Lesson Study in Initial Teacher Training in Groningen, the Netherlands

A prerequisite for sustainable Lesson Study (LS) in schools is that teachers develop a research stance towards teaching practice. One way to establish this is by already starting with LS in initial teacher education (ITE). In this featured symposium, we discuss how lesson study nowadays is used in ITE four different cultural contexts, how adaptations are used in ITE contexts, the challenges that implementation poses, experiences of student teachers and teacher educators, and outcomes for student teachers. The different approaches from Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands and Norway will be presented and critically compared and discussed.In the Dutch context, educational research is seen as an engine for innovation and practical improvement. Teachers of the future are viewed as self-responsible and have decision-making power. They use educational research and do practical research themselves to develop their practice and vision. To develop knowledge and skills to be able to conduct practical research for the benefit of professionalization and practical improvement, the University of Groningen has opted for Lesson Study (LS) in ITE. In recent years, experience has been gained with various forms of LS in ITE: a variation in which three student teachers who share the same subject matter work together, and a form in which student teachers work together with experienced subject teachers at their school practice. In school year 2018-2019 school, all 120 students of the teacher training program carry out LS: the majority of the student teachers in the first variant, supervised by trained teacher educators, and some 10 student teachers in the second variant, in the context of a school-university partnership, supervised by trained mentors, and where their subject matter teacher educators can be consulted as knowledgeable others. The experiences and outcomes gathered this year will be reported at the WALS 2019 in Amsterdam.