Læreres samtaler som mulighetsrom for læring: En kvalitativ studie av lærersamtaler i Lesson Study

Abstract

Today, teachers are required to cooperate through national and local working time arrangements. It has become of increasing interest to explore how teachers can learn at the workplace, by collaborating with colleagues in professional learning communities. In this study, we explore teachers’ discussions in Lesson Study (LS), an approach to professional learning that is used all over the world. At a time when Norwegian schools are trying out LS in various forms, the goal of this study is to highlight any factors that could make a difference to how teachers’ discussions in LS could contribute to teachers’ learning. The overall research question of the study is: How can teachers’ discussions in Lesson Study help to promote professional learning? In this study, discussions between teachers are explored using the sociocultural learning perspective. The study is based around social constructivism as an overarching research paradigm, a position which involves interpreting knowledge as a construction of understanding and meaning in interpersonal interactions. The study has a qualitative design, in which data was collected through the researcher assuming the role of partially participating observer in two different LS groups at a lower secondary school in the spring and autumn of 2017. The data analysed consists of audio recordings of teachers’ discussions after research lessons, audio recordings of group interviews with pupils, and questionnaires given to pupils. The analytical approach to the material alternates between an inductive and deductive approach. The study highlights the significance of an empirical foundation for the teacher discussions, in the form of pupil data. The result indicates that sharing planned, structured and detailed pupil observations is an important starting point for the interpretation, evaluation and planning of learning and teaching. It also appears that the approach to the pupil perspective may give the LS group insight that influences the future planning and implementation of their teaching. At the same time, the study indicates that the participants’ investigative approach to pupil data could promote opportunities for professional learning in teachers’ discussions. The interactions between the teachers in the LS groups are highlighted as a key element, in terms of both the direction and depth of the focus of the teachers’ group. This study thus provides knowledge about the significance of how the teachers discuss matters when they share and interpret data from the classroom. Summarized, the results of the sub-studies show that LS as a learning form represents a supportive structure for exploring pupils’ learning, but the extent to which the potential for professional learning is utilised depends on several factors. The challenges lie in ensuring that essential special features of LS are addressed, such as a serious approach to the very nucleus of Lesson Study, the research lesson, as an opportunity to explore practice by means of testing out teaching and planned, structured observations of pupils’ learning. The study indicates that sharing pupil data is the cornerstone of the teachers’ discussions studied, and is thereby also a prerequisite for professional learning in the form of new insight about the connection between the teaching and pupils’ learning. This result provides teachers and head teachers who would like to work with LS suggestions for decisions and assessments that are involved in using LS as a learning form for teachers. The study also contributes with knowledge about teachers’ discussions that might be useful in other contexts than LS.