Lesson Study and Its Role in the Implementation of Curriculum Reform in China

PurposeLesson study (LS) is generally regarded as a pathway for teachers' professional development and a method for teachers' instructional research. LS has been regarded as having the potential to drive large-scale reform but little is known about how it does so from a district level. Therefore, this paper aims to reveal how lesson study promote district education reform.Design/methodology/approachThis study offers an in-depth case study of how District Y of Shanghai, China, took LS as the primary method in promoting its District Project of Building Curriculum Leadership in Schools. By analyzing the key project documents and achievements in project promotion, and interviews with the major Project leaders at District and school levels, this study explored the practice and impact of LS as a tool to promote district reform.FindingsIn the District Project, LS has been a medium to address each individual school's real problems of practice and turn them into reform vision and reform will in alignment with District goals. Five levels of school curriculum texts have been planned, designed, translated, implemented, reflected on, updated and mutually adjusted systematically through LS to ensure consistency in transforming District reform vision into classroom practice. Different models of teaching-research community building were found in sampled project schools and professional expertise was built with district support to promote reform. The curriculum leadership development through LS has shaped reform leader schools and formed a collection of LS exemplars circulated in schools as high-quality curriculum packages, which laid the foundation for district-wide reform.Originality/valueThe innovative practice of LS in China's education reform has expanded its reach from within one classroom to the entire district curriculum system and made it an important tool to drive large-school district-based education reform.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How does lesson study promote district education reform? – A case study of a district in Shanghai

Chen²,

Fang³

et al. 2022

“…, 2019a). In the current curriculum reform context, researchers have started to explore how to facilitate Chinese LS to support implementing curriculum reform ideas focused on students' learning (Chen and Yang, 2013; Huang et al. , 2019b).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Traditionally, Chinese LS often focuses on improving the teaching of a specific topic or teachers' instructional skills, with little attention paid to students' learning (Huang et al, 2019a). In the current curriculum reform context, researchers have started to explore how to facilitate Chinese LS to support implementing curriculum reform ideas focused on students' learning (Chen and Yang, 2013;Huang et al, 2019b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A teacher's learning of transforming curriculum reform ideas into classroom practices in lesson study in China

Zhao

Huang

Cao

et al. 2022

Self Cite

PurposeThis study aims to explore how a Chinese lesson study (LS) supports a teacher's learning of transforming curriculum reform ideas into classroom practices.Design/methodology/approachData analyzed in this study included lesson plans, three videotaped research lessons, three audio-taped group meetings, interviews, the teacher's reflection journals and other related materials. Clarke and Hollingsworth's interconnected model of professional growth (IMPG) was adopted as the theoretical and analytical framework for examining the teacher's learning process.FindingsThis study found that teachers can deepen their understanding of innovative curriculum ideas and implement them through an iterative cycle of planning, enactment and reflection in LS. Involving knowledgeable others in the process and reflecting on evidence-based evaluation of students' learning outcomes is crucial for changing the teacher's knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and teaching practices. Theoretical tools, such as learning trajectory, are useful for transforming curriculum reform ideas that teachers find abstract and overly broad into concrete and actionable lesson designs.Originality/valueTheoretically, this study can broaden our knowledge about how the under-studied mechanism of Chinese LS can contribute to helping teachers to transform reform ideas into classroom practices. Practically, this study provides suggestions for researchers and educators to reflect on and improve the effectiveness of teachers' professional development programs in a reform context.

“…Particularly, Chinese LS emphasizes the necessity of involving knowledgeable others and iteration of teaching the same topic to different groups of students (e.g. Huang et al , 2017), with a focus on improving a RL that aims to enhance student learning or implement innovative or research-informed teaching strategies (Huang et al , 2016, 2019). While researchers have mainly focused on examining the effectiveness of LS (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring teacher learning process in Chinese lesson study: a case of representing fractions on a number line

Huang

Lai

2021

Self Cite

PurposeThis paper presented the learning process of a group of primary mathematics teachers who participated in two iterations of lesson design, enactment and reflection in a Chinese Lesson Study.Design/methodology/approachAn expansive learning theory was employed to examine the teachers’ learning process in lesson study (LS) on representing fractions on a number line. The evolution of a germ cell was utilized to feature the transformation of the object of activity from abstract to concrete through resolving contradictions among LS members. The videos of lesson planning, research lessons (RLs) and debriefing meetings were collected and analyzed to reveal the expansive learning process.FindingsThe analysis showed that the teachers expanded their learning through transforming the object from diffuse to concrete and expanded through consciously articulating the germ cell. The outcomes of object-oriented activity include improving the enacted lesson which promoted students’ conceptual understanding.Originality/valueThis study made a unique contribution to understanding the learning process of teachers in Chinese LS from the perspective of expansive learning.