This activity is based on teaching practices that developed over many decades in Japanese schools called ‘Lesson Study’ (see Pete Dudley’s website: www.lessonstudy.co.uk)
It is equally relevant to higher education and offers a well-developed set of principles and procedures for supporting the professional development of teachers, focusing on the collective planning and analysis of ‘research lessons’.
It has several components:
identifying themes and groups
formulating hypotheses and goals
joint ‘research lesson’ planning
post ‘research lesson’ discussion
passing on the knowledge gained
It involves groups of teachers collaboratively planning, teaching, observing and analysing learning and teaching in specified teaching sessions. Essentially, it provides a way of looking in detail at something you want to try out in a series of sessions – this can be a big thing (e.g. developing dialogic group work) or a smaller thing (e.g. an approach to lecture introductions).
There is a specific and agreed study focus and observations relate to the students’ experience of the intervention; this is different from many ‘normal’ observations (which usually have a range of different foci and in which the focus of observation is usually the teacher). The study consists of a series of ‘research’ sessions that are jointly planned, taught/observed and analysed by a study group. A series is usually three sessions, though it can be longer; a minimum of two is absolutely essential to ensure that the teacher learning from the first lesson can be used in the second.
