Potentials and pitfalls of design-based research on lesson study: A systematic review

ABSTRACT Despite the critical role of lesson study (LS) in teacher education and professional development, limited research has explored the effectiveness of Chinese lesson study (CLS) in promoting teaching competence in initial teacher education longitudinally. To address this gap, the present research aimed to examine the development of pre-service EFL teachers’ teaching competence in CLS and identify the factors influencing this development. The study adopted a case study in an initial teacher education programme in China. Fifty-seven pre-service EFL teachers participated in two rounds of CLS in their first academic year. Quantitative data were collected through English Teachers’ Teaching Competence Questionnaire, while qualitative data were obtained from interviews and reflective journals. The results showed the effectiveness of CLS in fostering EFL pre-service teachers’ teaching competence and revealed that professional guided reflection, cross-boundary collaboration among university teacher educators and school mentors, and the establishment of learning communities among pre-service teachers were the main contributors to teaching competence growth. This study enriches the international LS literature with longitudinal empirical evidence and offers insights into how multi-stakeholder collaboration and peer learning support pre-service teachers’ teaching competence in diverse contexts.

ABSTRACT Lesson Study (LS), a professional development approach originating in Japan, involves teachers collaboratively designing, observing, and reflecting on a lesson focused on a shared research topic. Widely regarded as an effective approach to stimulating teacher learning, LS has become a prominent export of the Japanese education system and a textbook example of international policy borrowing. However, despite efforts to define the core principles of LS and faithfully replicating them in new international contexts, the existing knowledge base on how LS is implemented and understood in its native Japanese context remains limited. This study addresses this gap by interviewing 15 Japanese teachers from different educational settings and regions to explore their perspectives on LS. Using the theoretical framework of policy borrowing, we compare our findings with international descriptions of LS, contributing to the ongoing discourse on the effective and sustainable implementation of LS in new contexts.

Purpose This study explores how koshi, knowledgeable others in Japanese lesson study, learn to support teacher learning by examining their own facilitation practices. Although koshi play a key role in sustaining lesson study, relatively little is known about how they develop the judgment, relational awareness and knowledge needed for this work. Viewing koshi as teacher educators, this study focuses on their professional learning through an approach we describe as “lesson study about lesson study,” in which facilitation itself becomes the focus of inquiry. Design/methodology/approach Four university-based koshi formed a small professional learning community and examined a full lesson study cycle facilitated by one member. Following the observation, we engaged in a recorded reflective dialogue structured as a post-lesson discussion. Using an inductive, iterative approach informed by grounded theory, we analyzed how facilitation decisions were articulated, questioned and reinterpreted through interaction. Data included dialogue transcripts, video recordings and field notes, allowing for triangulation across multiple sources. Findings Koshi learning unfolded through interactional processes in which facilitation became visible as pedagogy. Through these processes, we articulated tacit reasoning, engaged with differences in interpretation, reconsidered our positioning as both experts and co-learners, and developed more context-sensitive understandings of facilitation. These processes highlight the ethical, relational and cultural dimensions of facilitating teacher learning. Originality/value This study shifts attention to koshi as teacher educators, introduces “lesson study about lesson study” as a design for examining facilitation, and provides an empirical account of how tacit facilitation knowledge becomes visible through collaborative reflection.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the level of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ awareness of lesson study (LS) in Injibara, Ethiopia. Design/methodology/approach The study used a case study research design within a qualitative research approach. Five grade 11 EFL teachers were selected comprehensively to collect data through in-depth interviews. The data were analyzed qualitatively using a thematic analysis technique. Findings The findings of the study revealed that EFL teachers had limited awareness of the concepts of LS. Although they had some orientations about LS, they were limited in clearly articulating the basic concepts underlying it. EFL teachers perceived that LS enhances content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and collaborative skills. However, they were limited in adequately describing the importance of LS on their knowledge of subject matter, curriculum materials, lesson planning, classroom management, assessment strategies, collaborative working culture, collegiality and a sense of shared responsibility. Practical implications This study provides a growing body of research that investigates EFL teachers’ awareness of LS. It also offers potentially useful insights for both research and practical implications. Hence, the study encourages a thorough investigation into the implementation of LS in wider scopes. Originality/value This study contributes to the limited body of knowledge in the Ethiopian context, where EFL teachers have limited awareness of the concepts of LS.

