Stephen L.

Mohamad MAEd-TGenScie

“Using Lesson Study as a Strategy for Professional Development”

(CRITIQUE PAPER)

In the field of education, there are many things you have to consider in your
teaching process. You have to create your strategy not just for your class but also for
your own professional growth and development. Generally, speaking strategy refers to a
thoughtful process to do something (Al-Bana, et al., 2014). Using lesson study as a
strategy for professional development is somehow alien to the 21 st century educational
system. Lesson study is a professional Japanese learning strategy that is composed of
a triad of teachers working together to plan, observe, and reflect & plan to identify some
areas of need to be developed for students learning (Rahim, et al., 2015). Thus, lesson
study is used to improve the lesson planning process, refine instructional strategies and
delivery, and evaluate student thinking. Meanwhile, professional development generally
refers to continuing education and career training to develop new skills and stays up to
date. Therefore, professional development is important to us educators of the 21 st
century because it always keeps us up to date on curriculum standards and the latest
teaching strategies (Cchiaro, 2021). Professional development not just ensures the best
learning outcomes for students but also to be more effective and satisfaction in various
aspects of the educators’ work (Queens University of Charlotte, 2022).
Study shows promising positive results of using a lesson study for the
professional development of teachers. A study entitled “Teacher Professional
Development Through Lesson Study in Secondary Schools” published by Rahim,
Sulaiman, and Sulaiman (2015), discusses how lesson study is used as a strategy for
professional development and to explore the teachers’ learning experiences as they
engaged in it. Moreover, a study published by Aoibhinn NÍ Shúilleabháin (2015) “Lesson
Study as a Model of In-School Professional Development”, investigated the introduction
of lesson study of in-school professional development which would help Mathematics
teacher in their practices. In addition, Lesson Study for Professional Development: How
Do We Help Teachers Develop Their Expertise by the University of Nottingham (2016)
lays out a tool that shows detailed support for a workshop training that introduces
professional development providers and mathematics teachers to the lesson study
method for ongoing professional learning. It introduces the Japanese lesson study
model which comprises of a cycle of 5 steps which are: (a) identify research focus; (b)
plan research lesson; (c) teach research lesson; (d) analyze research lesson; (e) review
and revise, then the cycle continues until it will gather the desired outcomes. However,
a study entitled “Benefits, Difficulties and Conditions of Lesson Study Implementation in
Basic Teacher Education: A Review” conducted Kanellopoulou and Darra (2019),
revealed that there some difficulties encountered by the pre-service teachers and their
trainers in implementing the lesson study as strategy. Yes, it does have a promising
notion to help develop professional development but we should consider all the
underlying factors that may impede the implementation positive or negative.
According to the University of Nottingham (2016), lesson study is a Japanese
model which comprises of a series of cycle of steps. Research shown that the process
of lesson study will affect the characteristics of an effective professional development:
experiential, sustained, grounded, safe, collaborative, informed, provocative, and
focused. There are three forms of professional development which are very common to
us educators: training models – these are off-events wherein an expert delivers a
lesson; experiential courses – offered to teachers by some mediated provider; and
embedded – these are driven by questions. To further understand the steps in a lesson
study and all the underlying things that are discussed in the paper, let us take a deep
explanation about it. The first phase involves identifying the research focus which
means pointing out a theme agreed by the majority. Second phase is to plan research
lesson wherein the teachers devise a plan collaboratively. Third phase is about teaching
and observing the lesson. Fourth phase is more on analyzing the research question
where the expert or commentator (koshi) relates observations to research and
discusses the implications for future. Finally, the fifth phase is reviewing and revising to
further enhance the focus of the study. The whole process itself is somehow complex
and difficult but studying this process, participants will be ignited to set up their own
lesson study for the betterment of the professional career. To make this critique paper
and all the claims more reliable, here are some studies that prove the effectiveness and
the downside of using study lesson a strategy for professional development.

