Catherine Lewis, a leading educational researcher, has studied the practice of Lesson Study in the Japanese school education system. She was introduced to the practice when she realised that teachers all across Japan are very effective at teaching science. When she asked a large no. of teachers where they learnt how to teach science, she got the same answer: “jugyou kenkyuu” – lesson study or research lessons.

Research Lessons, as Lewis describes them, are actual classroom lessons which share the following characteristics:

1. Research Lessons are planned for a long time.

2. Research Lessons are observed by other teachers.

3. Research Lessons are designed to bring to life a particular goal or vision of education.

4. Research Lessons are recorded.

5. Research Lessons are discussed.

In essence, the practice of lesson study involves a group of teachers carefully planning a lesson on a particular topic with the aim of bringing to life a particular goal or vision (for example, a student-centered classroom). These teachers actually conduct the lesson which is both observed by other teachers and recorded for future reference. This is followed by a seminar in which the teachers discuss, dissect and share the learnings from the experiment.

As an example, Catherine Lewis describes in detail a research lesson on levers from the Komae School no. 7 a normal public school. The vision that was being implemented in this lesson was “letting students value friendship and yet build their own perspectives and ways of thinking.” In this context, the teachers chose to “introduce levers in a way that really motivates the student’s desire to learn, and that encourages and emboldens them to develop their own perspectives.” In the process of planning the lesson, the teachers share various ways in which they have taught the lesson before and discuss which ways will help them reach their goal. They decide to challenge students by asking them to lift 100 kg bag of sand, and then group the students with similar ideas together to put their thoughts into practice. The teachers have never tried this before, and wish to find out if this will help promote individual thinking.

On the day of the lesson, many teachers from the school are observing. While the plan is put into action, teachers take note of how it goes, and record student interactions, questions, etc. After the lesson, a colloquium is organized where the teachers who planned and conducted a session speak about their experience and then open the forum for discussion. In this process, the lesson gets discussed in detail, and different points of view about what students learnt get shared.

1.     Individual Professional Development

2.     Teachers learning to see children

3.     Spread of new content and approaches

4.     Honouring the Central Role of Teachers

This is an abridged version of  Lewis C. “Lesson Study: The Core of Japanese Professional Development” – Invited address to the Special Interest Group in Mathematics Education – American Educational Research Association Meetings, New Orleans, 2000.

(The transcript of the original talk can be found at www.lessonresearch.net/aera2000.pdf)