Purpose This editorial introduces the special issue on koshi (講師) in communities of lesson studies and explores how individuals came to assume this role (became), how they experience it in practice (being) and how they continue to develop it throughout diversified educational and cultural settings (becoming). Design/methodology/approach The editorial combines narrative reflection with a literature review. Drawing on the editors’ experiences as koshi, relevant scholarship and the articles included in this special issue, it examines the role of koshi through the interconnected ideas of “became, being and becoming”. Findings The editorial argues that koshi should not be understood merely as outside experts or knowledgeable others who advise teachers. Instead, the studies in this special issue portray koshi as professionals who learn through ongoing participation and dialogue, and reflect within communities of lesson studies. “Became” depicts the different, often informal pathways people take to enter the role. “Being” focuses on the relational and context-dependent dimensions of supporting teacher learning, particularly the tensions between expertise and collaboration, while emphasising continued professional reflection. “Becoming” points to the ongoing processes of self-questioning and identity reconstruction through which koshi evolve over time. Across the articles, koshi work appears as deeply relational, culturally situated, shaped through everyday practice and continuously evolving through time. Originality/value This editorial contributes to lesson study scholarship by stressing koshi themselves as learners and developing professionals. By bringing together the editors’ narrative reflections with international perspectives of the authors’ lived experiences, it offers a more humanistic and practice-based understanding of koshi as professionals who continually learn through lessons and learning studies.

This community service activity aims to enhance capital market financial literacy and rational investment interest among the millennial generation through a campus-industry collaborative education model. The program was conducted as a hands-on workshop using the lesson study approach (Plan-Do-See), involving 120 STIE Riau students and Korean Investment & Securities Indonesia (IKISI). Data collection employed pre-test and post-test, participant observation, and in-depth interviews. Results show significant improvement in understanding of capital market concepts (from 32% to 84%), fundamental analysis skills (from 18% to 72%), and use of digital platforms (from 24% to 76%). Academic-practitioner collaboration successfully built self-confidence and rational investment intention. This program recommends the development of tiered training, formation of investment learning communities, and integration of practical materials into the curriculum to sustain youth financial literacy improvement.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how the teacher’s perceived value of student knowledge assessment (PVSKA) influences student knowledge development (SKD) in lessons and learning studies. It also explores the mediating roles of assessment approaches and methods (AAM) and assessment context (AC) in shaping this relationship. Design/methodology/approach The research is based on data collected from 558 English teachers participating in lesson and learning study projects in China. A structural equation modelling approach was applied to test the hypothesised relationships within the proposed conceptual framework. Findings The results indicate that the PVSKA does not have a direct effect on SKD. Instead, AAM and the AC serve as full mediators. These findings suggest that positive PVSKA must be reinforced by appropriate AAM and supportive AC to produce meaningful improvements in SKD in English learning. Practical implications The paper underscores the importance of designing systematic assessment strategies and fostering enabling contexts when conducting English lessons and learning studies. Researchers and practitioners can use the proposed model to strengthen the validity and credibility of evidence regarding SKD in classroom-based research. Originality/value This study contributes to the international lesson and learning study field by introducing and empirically testing a conceptual model of PVSKA. It offers new insights into how PVSKA can be translated into credible evidence of SKD through the interaction of AC and AAM.

