Table Of ContentLESSON STUDY FOR
LEARNING COMMUNITY
Lesson Study has been actively introduced from Japan to various parts of the world,
starting with the US. Such introduction is strongly connected with a focus on
mathematics education, and there is a strong misconception that Lesson Study is
only for mathematics or science. Introduction is usually done at the department or
form level, but some question its sustainability in schools.
This book comprehensively explores the idea of Lesson Study for Learning
Community (LSLC) and suggests that reform of the culture of the school is needed
in order to change learning levels among children, teachers and even parents. In
order for this to happen, changing the ways of management and leadership are also
objectives of LSLC, as are practices at the classroom level. The book argues that
LSLC is a comprehensive vision and framework of school reform and needs to be
taken up in a holistic way across disciplines. Chapters include how to:
• create time
• build the team
• promote reform
• reform daily lessons
• conduct a research lesson
• discuss observed lessons
• sustain school reform based on LSLC.
Strong interest in LSLC is already prevalent in Asian countries like Japan, China,
Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam and Singapore and is now being more widely
adopted in the west. This book will be of great interest to those involved in education
policy and reform, and practitioners of education at all levels.
Eisuke Saito is an assistant professor in the department of Curriculum, Teaching
and Learning at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore.
Masatsugu Murase is an educational consultant with the Azabu Institute of
Education. Prior to that, he was a lecturer and associate professor at Shinshu
University, Japan.
Atsushi Tsukui is a researcher at the International Development Center of Japan.
He has also worked in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines.
John Yeo is a lecturer in the department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at
the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
LESSON STUDY
FOR LEARNING
COMMUNITY
A guide to sustainable
school reform
Eisuke Saito, Masatsugu Murase,
Atsushi Tsukui and John Yeo
First published 2015
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 Eisuke Saito, Masatsugu Murase, Atsushi Tsukui and John Yeo
The right of Eisuke Saito, Masatsugu Murase, Atsushi Tsukui and John Yeo to be
identifi ed as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation without intent to
infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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ISBN: 978-0-415-84316-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-84317-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-81420-9 (ebk)
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CONTENTS
Foreword vi
christine lee
Preface ix
manabu sato
Acknowledgements xi
1 What is Lesson Study for Learning Community (LSLC)? 1
2 What kind of school can be created by reform under LSLC? 13
3 How to create time 25
4 How to build the team 31
5 How to promote reform 41
6 How to reform daily lessons 51
7 How to conduct a research lesson 61
8 How to discuss observed lessons 71
9 How to sustain school reform based on LSLC 79
References 87
Index 93
FOREWORD
I am deeply honoured to be invited to write a foreword to the fi rst book written
in the English Language on Lesson Study for Learning Community: A guide to sustai-
nable school reform co-authored by Eisuke Saito, Masatsugu Murase, Atsushi Tsukui
and John Yeo. I know each of these authors personally and have observed their
interactions with schools, teachers and students in the contexts of lesson study in
Indonesia, Vietnam and Singapore. All of them are driven by a passion to bring
about deep lasting change in schools, teachers, students and the community through
Lesson Study for Learning Community (LSLC). They spent inordinate amounts
of time observing research lessons and learning together with teachers on how
students in these classrooms learn or are not learning in their search for ways on
how to bring about quality learning in classrooms.
The authors are also driven by their compassion and care for the children
in schools, paying careful attention to those who are marginalised and often
not noticed in the crowdedness observed in schools and classrooms as school
and class sizes are usually large in Asian countries. Their skilful use of the video-
camera brings these ‘forgotten’ children to the fore to be noticed by their teachers
during post research lesson discussions. This book is the product of the collective
wisdom among the authors derived from many hours of observations, refl ection
and dialogue among and between each of them. It is written with the intent of
sharing this collective wisdom with schools and teachers who intend to embark
on the journey of LSLC. The book provides the philosophy behind LSLC as well
as practical tips for observing research lessons and discussing research lessons. The
authors have shared ways of creating time for teachers as the lack of time to be
engaged in lesson study is an often heard cry from teachers. The authors have also
tackled pertinent questions often raised by teachers, such as how to build teacher
teams beyond subject boundaries, how to observe and discuss research lessons,
how to bring about reforms in the daily practice of teachers and how to work
Foreword vii
towards sustainability of LSLC in a school highlighting the important role of school
leadership.
