Benefits and concerns of lesson study

Lee, J. F. K. (2008). A Hong Kong case of lesson study—Benefits and concerns. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(5), 1115-1124.

Background

The belief that effective teachers can be fostered by grounding professional development in actual classroom practice has led to the spread of lesson study practice in schools.

Aims

The study examined how teachers adopted a lesson study approach and worked collaboratively so as to improve their instruction on wh-question formation.

Sample

A team made up of five Secondary 1 English language (EL) school teachers, two school leaders, and two consultants from an academic institution in Hong Kong participated in the study. The research lessons were taught by different teachers in three classes which involved a total of 97 students.

Method

The team conducted 14 meetings, comprising 10 preparatory sessions which were audio-taped, three one-hour post-lesson conferences which were video-taped, and a final evaluation session. The teachers’ written feedback was collected at the end of the project.

Findings

The RLs focused on the students’ weakest areas in wh-question formation as identified in the pre-test, including distinguishing the patterns of the verb ‘to be’ and lexical verbs, subject–verb inversion, and the use of the dummy ‘do’ operator followed by the infinitive form. Teacher learning was evident from the gradual improvement in the design of the three research lessons based on their reflection on student learning after the three lesson enactments. The analysis of the pre-test results and student interview responses helped teachers to see things from the students’ perspectives and gauge student learning. The teachers had the opportunity to practise critical self-reflection and hear opposing points of view. However, they felt that the peer observation and the extra workload arising from the lesson study planning and post-lesson reflection put them under great pressure.

Implications

Although the time constraints and pressure faced by teachers might reduce the appeal of lesson study, the impact of studying a few research lessons could be far-reaching. The author suggested that teachers engage in the process of lesson study at least once a year so that they become more sensitized to the critical features of the students’ learning, and are able to anticipate students’ learning difficulties in their daily teaching.

Original article retrieved from ScienceDirect.