A Case Study of Lesson Study - How could Lesson Study contribute to collaborative professional learning in Norwegian schools?

This study seeks to understand the phenomenon Lesson Study as a model for continuing professional development for teachers. Our rapidly changing, increasingly complex society demands greater challenges on education today as schools have to prepare their pupils for a future that we can only guess. What teachers need to know and how they develop professionally has changed accordingly. Lesson Study is a classroom based, collaborative, continuing professional development model that focuses on how pupils learn. This study examines Lesson Study; how it is operationalized and characterized, what the affordances and barriers are, to see if this model could be used to help Norwegian teachers develop professionally, such that they can better equip their pupils to meet future challenges. A case study methodology was used for this study. The study evolved from a pilot project of two lesson study groups, involving ten English teachers from four different lower-secondary schools in Norway. Qualitative interviews, audio and video recordings of teacher collaboration, and written reflection texts were the sources of evidence used in this study. The study has focused on the learning of teachers, but more specifically, teachers’ learning about pupils’ learning. Findings in this case study show how lesson study establishes professional learning through explicit and visible teachers’ talk; through joint lesson planning, observation and joint evaluation of lessons and pupils’ learning. The study supports the claim that LS affords a shift from how teachers teach to how pupils learn. The study also finds that the LS model requires strong support from school leadership to achieve sustainability