Background-Empirical studies that integrate plant awareness into non-botany science topics through lesson study are still limited, particularly in the Indonesian educational context. Objective-This study investigates junior high school science teachers' plant awareness and explores the integration of plant-related content through lesson study to address plant awareness disparity. Method-Conducted with 23 science teachers from the Musyawarah Guru Mata Pelajaran IPA in East Java, Indonesia, the research employed a participatory action research framework. Data were collected via questionnaires, focus group discussions, and observations of lesson study cycles. Results-Findings revealed a disparity in teachers' plant awareness: while they exhibited positive interest and attitudes towards plants, their visual perception often relegated plants to a background role. Furthermore, a significant portion (39.1%) lacked a clear understanding of plant awareness. Through collaborative lesson study, teachers developed and implemented two innovative lesson plans: integrating medicinal plants (jamu making) into the human digestive system topic and using plants as objects for length measurement in physics. Conclusion-The study concludes that while teacher awareness and curriculum representation of plants need improvement, lesson study provides an effective collaborative model for developing engaging, integrative lessons that can help combat plant awareness disparity among students.

A Lesson Study on the Integration of Systems Thinking with the Explicit Use of System Characteristics in High School Chemistry Education

ABSTRACT This study offers a comprehensive bibliometric synthesis of research on Mathematics Teacher Educators (MTEs), drawing on 579 Scopus-indexed publications spanning over four decades. Using productivity laws, science mapping techniques, and country-level collaboration analyses, the study examines patterns of growth, thematic organisation, and international knowledge circulation in MTE research. The findings show that research on MTEs has expanded markedly since the mid-2000s, indicating increasing visibility and continuity within mathematics education. Thematic analyses reveal the sustained centrality of professional development, pedagogical knowledge, and instructional practice, alongside growing attention to digitalisation, equity, lesson study, and MTE noticing. While foundational perspectives remain influential, recent research increasingly engages with practice-oriented and socially responsive lines of inquiry. Country-level collaboration patterns indicate a structurally uneven organisation of international research, with global visibility shaped through a limited set of collaborative networks despite geographically diverse research production. Overall, the study provides a structural overview of the development and circulation of MTE research, offering a bibliometric foundation for future work attentive to thematic diversity and contextual plurality.

In many educational settings, grammar is still taught ineffectively through traditional rules of thumb and isolated sentence analysis. Alternative methods, like the metaconceptual approach, seem effective for building grammatical understanding and linguistic reasoning in pre-university students. No research has been conducted on the effectiveness of a metaconceptual approach in primary education. This study fills this gap by exploring the usability of design principles of metaconceptual grammar education for upper primary education (ages 10–12). Using the Lesson Study (LS) approach, lessons were developed around the metaconcept ‘valency’, which were then observed, and revised in two rounds at two Dutch primary schools, within Professional Learning Communities. Results show that the design principles can be applied in upper primary education. Pupils showed engagement, highlighting collaboration and the creativity involved. Teachers were generally positive about the design principles, but their effectiveness strongly depends on proper implementation (e.g., effective scaffolding, careful consideration of how metaconcepts are introduced, a thorough debriefing in which the core insight is highlighted). Results also indicate teachers’ need for time to adapt to inductive tasks. While many students demonstrated emerging grammatical understanding of valency, teachers questioned whether pupils were cognitively ‘ready’ for explicit grammar teaching in this way.

Purpose This study examines whether a structured, collaborative professional development model can help EFL teachers move beyond superficial technology use and develop the integrated knowledge needed for meaningful digital integration in language teaching. Design/methodology/approach Ten EFL teachers in Taiwan participated in an 18-week technology-facilitated lesson study (TFLS) cycle. This model integrates technology in two key ways: (1) using digital tools to enhance language instruction and (2) employing collaborative technologies to support the planning, observation and reflection phases among teachers. Data were collected through surveys, lesson plan evaluations, classroom observations, reflective essays and interviews. Analysis focused on measuring changes in teachers’ competencies and documenting their experiences with the TFLS process. Findings The intervention was associated with improvements in lesson planning and technology integration. Teachers expanded their instructional strategies, designed more student-centered activities and used digital tools more effectively for differentiation. They developed a more deliberate approach to selecting technologies based on pedagogical purpose rather than novelty and reported increased technological confidence and instructional efficacy. Research limitations/implications Findings are limited by the small sample and single context. Future studies should involve more diverse participants and explore long-term effects on student learning. Practical implications The study offers a replicable professional development model that integrates Lesson Study with technology use. Additional support is recommended for designing assessments for technology-enhanced lessons. Social implications Strengthening CALL/TPACK competencies through TFLS can boost teacher confidence and learner engagement in digitally mediated classrooms. Originality/value This research provides empirical evidence for a sustainable professional development model that unites LS, technology integration and teacher collaboration to support meaningful educational technology use.

