Lesson Study In Teacher Education Research Articles

Lesson study with didactical engineering for student teachers in Brazil

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to experiment with ideas from didactical engineering (DE) in student teachers’ first experience with lesson study (LS).Design/methodology/approachThis is a case study.FindingsLS in pre-service education can be enhanced by elements from DE.Originality/valueThe idea indicated in the purpose is new and holds strong potential for the use of LS in teacher education.

Lesson study in field practice: a time-lagged experiment in initial teacher education in Norway

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to describe the background for, the design of, and the implementation of Lesson Study in a teacher education program in Norway. Lesson Study was chosen as an intervention in an attempt to shift pre-service teachers’ focus from themselves to their pupils, attempting to strengthen their possibilities to learn more about the consequences of their instructional decisions for their pupils.Design/methodology/approach– The study used a time-lagged experiment where one group of second year pre-service teachers took part in their three-week field practice as usual (business-as-usual-condition), and one group, the following year, took part in Lesson Study cycles during their three-week field practice period. The students were recruited from four subject areas in both conditions: Math, Physical Education, Science, and English.Findings– The use of Lesson Study created more collaborative inquiry among the pre-service teachers. At its best, the pre-service teachers formulated research questions, took active part in observations, and used data (pupils’ work, interviews and observations) to inform their choices about how to create improved learning for their pupils.Research limitations/implications– The study is a small scale study due to the need to test before upscaling.Practical implications– The paper includes a description of how Lesson Study was implemented in a Teacher Education Department, and this can be valuable information for others who are attempting the same.Originality/value– This paper fulfills an identified need to learn more about pre-service teachers\ learning and lesson study in teacher education.

Lesson study in teacher education: Learning from a challenging case

Whereas most studies of lesson study in teacher education seem to report on success stories, this article investigates a challenging case. From an implementation of lesson study in Norwegian teacher education, we analyse data from a mathematics group that struggled with implementation. Analysis of data from group interviews, mentoring sessions and teaching the research lesson indicates that several crucial aspects of lesson study were missing. The student teachers did not formulate a research question for their research lesson, they did not focus on observing pupil learning, and their lesson was not organised to make pupil learning visible.