I also have the privilege of knowing Professor Manabu Sato whose vision and
ideas behind this movement of Lesson Study for Learning Community (LSLC)
have fi red the spirit of many educators in Japan and beyond the shores of Japan
to China, Indonesia, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. I followed Professor Sato
to schools, to the fi rst pilot school in LSLC, Hamanogo Elementary School in
2004 when I was fi rst exposed to Lesson Study and its variation in the form of
LSLC and to other schools in Japan in 2011. What is Professor Sato’s vision for
LSLC? What are the ideas that form the substance of the book co-authored by
Eisuke Saito and his colleagues? The LSLC movement embodied in this book has
brought us to reconsider once again what the purpose and meaning of education
is as well as the purpose of schooling. It has made us re-examine our assumptions
about how classrooms should be like as a collaborative community, how we view
students and how they learn, how we observe lessons which are often done with
an evaluative stance, how we discuss research lessons not as feedback but as a way
of learning together and understanding our students better, how we view teachers
not as teaching professionals but as learning professionals, how we view parents not
as outsiders to the educative experiences we have designed for their children but
as partners in their learning. LSLC is about learning communities at so many levels
– teacher communities, student communities, parent communities and the interfaces
between and among them. And the heart of these communities is dialogue and of
developing a listening relationship within and among these communities.
I have asked Professor Sato why in his model of LSLC, joint planning of
lessons among teachers do not occur and the planning is often done informally.
He was concerned about the power relations among teacher teams comprising
novice teachers and experienced teachers. Whose ideas would fi nally prevail in the
enactment of the research lessons? This issue will be an ongoing debate among
lesson study advocates as well as in teachers in schools. Similarly the issue of whether
to form lesson study teams by subjects or levels will continue to be an ongoing
debate. Should we not allow teacher teams to decide for themselves how they want
to form their own teams or whether to engage in joint planning or to discuss their
lessons informally?
The implementation of LSLC in any school is fraught with challenges. It is never
easy to go against the tide of organisational as well as social routines that are deeply
embedded in any school culture. Making classrooms a public space and having each
teacher open one lesson to others resulting in about 80 research lessons for a large
school in one school year is mind-boggling for many unaccustomed to making
their classrooms public. Moving from teaching as telling to listening to students is
another. It involves a mindset change and a belief in the philosophy behind LSLC.
In one dialogue I had with Professor Sato, he shared that it would take about fi ve
to seven years for a shift in a school culture for LSLC to take root and bear fruits.
For those reading this book and intending to initiate LSLC in your school, do not
expect instant results within one to two years but persist in bringing into action the
viii Foreword
vision and spirit behind LSLC. It is a call to move beyond the procedural aspects
of observation and discussion to deep dialogue and redesign that will really bring
about lasting impact on the learning of the students.
Christine Kim-Eng Lee
President, World Association of Lesson Studies (WALS), 2011–2014
Head, Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Academic Group,
National Institute of Education
Nanyang Technological University
PREFACE
Analysing national curricula of the advanced countries, I depict four main
agenda items of school reform and three main features of educational practices of
the twenty-fi rst century. The society of the twenty-fi rst century requires school
education to correspond to: (1) the knowledge-based society; (2) multi-cultural
education; (3) risk society and disparity society; and (4) citizenship education.
School education in the twenty-fi rst century is characterised by changes (1) from
a programme-oriented curriculum to a project-oriented one, in other words, a
thinking curriculum; (2) from lecture style teaching and isolated individual learning
to learner-centered teaching and collaborative learning; (3) from a teaching
profession to a learning profession. In addition, the curriculum of the twenty-fi rst
century is composed of four main cultural areas of language, scientifi c inquiry, art
and citizenship. These new features and modes of education are summarised as the
pursuit of both ‘quality and equality’.
Schools of the twenty-fi rst century should be ‘learning community’ where
students learn together, teachers learn together for professional development, and
even parents learn together through participation in school reform. This defi nition
corresponds to the public mission of realising the human right of learning for all
children.
This idea, which I proposed about 20 years ago, has deeply captured teachers
in Japan, and then, the grassroots school reform movement has rapidly spread
nationwide. Today, about 1,500 elementary schools, 2,000 junior secondary schools
and 300 senior secondary schools are attempting to reform themselves from within,
according to this idea, and forming a grassroots network. About 300 pilot schools
are active as leading agents for such innovation. They present more than 1000 open
conferences per year for neighbouring teachers.
The proposal of ‘lesson study for learning community’ is not a technical
approach but a set of three integrated components of a vision, philosophies and
