Lesson Study Literature Review

Jacqueline Heller
EDRD 831
August 11, 2018
LESSON STUDY LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction

The quality of the teacher is one of the strongest indicators of success for students in

today’s classrooms (Hattie 2012) so it is important to evaluate the practices used in teacher

education and professional development in order to ensure outcomes that improve teacher

content knowledge and pedagogy. Even amongst educators who receive a great deal of quality

professional development (PD), a knowing-doing gap exists in education because many PD

initiatives attempt to increase teacher knowledge but do not inspire lasting changes in teacher

practices once they return to the classroom. Models of professional development such as

attending conferences, workshops, book clubs and peer observation do not allow for teachers to

“try out” the new learning within the context of the professional development, thereby allowing

the knowing-doing gap to grow.

One form of PD which appears to have elements that actually support teachers in the

process of changing their practices is lesson study, a PD process from Japan which includes

collaborative planning, lesson observation by colleagues and guests, analytic reflection, and

ongoing revision (Curcio 2002). When using the lesson study model of professional

development, the primary goal is for teachers to collaborate to generate content and pedagogical

knowledge which will change and improve their instructional practices. Research suggests that

teacher collaborative learning contexts affect teacher efficacy, an outcome that has been

empirically linked to improved student achievement (Chong & Kong, 2012). Educators with high

collective efficacy focus on student struggles and show persistence and a willingness to change

and try new teaching approaches because they know it impacts student learning.

Operating from the axiology that the value of something is a function of its consequences

(Mertens & Wilson 2012), this literature review will draw conclusions about lesson study not

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only as a form of professional development that brings about a change in teacher practices but

also as a means to cultivate collective teacher efficacy and thereby improve student achievement.

Method

This literature review will identify themes in the current literature on lesson study that

could have implications for future practice and future research. Only articles from peer-reviewed

journals, published within the last 15 years were considered. Since lesson study has been widely

used internationally for decades, and is less prevalent in the United States, any article originally

written in English was included, no matter in which country the research was conducted.

Similarly, lesson study is more widely used in math and science content areas in middle and high

schools but given this researcher’s intent to further study lesson study in the context of

elementary literacy PD, preference was given to articles that included elementary teachers or

literacy but secondary teachers and math and science were not excluded. While the primary

focus of this literature review is on lesson study as a form of professional development with

inservice teachers, the decision was made not to exclude articles that included research with

preservice teachers.

The databases Academic Search Complete, AP PsychNet, Education Research Complete,

and ERIC were used to do two separate searches for relevant articles. The first search included

the terms “lesson study” AND “professional development” AND “change.” The second search

included “lesson study” AND “collective efficacy” which was then expanded to “collaboration.”

Upon reviewing the abstracts, any article that had not been cited at least 5 times was excluded in

order to focus on the seminal works in lesson study as a form of professional development that

could change teacher practices and build collective efficacy.

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Results

Darling-Hammond et al (2017) reviewed 35 studies to identify the features of effective

PD, defined as “structured professional learning that results in changes in teacher practices and

improvements in student learning outcomes.” They found the seven features of effective PD

include being content focused, collaborative, reflective, using active learning, models of

effective practice, and expert support over a sustained duration (Darling-Hammond 2017). The

lesson study process appears to address each of the seven features. Lesson study uses the

professional knowledge of a group of teachers to identify an area for their own growth then

provides a structure for them to work collaboratively in a recurring cycle of planning,

observation and reflection to improve their practice. Curcio (2002) identifies the four main

phases of the lesson study process as collaborative planning, lesson observation by colleagues

and guests, analytic reflection, and ongoing revision (Figure 1).

Figure 1. The Lesson Study Process.

In the most common version of the lesson study process, teachers identify an area for

growth then a “knowledgeable other,” which could be a mentor teacher, content area specialist,

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university partner or other colleague, helps them research and collaboratively plan a lesson

(Cheng & Wong 2014). Next the team watches one teacher, often the “knowledgeable other,”

model the lesson in a classroom while others observe and collect evidence of student learning.

Sometimes they identify one or two case study pupils to focus on for data collection. They meet

to reflect, share observations and refine the lesson. They continue the cycle with another teacher

modeling it in another classroom using the refined lesson plan. It is common to repeat this

process three times. At the conclusion of the process they reflect on their collective

understanding and use it to create a product of their learning that can be shared with other staff

and educators outside their building.

