Lesson study is a professional development process that Japanese
teachers engage in to systematically examine their practice, with the goal of
becoming more effective. This examination centres on teachers working
collaboratively on a small number of "study lessons". Working on
these study lessons involves planning, teaching, observing, and critiquing the
lessons. To provide focus and direction to this work, the teachers select an
overarching goal and related research question that they want to explore. This
research question then serves to guide their work on all the study lessons.
While working on a study lesson, teachers jointly draw up a detailed
plan for the lesson, which one of the teachers uses to teach the lesson in a
real classroom (as other group members observe the lesson). The group then
comes together to discuss their observations of the lesson. Often, the group
revises the lesson, and another teacher implements it in a second classroom,
while group members again look on. The group will come together again to
discuss the observed instruction. Finally, the teachers produce a report of
what their study lessons have taught them, particularly with respect to their
research question.
*"Derived from the Japanese word jugyokenkyuu, the term
'lesson study' was coined by Makoto Yoshida...it can also be translated in
reverse as 'research lesson' [coined by Catherine Lewis], which indicates the
level of scrutiny applied to individual lessons." --RBS Currents,
Spring/ Summer 2002
