Lesson Study: professional learning for our time

1. Lesson Study: professional learning for our time September 2012 Jean Lang: Head of Primary School Improvement

2. Aims of the session • To introduce Research Lesson Study as way of developing and refining teaching techniques • To provide a step by step guide on how to introduce Lesson Study into your school • To provide information on where to find further guidance and support

3. Effects of different types of CPD on learning Retention rates Lecture – 5% Reading - 10% Audio-visual – 20% Demonstration – 30% Discussion – 50% Practice by doing – 75% Teaching others – 90%

4. Introductory activity Please spend a couple of minutes with the person next to you devising a set of instructions to help people who are learning to ride a bicycle. These instructions should enable them to cycle without falling off.

5. Most teaching is invisible to teachers • In order to cope with complexity and speed of the classroom new teachers filter out seemingly non ‘vital’ information about what happens in their lessons – what students do and what the teacher does. Those who learn to do this quickly survive. • Therefore most teacher practice-knowledge exists in tacit form and is invisible to the teacher • Most teachers teach alone so get little professional feedback • When another professional is with them watching a lesson it usually means ‘inspection’ not ‘learning’

6. Global Growth of Lesson Study • Japan – 140 years • China – 60 years • USA - 14 years • Hong Kong – 13 years • UK, Singapore, Sweden – 11 years • Vietnam, Australia, Iran – 8+ years • Philippines, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia – 4+ years • Palestine – 1 year

7. Lesson Study focuses on student learning (less on teaching)

8. Teachers imagine and observe learning in great detail – ‘It’s an eye opener’ • They can discover that their assessments of 30% of students are inaccurate – often very inaccurate • They discover new aspects of their students’ learning • They are happy to take risks because the focus is on the learning and the research lesson is shared • They improve and refine micro teaching strategies • They ‘get inside the heads’ of their students making their learning visible

9. LS enables teachers to control how they deal with classroom complexity in subsequent teaching • They are able to switch off the filters developed as coping mechanisms in their early teaching career (and back on) • They see a new learning phenomenon in a case pupil and can then see it in others without being overwhelmed by complexity

10. Our fuel for teaching has been re-ignited! We feel more confident to be innovative and take more risks within our lessons LS encourages teachers to know their students; planning becomes personalised and learning meaningful. Learning from each other is an organic process which feels natural, supportive, safe, challenging and unique It’s rewarding.. ..and it’s fun!!!

11. Further information • Training available through CSI • Visit www.lessonstudy.co.uk