One way of doing this is through implementing regular Lesson Study lessons.
Lesson Study is a highly specified form of classroom action research focusing on the development of teacher practice knowledge. Stemming from practice over many decades in Japan, lesson study 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
Lesson Study involves groups of teachers collaboratively planning, teaching, observing and analysing learning and teaching in specified lessons. Essentially, Lesson Study provides a way of looking in detail at something teachers want to try out in a lesson series – this can be a big thing (e.g. developing dialogic group work) or a smaller thing (e.g. an approach to lesson introductions). There is a specific and agreed lesson study focus and observations relate to the children’s experience of the intervention; this is different from many ‘normal’ lesson observations (which usually have a range of different foci and in which the focus of observation is usually the teacher). A Lesson Study consists of a series of ‘research lessons’ that are jointly planned, taught/observed and analysed by a Lesson Study group. A series is usually three lessons, 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.
Extension
You may wish to develop this approach across your cluster of schools in order to share innovations and developments more widely.
