1. Collaborative Practice Development: Using lesson study to explore learning challenges in the seminar room.
Phil Wood, October 2019

2. Background and context
Japanese Lesson Study (‘jugyou kenkyuu’ )
collaborative research-oriented learning activity (plan-teach-observe-evaluate)
deeper understanding of students’ learning leads to continuously refined pedagogy
contrast: top-down lesson dipping approaches to teacher development

3. Some core characteristics of Lesson Study
collaborative,
case-student specific,
classroom-based,
lesson specific,
qualitative,
Learning and pedagogy-focused.
FLEXIBLE - Variation in application might occur due to purposes and contexts

4. A Dialogic Approach to Teacher Development
The use of professional capital
Professional Capital = Human Capital + Social Capital + Decisional Capital
(Hargreaves and Fullan, 2012, 88)
HC – development of knowledge and skills in teaching
SC – interaction and social relationships – working in groups
DC – discretionary judgement (a major characteristic of professionals)
This requires space and time

5. Pedagogic Literacy

6. Introduction to Lesson Study
1. Teachers form LS groups to identify a specific challenge that students have with an aspect of learning
2. Having agreed the focus, the LS group meet together and plan a 'research lesson' in detail, focusing on the intended learning of the students
3. The research lesson is taught by one of the group. The other members each observe the learning of 3 'case' pupils and note how they are engaging.
4. The group evaluates the lesson, focusing on evidence for student learning and engagement during each phase of the lesson.
5. Evaluation of the research lesson leads to resolutions for future practice and to collaborative planning of another research lesson for teaching to the same or other group.

7. The Potential Role of LS in Curriculum Development
Lesson study 2
Lesson study 3
Lesson study 4
Lesson study 1
Evaluation

8. ‘A true glimpse of what it means to learn from teaching’ (Sims and Walsh, 2009, 732)
Lesson Study allows teachers to see inside the pedagogical ‘Black Box’ of planning – teaching/learning – evaluation
A form of ‘team pedagogy’, working to develop conceptualisation of learning as a process
Difficult to gain explicit and consistent evidence of the processes involved. Much is ‘hidden’.

9. HE Variant of LS

10. Please begin by choosing a module or seminar that you believe students always struggle to understand.
What is your evidence that they don’t understand well?
What is the nature of their lack of understanding?
Try to break down the nature of the idea/concept/content and identify the elements they struggle with.

11. Observation – considering what, who and how
Observation will be the result of the way in which we understand learning
How many people can we observe?
What do we look for?

12. One possible view of learning - Using Knud Illeris
3 Dimensions of Learning

14. Burns and Knox 2011

15. Commognition
Emerged out of the work of Anna Sfard in maths education – bringing together of communication and cognition.
Idea that thinking is a communication with the self or/and others
Learning as a permanent change in discourse (Sfard, 2008)
Means changes in discourse can be seen as evidence of thinking and learning – which is observable
Sfard (2008) describes development of word use in four stages: passive use, routine-driven use, phrase-driven use and object-driven use.
Passive use - refers to hearing the word, without actively using it
Routine-driven - using the word in a concrete situation
Phrase-driven - being able to use the word in similar situations
Object-driven - “the users’ awareness of the availability and contextual appropriateness of different realizations of the word” (Sfard, 2008, p. 182).
Based on work by Anita Tyskerud

16. Planning for whom?
Linking planning to observation
Begin to plan a seminar

17. The importance of evaluation
A case of creating the correct narratives and routines
Needs to focus on the learning, not the ‘teacher’
Where possible, the inclusion of student reflections is important
Use of stimulated recall interviews
Emergence of new insights and questions

18. Making Time
The time required for LS is difficult to find
Wider issues of how time is understood in schools and universities linked to datafication and performativity
Using variants of LS
Success often a process of cultural shift – an ongoing process
Reflective opportunities to embed new practice

19. Embedding LS as an Organisational Change
From Wood, 2017

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