Citation
Posch, P. (2014), "A comment on the paper “Learning to learn from teaching: a first-hand account of lesson study in Japan” (IJLLS, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 170-191)", International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies, Vol. 3 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLLS-08-2014-0021
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
A comment on the paper "Learning to learn from teaching: a first-hand account of lesson study in Japan" (IJLLS, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 170-191)
Article Type: Discussion From: International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies, Volume 3, Issue 3
This fascinating documentation on a Lesson Study experience of two American teachers in Japan is challenging not only for practices of teaching and teacher education in the USA but also in many European countries, specifically in Austria and Germany. Let me summarise two of these challenges:
1. The first is that research lessons were neither exemplary lessons nor serving the evaluation of teachers, but were research laboratories for collective inquiry and for testing carefully crafted hypotheses so that a community of teachers could observe and study the effect on student learning.
2. The second challenge is the cultural context defined by collaboration and reciprocal accountability. Collaboration was experienced as a "way of life", not as a strategy for some projects. Teachers relied on each other and acted as a team to shape and guide detailed lesson plans, to capture evidence from a multitude of student perspectives and the entire group took ownership of suggestions for improvement. This kind of collective ownership and collaboration is practically non-existent in our school culture, but probably a critical condition not only for the adoption of lesson studies but also for substantial educational reform.
Peter Posch