Lesson Study has been credited with bringing about Japan’s evolution of effective

mathematics and science instruction (Lewis 2002) and as it gains popularity in the United States

we must consider its effectiveness as a form of PD. Effective approaches to professional

development consider educators as both teachers and learners (Darling-Hammond 2017). When

considering how to address teachers as adult learners, the literature about how people learn by

doing is by no means new (Dewey, 1938/1963) and there is a bulk of knowledge grounded in the

sociocultural views of learning. These ideas are important when considering lesson study in the

context of traditional PD since a unique aspect of lesson study is that teachers are learning

practices through participation in activity. There are four main activities that teachers engage in

during lesson study according to Curcio (2002) and this literature review will identify themes in

the literature during each of the four activities including collaborative planning, lesson

observation, analytic reflection and revision, and documentation.

Collaborative Planning

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The first of the four activities is when teachers gather and decide on a focus for their

lesson study then work together to find resources to help them design a collective lesson plan.

During the collaborative research and planning phase all studies found many benefits and few

challenges. Cohan & Honigsfeld (2006) incorporated jugyoun kenkyuu – the Japanese lesson

study approach – into teacher preparation courses with both undergraduate and graduate

preservice teachers in order to create situations for the preservice teachers to think deeply about

instruction, learning, curriculum and education. Each candidate taught and video-taped the

lesson, got feedback and produced a lesson study report. According to the quotes from their

reflective papers the collaboration and dialogue about teaching gained through the lesson study

approach was seen as greatly beneficial.

Koustouris et al. (2017) also looked at using lesson study with preservice teachers but

broadened the typical lesson study model to include university-based lecturers as part of the

school-based teaching team. Video conferencing was used to give feedback rather than face to

face meetings. The authors wanted to investigate the issues experienced in using video-

conferencing to connect the dispersed members in the lesson study collaborative team meetings.

They concluded that inclusion of other professionals on the lesson study team is beneficial

especially in fostering a collaborative culture for preservice teachers, but distance linking during

this collaborative process is dependent upon having the right equipment and technical support.

Voogta, Pietersb, & Handelzaltsc (2016) found benefits in the collaborative planning

phase for in-service teachers because traditional teacher development is usually passive in nature

and teachers are typically expected to implement the plans of others. Collaborative curriculum

design places the teacher as the main link in the chain and this study evaluated the effect of doing

so by using data from 14 doctoral theses to study the impact of collective design on both

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curriculum change and teacher learning. The results showed collaborative design helped

teachers take on new pedagogy as well as subject matter knowledge, especially related to

technology. It also led to higher quality curricula and ownership reform from the involved

stakeholders. The involvement of the school leadership was found to be essential as collaborative

teams needed support in the process. The teachers had more agency, took ownership of their

learning and implemented the curriculum with more fidelity after engaging in the process.

Suh & Seshaiyer (2015) took the collaborative process even further and looked at the

benefit of vertical articulation across grade levels when a vertical team of elementary teachers

used lesson study to develop their understanding of algebraic concepts across grade levels. This

gave teachers the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues outside their normal team and

pushed their thinking beyond their immediate objectives. This collaboration led to relearning,

disequilibrium and awareness that was a catalyst for change. While it was very beneficial, they

had to buy teachers time using grant money because most schools are not set up for this type of

collaboration so the authors suggest teachers need more release time for this type of professional

development activity.

Lesson Observation

Once the teachers have collaboratively planned a lesson, then one teacher, usually an

experienced “knowledgeable other” teaches that lesson in an actual classroom while the others in

the group observe and take notes on the student learning. Suh & Seshaiyer (2015) not only found

benefits in the collaborative aspect of lesson study but also found the classroom observation

activity to be productive. In this phase teachers got to revisit conceptual principles from previous

grade levels, anticipate strategies students would use and misconceptions they may have, and see

multiple models and a pattern of development. Another important outcome was for teachers to

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recognize the ways to scaffold and differentiate for diverse learners by observing their peers in

action.

