viable pathway of deconstructing and reconstructing effective shared leadership models that might fit the local and personal needs of teachers at the front line. From conducting joint planning, interviews, observations, and feedback reflections in participating Tennessee schools along our U.S. colleagues, we find astonishing positive signposts of successful adoption and customization of the “teaching study group” model from Shanghai. Specifically: (a) There is clear cycle of plan-observation-feedback in all schools we visited and teachers enthusiastically reporting having more confidence in classroom instruction through peer collaboration; (b) the non-negotiable objectives of the TPEG work are shared by the principals and teachers hence the cycles are becoming more disciplined and will produce results; and (c) team development happen at multiple levels, including the TPEG teachers, principals, and the research group where peer-learning becomes the operating principle through out the implementation. We also see challenges ahead for the TPEG model to be implemented at scale and with sustainable rigor in instruction covering both content and pedagogy. We propose addressing several areas: (a) establishing district-level network of teaching research groups; (b) facilitating inter-school interaction and communication for TPEG activities cross subjects, grades, and schools; and (c) strengthening the content depth and reasoning components of planning, observation, and reflection with training and tools.

Authors

• Jianjun Wang, East China Normal University

• Xiaowei Yang, East China Normal University

• Jiacheng Li, East China Normal University

• Zhongjing Huang, East China Normal University