Making sense of international variations in lesson study and lesson study-like practices: An exploratory and conceptual perspective

The purpose of this paper is to examine variations within lesson study (LS) practices and their connections with related traditions: teacher research/enquiry approaches, professional development models, professional learning communities and group problem-solving approaches. Questions are addressed about the relationships between different professional learning approaches in terms of definitions and frameworks.

Academic databases and website sources were searched in a purposive way to identify 20 practices associated with these traditions for comparative analysis.

A conceptual framework consisting of eight dimensions was constructed to account for the variations within and between these professional learning traditions: for instance, about the settings in which the practices take place, the purposes of the practices and the specific procedures involved. By illustrating how specific practices fitted within this framework it is concluded that the variations within the LS tradition are wide enough to make it difficult to identify a set of necessary and sufficient features of LS to distinguish LS practices from the other non-LS professional learning practices. Reasons are also given for considering whether a polythetic type of definition of professional learning/development practices might be constructed.

The possibility for a more systematic review of professional learning approaches for the construction of a conceptual framework is discussed.

Ways in which this kind of conceptualisation can be useful in promoting clarity about professional learning practices and in developing these practices are discussed.

The originality of this paper lies in the construction of a conceptual framework to analyse similarities and differences within and between various professional learning traditions.