The integration of Islamic values into science and mathematics instruction in madrasahs remains a persistent challenge in Classroom practice. While prior studies on Lesson Study have demonstrated improvements in instructional quality and collaborative reflection, limited attention has been given to how such professional learning structures can support the enactment of value-based pedagogies. This study addresses that gap by examining a modified Lesson Study model grounded in the Ulul Albab framework within a school-based action research design conducted over two cycles at a Madrasah Aliyah in Indonesia. Data were collected through participatory observation, in-depth interviews, and lesson plan analysis. The findings indicate that the model contributed to measurable shifts in teachers' pedagogical practices, particularly in the design of inquiry-based lessons that integrated reflective and ethical dimensions alongside scientific reasoning. However, the integration process was not uniform; some teachers initially reverted to symbolic or add-on approaches before gradually developing more coherent alignment between content and values. Compared to conventional Lesson Study implementations, the Ulul Albab-based model explicitly structures reflective dialogue around the epistemic and ethical dimensions of the subject matter, thereby extending the scope of collaborative inquiry beyond pedagogical techniques. These findings suggest that Lesson Study can function not only as a mechanism for improving instructional strategies but also as a structured space for negotiating the pedagogical meaning of value integration. The study contributes an empirically grounded professional development model that demonstrates both the possibilities and the practical challenges of translating faith-science integration into Classroom practice.

Purpose Transition problems between institutions are well-known and sometimes difficult to address in educational research. Lesson study is often described as a professional development tool for teachers within a school institution and so would not immediately be helpful to overcome transitions between two institutions. In this article, we present the new format of “bi-institutional lesson study”, developed and experimented with to explore the potential of this amended form of lesson study to develop teachers' knowledge of transition problems, and also methods and efforts to overcome them. We report findings from a year-long experiment with the format in Danish secondary school mathematics. Design/methodology/approach We conducted a year-long experiment with the bi-institutional lesson study (BILS) format, involving teachers from Danish lower and upper secondary schools. Within this format, teachers from both institutions collaboratively planned, conducted, observed and reflected on the research lessons. Data was collected through audio recordings of planning and reflection meetings. Findings The experiment demonstrated that BILS enhanced teachers' awareness and knowledge of transition problems between the institutions. The Danish case, among other things, illustrates that teachers from upper secondary school mainly contribute knowledge about students' needs and task designs related to the algebraic skills required in upper secondary school. Lower secondary school teachers contribute by linking these needs and ideas to what 9th-grade students have been and are being taught, mainly in arithmetic. Originality/value This article introduces “bi-institutional lesson study” as a new format of lesson study, extending its use from a single school to collaboration across institutions. By engaging teachers from lower and upper secondary schools, the study presents a Danish case illustrating how BILS can develop teachers' awareness of transition problems and methods for addressing or working with them. This contribution offers both a practical model for teacher development and a novel approach to tackling the well-known transition problem between neighboring institutions.

ABSTRACT Recognising globalised increases in migration and concomitant increases in emergent bilingual students (EBS), this qualitative case study considers the embodied experiences of preservice teachers (PST) and the EBS they served, investigating how EBS’ knowledge and needs were considered and represented during a cycle of lesson study with 10 student teachers at a linguistically- and culturally-diverse elementary school. Data included transcripts of planning meetings, pre- and post-observation meetings, interviews with preservice teachers (PST), fieldnotes, and student work. Findings highlight the potential of physicalised practices to support EBS’ engagement, content knowledge, and conceptual understanding. Additionally, findings suggest two paths for encouraging increased incorporation of these practices by PSTs: 1) anticipating students’ responses before teaching to consider engagement and student needs; and 2) reflecting after teaching/observing, including objective evidence collected. Drawing from theories of embodied learning, the researchers advanced a model of concurrent physicalisation of learning on the part of EBSs and PSTs.