While Suh & Seshaiyer were able to bring the teachers from a variety of teams together

for the observations, Koutsouris et al. (2017) used technology to connect a disperse team for the

lesson observations and many of the findings in their study had to do with technical difficulties

during the video recording of the lessons. One school had trouble with the internet quality and

spent 10% of the meeting time dealing with connectivity and sound quality. The position of the

cameras during the teaching of the lessons was an issue because the university-based members of

the team viewing the lesson remotely could either see the students or the board, but not both.

When teachers tried to use a mobile camera to get closer to the students it caused disruption that

altered student behavior. When they moved class to a quieter location to improve sound quality

of the recording that was also found to alter student behavior. They concluded that lesson study

is beneficial when observing lessons in person but distance linking is highly dependent upon

having the right equipment and at times the presence of that equipment can alter the essence of

the lesson being observed due to its impact on the students being recorded.

Mentzer et al. (2014) also found mixed results from the lesson observation phase of

lesson study. They led a three year science teacher PD called Leadership for Educators:

Academy for Driving Economic Revitalization in Science (LEADERS). It consisted of Project

Based Science (PBS), leadership courses and renewable energy content taught through a lesson

study approach. Data showed significant gains in two of the three foci – content knowledge and

leadership skills – but not in PBS. It is assumed much of the content knowledge was learned

during the collaborative planning and reflection activities of lesson study but the observation of

lessons should have given the teachers stronger PBS skills so the authors concluded they would

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adjust the project design for the next cohort in order to improve summative results. Since lesson

observations are one of the things that set lesson study apart from other forms of professional

development we need more research focusing on this step of the process since these studies

found as many challenges as benefits when teachers observe each other’s lessons.

Analytic Reflection and Revision

After the “knowledgeable other” finishes teaching the collaboratively planned lesson

while the rest of the group observes, the next step in lesson study is for the group to gather

together again to reflect on the learning that took place during the lesson. Norwich & Ylonen

(2015) focused on the gains that could be acquired during the analytic reflection after lesson

observation. Their study used an assessment by response to teaching (ART) approach and they

coined the term lesson study for assessment (LSfA), meaning an approach that focuses on

improving teachers’ ability to assess student learning needs. The teachers identified case pupils

to study within the context of lesson study and included the case pupil’s perspective on their own

learning and on the process. They found the most important mechanisms were providing honest,

constructive feedback, analyzing lessons, and using prior knowledge about student learning

difficulties to refine and improve the lessons. One of the primary outcomes was improved

capability of teachers to use response to teaching approach to assessment after their experience in

collaborative analytic reflection. The teachers were better able to focus on learning conditions

that affect student achievement rather than blame it on pupil characteristics.

Cajkler et al. (2015) also found the analytic reflection activity of lesson study helped

teachers develop creative solutions to learning challenges. Their exploratory qualitative study

was conducted at secondary schools in England where they interviewed teachers and found

positive results from the collaborative planning and the lesson observations but the analytic

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reflection had the greatest impact on teachers’ thinking about classroom practice. While they

acknowledged the positive outcomes they also cautioned that this process is time intensive. In

the current performance and data driven culture in education where people want results directly

linked to research based practices there were no immediate transformative changes, but with

sustained commitment lesson study shows promise.

Documentation and Dissemination

The last activity in the lesson study process is considered optional and some models end

the process after the last analytical reflection meeting while others go on to have the team

produce some product of their learning that can be shared with others and used in the future.

Voogta et al. (2016) and Suh & Seshaiyer (2015) were the only studies that focused on this

activity and they both found it to be an important one worthy of more research.

Voogta et al. concluded that teams not only learned from the collaborative process of

planning, observing and reflecting, but also learned from sharing their designed curriculum

materials with other colleagues because they had to explain the rationale behind their materials.

Teams do not often share their work with others so this was a valuable aspect of the lesson study

experience. The end product of the Suh & Seshaiyer study with vertical teams vas a vertical map

which provided a description of the skills, understandings and knowledge in the sequence in

which they typically develop for students. By documenting and disseminating their learning in

the form of this vertical map teachers had a lasting artifact of what algebraic learning looks like

and sounds like across the grade levels.

Discussion

In the introduction to this literature review it was stated the value of something is a

function of its consequences (Mertens & Wilson 2012), so conclusions must be drawn about the

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consequences of lesson study as a form of professional development before more school

administrators in the United States will invest their professional development budget in this

process. Not only is lesson study much more time intensive than most forms of PD currently

used in the U.S. but there is also expense to be considered if substitutes are going to be covering

classrooms while teachers observe lessons since that must be done during the school day while

students are present, and not during dedicated professional development time.

