Lesson

Study
Field Experiences
Spring 2016

Revisiting Premises of TEdPrac

Understanding of Principles that guide the practice
Purposeful adaptations and modifications
Shared Language

Lesson Study
1. A group of student teachers work within school cohort to design a
lesson and determine a focus for observation of the lesson
2. One of the student teachers enacts the lesson while members of the
planning group and supervisor observe and gather data
3. The supervisor facilitates a group debrief and provides feedback
4. Lesson redesign will take place during ILC and should incorporate
supervisor feedback
5. Student teachers who observed the research lesson enact the
redesigned lesson with supervision

What is Unique About Lesson

Study?
Emphasis on student learning
Involves backward design
Starts with the clarification of the goal/endpoint of the learning process
In Lesson Study, teachers:
Base the lesson design on their ideas about how students learn
Observe student learning when the lesson is taught
Analyze observations of student learning after the lesson is taught, and
Use information about student learning to revise the lesson.
Four Reasons Why Lesson Study Is Important:
Teaching Improvement

Step 1: Design the Research

Lesson
1. Develop student learning goals
2. Determine evidence of the desired learning
3. Design lesson experiences that will enable students
achieve the chosen learning goal

Develop Learning Goals

In this phase of the lesson study process, teams discuss

1.

What topic will your lesson focus on? Why did you
choose this topic?

2.

What developmental goals will the lesson support?

These are abilities, skills, dispositions, inclinations,
sensibilities, or values the lesson will address.

3.

What specific learning goals will the lesson

address? These focus on specific content or skills.
Write these in terms of what students will know
and be able to do as a result of the lesson.

important student learning goalsdesired forms of

student learning, thinking, engagement, and behavior.
Enduring understandings frame the lesson and provide
the reason for teaching and observing it. This planning
phase also addresses immediate lesson-specific goals.
For example, a biology lesson that focuses on developing
students scientific reasoning (a broader learning goal)
also aims to develop student knowledge of meiosis and
mitosis (a narrower lesson-specific goal).

Design the Research Lesson

Lesson study provides an opportunity for teachers to benefit
from one another's pedagogical knowledge. In the planning
phase, team members usually begin by determining a learning

Guiding Questions
1.

What instructional activities and materials will be

used in the lesson? What will be the sequence?

2.

How will the lesson activities make student thinking

visible?

3.

Predict how students will respond to the lesson. In

what ways do the lesson activities help students
achieve the learning goals?

4.

What preparation do students need to complete

before the lesson takes place?

goal. With the learning goal in mind, the team can begin to
design a lesson using the research lesson plan template that
will help students achieve the chosen learning goal. Teachers
propose instructional activities that make student thinking
visible, that is, open to observation and analysis. This is
essential in order for the team to see how students learn from
the lesson when it is taught.
Throughout the planning process, teachers look at the subject
matter from the students point of view, work to understand
how students learn, and try to anticipate how students will
perceive, interpret and construe the subject matter and the
lesson activities.

Step 2: Plan the Observation

Guidelines

1. Think about how you will study student learning

when the lesson is taught.
2. Develop Observation Guidelines:

a. Decide how you will observe students and their

learning
b. Identify the types of evidence you plan to collect

Plan the Observation Guidelines

As teams plan the lesson they also look ahead to how
they will study student learning when the lesson is taught.
In this phase, teams identify the types of evidence they
plan to collect and decide how to observe and gather

Guiding Questions
1.

What is your plan for observing students?

2.

What observational strategies will you use (e.g.,

field notes, focal questions, checklists)?

3.

What types of student thinking and behavior will

observers focus on?

4.

What additional kinds of evidence will you collect

(e.g., student written work and performance
related to the learning goal)?

evidence of student learning and their progress toward

the learning goal. Teams develop observation guidelines
based on their predictions of student responses and
decide what types of evidence will be collected from
students. But teams also supplement observations with
additional evidence such as written work that students
complete as part of the lesson.

Teach and Observe

Recommendations

BEFORE LESSON:
1.

Lesson study observations focus on students

and what they do in response to instruction.

2.

Make sure you have signed consent forms

from students.

3.

Bring and distribute copies of lesson study

materials and guidelines for observers.

All observers should have a copy of the lesson plan, student

handouts used in the lesson, and a copy of the
observation guidelines.
Inform students about the lesson study and the observers
that will be in the classroom and/or introduce the
observers to the class and describe what they will be
doing
DURING LESSON:
One member teaches the lesson, and other group
members observe and collect evidence of student
learning, thinking and engagement.

Research Lesson Debrief (on-site)

Purpose:analyze and evaluate the lesson thoroughly in terms
of student learning, thinking and engagement.

The debriefing focuses on three core questions:

Process: Immediately after research lesson is taught, team

members hold a debriefing meeting to discuss and analyze the
lesson.

In what ways did students accomplish the lesson

goals?
How could the lesson be improved?

During the debriefing participants offer their observations,

interpretations

Debriefing Recommendations

and

comments

on

the

lesson

using

debrief protocol form

Teams may want to establish a few ground rules for the
discussion, e.g., focus on the lesson (not the teacher) and on
analyzing what, how and why students learned or did not learn
from the experience.

What did we learn from this experience?

Analyze and Revise Lesson

After the research (guinea pig) lesson

Some Guiding Questions

1.

What are the major patterns in the evidence? Discuss key

observations and examples.

2.

What does the evidence suggest about student thinking such

as their misconceptions, difficulties, confusion, insights,
surprising ideas, etc.?

3.

In what ways did students achieve or not achieve the learning

goals?

4.

What went well in your lesson study planning, and what would
you like to change next time around?

5.

Based on your analysis, how would you change or revise the

lesson?

6.

What new issues or problems came up that you would like to

address in your own iteration of the research lesson?

and the debrief, teams identify ways

to revise the lesson using the
redesign protocol.
Student teachers may also modify their
strategies for collecting evidence to
align them more effectively with the
revised lesson.
Student teachers use the
redesign lesson planning template

Enact Redesign Lesson and Document

Lesson study investigates how students think and
respond to our instruction. Teachers observe the kinds
of

difficulties

and

problems

students

Think about how/when, you will:

commonly

experience in the classroom. Even when lessonsor our

attempts to study themdo not go as planned, they
help us understand how teaching affects student
learning and development.
By documenting your lesson study work, you contribute
to a pedagogical knowledge base for teachers and
researchers in your field.

Recommendations

1)

Plan date/time of redesign lesson

2)

Create lesson plan for Redesigned Lesson

3)

Document your lesson study work as evidence of

professional development and teaching
improvement.