Purpose This case study examines how primary teachers develop Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) on fractions within the Transformative Lesson Study incorporating Open Approach (TLSOA) model. It identifies key PCK characteristics and how TLSOA model fosters them. Design/methodology/approach A Lesson Study team of six members (two student teachers, two in-service teachers, one researcher, and one expert) engaged in weekly cycles of collaborative planning, observation, and reflection across 10 fraction lessons in a Thai primary school. Data were collected through lesson planning sessions, classroom observations, reflections, and semi-structured interviews, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings Teachers' PCK was characterized and developed through designing “problem situations” centered on students' mathematical thinking as a PCK integration unit. The TLSOA model facilitated teachers' PCK integration, anchored collaboration in students’ ideas for design, observation and reflection. Teachers improved their anticipation of students’ thinking and enhanced classroom practice on part–whole relationships and fraction operations. Research limitations/implications The study examined only one year of fraction instruction, with teachers having limited experience. Participation across multiple years and varied professional learning communities (PLCs) with experienced reflection teams could enhance teachers' PCK awareness and development through broader collaborative experiences. Practical implications The use of the TLSOA model in developing teachers' PCK on fractions through student-centered collaborative lesson design strengthened the effectiveness of teacher professional development approaches in mathematics education. Originality/value This study demonstrates how collaborative PLCs foster dynamic integration of content and pedagogical knowledge in mathematics education, contributing to PCK literature by showing the TLSOA model's specific mechanisms for developing fraction instruction through student-centered collaborative practice.

ABSTRACT This study examined how participation in the Technology-Mediated Lesson Study (TMLS), a hybrid professional development programme, shaped collaboration, advice-seeking, and friendship networks among rural chemistry and biology teachers in a Western US state over three years. Using Stochastic Actor-Oriented Models (SAOMs) in RSiena, the study analysed how structural, individual, and programme-level factors influenced network formation and change. The networks remained sparse, with geographic distance strongly constraining interactions. Teachers formed ties through reciprocity and triadic closure, and advice-seeking and friendship networks showed steady growth. TMLS participation significantly increased the likelihood of forming new ties, including long-distance connections that bridged regional boundaries. Participants became central actors in both professional and personal networks, demonstrating that hybrid programmes can foster multiplex connections that promote and sustain reform efforts. These findings highlight the potential of well-designed professional development to reduce isolation, expand super-organisational engagement, and support collaborative communities for rural teachers. Programmes that combine structured collaboration with opportunities for informal peer relationships can enhance professional growth and build more sustainable networks in geographically dispersed settings.

Understanding how pre-service teachers and faculty design and implement an AI-integrated science course in interdisciplinary lesson study: a social epistemic network signature approach

Purpose This study investigates the factors that enable or constrain the adoption and sustainability of Lesson Study as a professional learning activity among teachers in the Philippines. It aims to provide insights into the experiences of teachers who have implemented lesson study and the perspectives of those who have not, to identify both enablers and barriers to its sustained practice. Design/methodology/approach We conducted a descriptive qualitative content analysis of open-ended survey responses from educators with lesson study implementation experiences and those who had none. Categories were developed inductively and their salience summarized as percentages of coded references. We then interpreted these categories using the Interconnected Model of Professional Growth (IMPG) to theorize entry and sustain pathways for lesson study as recurring, professional development-embedded practice. Findings Findings reveal nine key enablers and eight constraints affecting lesson study implementation. Practitioners emphasized intrinsic factors such as teachers’ attitudes, collaboration, and commitment, while nonpractitioners pointed to extrinsic factors like leadership support, training access and time constraints. Both groups acknowledged the importance of leadership, school culture and resource availability. Participation in lesson study led to gains in professional growth, instructional improvement and collaboration. Originality/value This study contributes to the limited research on Lesson Study sustainability in developing countries, particularly in Southeast Asia. It integrates Lesson Study practitioner and nonpractitioner perspectives, supported by a theoretical framework, to inform policy and implementation.