Lesson Study: an Opportunity for Collaborative Teacher Inquiry

Lesson Study is a form of teacher inquiry which relies on collaboration and focuses teachers’ attention to specific pupils that they are currently teaching. It uses a cumulative and cyclical plan, do, review structure and draws teachers into conversations through which they consider plans for teaching, develop hypotheses about pupil learning and engagement, participate in inquiry-based lesson observations and experience meaningful reflection and evaluation. In this chapter the characteristic features and qualities of Lesson Study are outlined. Two case studies are shared, one from a primary school and one a secondary school. Evidence from the Lesson Study groups illustrates the significance of the focus on case pupils, and reinforces how engagement in Lesson Study can actively change professional learning cultures. We hope to demonstrate that it is a means through which individual professional learning and whole school development might come together by paying close attention to the mechanisms through which teaching practices and teacher leaning can realistically be developed. We conclude with a consideration of the advantages of Lesson Study in supporting teacher inquiry, but also caveats about its possible limitations.