Lesson study is somehow new to Malaysia, and gaining in-depth knowledge

about this is a great opportunity for the researchers and the educational community. In
addition, lesson study is commonly used by Mathematics educators and very few by
English educators, thus this study was conducted to gain insights into English
educators’ perspectives on lesson study as a platform for professional development,
and using lesson study to enhance teaching practices. The main objective of the study
of Rahim, Sulaiman, and Sulaiman (2015) is to gain an in-depth understanding of how
secondary school teachers perceive lesson study as a tool for professional
development. The following questions are asked in this study (a) How do secondary
school English language teachers perceive lesson study as a platform for teacher
professional development? (b) how could engaging in lesson study enhance English
language teachers’ instructional practices? (c) What are the constraints encountered by
English teachers in implementing a lesson study approach in their schools? These three
questions are important because it serves as a guide for researchers in unlocking the
problems underlying the study, and also, they will be helpful to educators in finding the
main idea for their references or readings. The terms used in the study are professional
development and lesson study varies in many aspects. The result of the research
affirms that peer collaboration, feedback, and improving instructional practices
particularly teachers’ professional knowledge are the benefits of lesson study. However,
time-constraints, extra workload, and minimal school management are the difficulties
faced during the implementation of the strategy. In the study of Aoibhinn NÍ
Shúilleabháin (2015) entitled “Lesson Study as a Model of In-School Professional
Development” investigated adopted lesson study as model for school-based
professional development in two of the schools in Ireland in post-primary mathematics
teachers. One of the purposes of this research is that teachers will investigate their own
practices through reflection and planning. The study shows that in planning multiple
research lessons teachers collaborated in observing, conducting, designing, and
reflecting on mathematics lessons. Teachers will become more aware of incorporating
students’ point of view of the subject. When teachers engage in the process of lesson
study, they will become more comfortable within their professional community. In
addition, teachers will develop their pedagogical knowledge as they engage in the
strategy. In conclusion, lesson study is simple to describe but it holds much power for it
can engage teachers in investigating their own practices and can provide an
environment where educators can be creative in their teaching. According to the
researchers, lesson study is a model of professional development which holds great
potential as a structure within which teachers can enjoy, learn from, and reflect on their
practices of teaching mathematics. The most important benefits of implementing the
lesson study are co-operation, professional development of preservice teachers,
reflection, active learning including constructive discussion, planning, practice,
observation and feedback (Kanellopoulou & Darra (2019). We already know that using
lesson study as strategy for professional development will greatly help educators
around the globe. This time we will go deeper to understand all the constraints and
difficulties faced by teachers as the lesson study implemented. In the paper of Eurydice-
Maria D Kanellopoulou and Maria Darra (2019), they revealed that the most important
difficulties in the implementation of the lesson study by the pre-service educators are
the difficulty of time pressure, tensions, co-operation, inadequate understanding of
proper use of technology, lack of focus on student learning, failure to predict student
responses, the inexperience, the reflection, stress and anxiety resulting from the
observation of the teaching, the fatigue due to their attempt to respond to the
requirements of the particular method. All of these are the downside of using lesson
study as a strategy for professional development which the true nature of it calls it, as
we call “process”, it involves a lot of sweat and tears to further reach your desired goals
or target.
In conclusion, using lesson study as a strategy for professional development is
quite effective according to the different researches cited. It will benefit the teacher’s
professional growth and development because it promotes cooperation and
collaboration, active learning, feedback among colleagues, and reflections as they
undergo in the cycle of the model. However, there are negative or downside of using
lesson study as a strategy for professional development but all of those things
mentioned above can be manageable by the implementor by managing all the
difficulties and transforming it into a more engaging one. The most notable thing to
remember for the effective implementation of the lesson study are the reflection of the
teachers. This will develop their knowledge, skills and willingness to use it in their
teaching, the participation and cooperation of teachers, the creative presence of the
mentor, policy support from teacher educators who encourage teachers to develop and
maintain quality teaching.

References
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Antley, T. (2021, November 15). WebCE blog: News. Retrieved October 13, 2022, from
https://www.webce.com/news/2020/07/16/professional-development

Rahim, S. S., Sulaiman, S., & Sulaiman, T. (2015). Teacher professional development through
Lesson Study in Secondary Schools. Advanced Science Letters, 21(7), 2360-2364.
doi:10.1166/asl.2015.6276

Uştuk Ö., Çomoğlu İ. (2019) ‘Lesson Study for professional development of English language teachers:
Key takeaways from international practices’, Journal on Efficiency and Responsibility in Education
and Science, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 41-50. http://dx.doi. org/10.7160/eriesj.2019.120202

Cchiaro. (2021, February 22). The importance of professional development in the 21st Century.
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Importance of Prof Development for educators: Queens Online. (2022, August 08). Retrieved
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development-for-educators/

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https://fl02219191.schoolwires.net/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?
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(PDF) teaching strategies - researchgate. (n.d.). Retrieved October 16, 2022, from
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Aoibhinn NÍ Shúilleabháin - NCCA. (2015). Retrieved October 16, 2022, from

https://ncca.ie/media/2136/lesson-study-pd.pdf

Kanellopoulou, E. D., & Darra, M. (2019). Benefits, difficulties and conditions of lesson study
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