Darling-Hammond, Hyler and Gardner’s (2017) work have defined effective PD as

“structured professional learning that results in changes in teacher practices and improvements in

student learning outcomes.” and found seven features of effective PD including being content

focused, collaborative, reflective, using active learning, models of effective practice, and expert

support over a sustained duration (Darling-Hammond et al. 2017). Many of the studies included

in the literature review found positive outcomes for using lesson study but future research needs

to be done to evaluate lesson study in terms of each of the seven features of effective PD. The

current research presents evidence that lesson study provides teachers with a framework to

engage in collaborative and reflective work to improve their practices. Not only are teachers

improving their content knowledge and pedagogy, but they are analyzing student learning and

using that information to revise and create more effective lessons. The literature reviewed

showed the effectiveness of this process across content areas and grade levels as the studies were

conducted in elementary schools and secondary schools. Further research is needed on the

effectiveness of video recording as part of the process to determine how lesson study might best

be used with teams who are not all on site. While each aspect of lesson study was found to have

benefits, the time spent in collaborative planning and reflection had greater impact in some

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studies than the time spent in lesson observation so the role of teachers during this activity needs

to be further studied as well.

Lesson Study has been credited with bringing about Japan’s evolution of effective

mathematics and science instruction (Lewis 2002) but it has been used less frequently in literacy

professional development. While the process should work equally well in each content area,

there are differences in how literacy and math are learned that may make it more challenging for

the teachers observing the lesson to evaluate, reflect and discuss the effectiveness of the

collaboratively designed lesson in literacy. Additionally, the popularity of lesson study in Japan

and other countries may not translate as well to the American culture with our focus on

competition over collaboration, but in schools that operate as professional learning communities

and engage regularly in collaborative processes this may help maximize outcomes for teachers,

both preservice and in-service.

Knoster, Villa and Thousand (2000) use a framework for thinking about system change

that requires five elements in order for change to be sustained successfully. Those elements

include vision, skills, incentives, resources and an action plan (figure 2). If even one of those five

elements is missing the change will not be sustained successfully and will instead result in

frustration, resistance, anxiety or confusion. Lesson study could be researched as a promising

practice to determine if it fulfills the seven elements of professional development as well as the

five elements necessary for successful sustained change.

When examining educational outcomes through the lens of social equity, one of the major

factors to consider is student socio-economic status. Educators must question our practices to

determine what we could do to help mitigate the effect of student socio-economic status.

Empirical evidence shows collective teacher efficacy, defined as the “collective self-perception

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that teachers in a given school make an educational difference to their students over and above

the educational impact of their homes and communities” (Donohoo, 2017), is three times more

powerful and predictive than socio-economic status (Hattie, 2012). Educators with high

collective efficacy focus on student struggles and show persistence and a willingness to change

and try new teaching approaches because they know it impacts student learning. We must add to

the existing knowledge of practices that impact collective efficacy by evaluating the

effectiveness of lesson study not only as a form of professional development that brings about a

change in practices but also as a means to cultivate collective teacher efficacy and thereby

improve student achievement.

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References

Cajkler, W., Wood, P., Norton, J., Peddler, D., & Xu, H. (2015). Teacher perspectives about
lesson study in secondary school departments: a collaborative vehicle for professional
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Cheng, W., & Wong, W. (2014). Does lesson study work? A systematic review on the effects
of Lesson Study and Learning Study on teachers and students. International Journal for
Lesson and Learning Studies, 3(2), 137-149.

Chong, W., & Kong, C. (2012). Teacher collaborative learning and teacher self-efficacy: The
case of lesson study. The Journal of Experimental Education, 80(3), 263-28.

Cohan, A., & Honigsfeld, A. (2006). Incorporating ‘Lesson Study’ in teacher preparation. The
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Curcio, F. R. (2002). A user’s guide to Japanese lesson study: Ideas for improving mathematics
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Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M., & Gardner, M. (2017). Effective teacher professional
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Dewey, J. (1938/1963). Experience and education. New York, NY: Macmillan.

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comprehensive guide. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

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