Implementing Japanese lesson study as a professional development tool in South Africa

Year 2022, Volume: 10 Issue: 3, 349 - 362, 30.09.2022

Roy Venketsamy Zijing Hu Erika Helmbold Pritee Auckloo

https://doi.org/10.17478/jegys.1129982

Cited By: 5

Abstract

Continuous professional development is an integral part of the professional life of teachers since learning is a life-long activity. Lesson study is a practical approach to promoting teachers’ professional development. Lesson study refers to teachers’ classroom-based collaborative research to bring teachers together to work collaboratively to plan a lesson. In South Africa, there is a dire need for teachers’ professional development due to many challenges in professional development in this country. However, there is very little documented research into the implementation of lesson study in South Africa. This study explored the Japanese Lesson Study to improve teaching quality and to learn in South Africa. The researchers adopted qualitative research with an interpretivist paradigm to explicit participants’ experiences of lesson study. A purposive sampling technique was employed to select three participants in a school from Gauteng Province, South Africa. The findings revealed that participants appreciated the workshop and gained knowledge of a good understanding of the lesson study. All the participants acknowledged the awareness of their professional development as a motivating factor for them to continue to plan and work together. The researchers recommended that lesson studies be implemented with teachers from different grades and phases. School leaders should become ambassadors for setting up communities of practice within their schools, districts and provinces. Further studies should be carried out with similar grades in a phase and also in phase planning.

Keywords

lesson study, professional teacher development; Japanese lesson study, communities of practice

Supporting Institution

University of Pretoria

Project Number

EC19/09/01

Thanks

The researchers thank the University of Pretoria and the Gauteng Education Department for consenting the researchers to undertake this study. Since thanks and appreciation also go to the critical readers from the Department of Early Childhood Education who commented on this paper. The researchers would also like to thank the Editor JEGYS and the reviewers for taking the time to review this paper.

References

• Arani, M.R.S., Fukaya, F. & Lassegard, J.P. (2010). “Lesson Study” as professional culture in Japanese schools: An historical perspective on elementary classroom practices. Japan Review, 22, 171-200.
• Avalos, B. (2011). Teacher professional development in teaching and teacher education over ten years. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(1), 10–20.
• Brodie, K., (2013). The power of professional learning communities. Education as Change, 17(1), 5–18.
• Buysse, V., Winton, P., & Rous, B.S. (2009). Reaching consensus on a definition of professional development for the early childhood field. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 28(4), 235–243.
• Cajkler, W., Wood, P., Norton, J. & Pedder, D. (2014). Lesson Study as a vehicle for collaborative teacher learning in a secondary school. Professional Development in Education, 40(4), 511–529.
• Coenders, F., & Verhoef, N. (2018). Lesson Study: professional development (PD) for beginning and experienced teachers. Professional Development in Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2018.1430050.
• Creswell, J.W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches, 4th Ed. California: Sage.
• Darling-Hammond, L. & McLaughlin, M.W. (2011). Policies that support professional development in an era of reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(6):81–92.
• Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M.E. & Gardner, M. (2017). Effective Teacher Professional Development. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute.
• Deacon, R. (2016). The Initial Teacher Education Research Project: Final Report. Johannesburg: JET Education Services.
• DeMonte, J. (2013). High-quality Professional Development for Teachers: Supporting Teacher Training to Improve Student Learning. Washington: Centre for American Progress. Department of Basic Education and Higher Education and Training. (2011). Integrated Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher Education and Development in South Africa: 2011–2025. Pretoria: Government Printer.
• Department of Basic Education. (2015). Action Plan to 2019 Towards the realisation of schooling 2030. Pretoria: Department of Basic Education.
• Department of Higher Education and Training. (2016). Competency Framework for Career Development Practitioners in South Africa. Pretoria: Department of Higher Education and Training.
• Doig, B., Groves, S. & Fujii, T. (2011). The critical role of task development in lesson study. In L. C. Hart, A. S. Alston & A. Murata (Eds.), Lesson Study Research and Practice in Mathematics Education. Dordrecht: Springer.
• Dudley, P. (2014). Lesson Study: A Handbook. Online: Cambridge.
• DuFour, R. (2004). Schools as learning communities? Educational Leadership, 61(8), 6–11.
• Evans, L. (2014). Leadership for professional development and learning: enhancing our understanding of how teachers develop. Cambridge Journal of Education, 44(2), 179–198.
• Fujii, T. (2016). Designing and adapting tasks in lesson planning: a critical process of Lesson Study. ZDM Mathematics Education, 48, 411-423.
• Green, W. Parker, D. Deacon, R. & Hall, G. (2011). Foundation phase teacher provision by public higher education institutions in South Africa. South African Journal of Childhood Education, 1(1),109–122.
• Groves, S. & Doig, B. (2010). Adapting and implementing Japanese lesson study: some affordances and constraints. In EARCOME5 2010: The Proceedings of the 5th East Asia Regional Conference on Mathematics Education: In Search of Excellence of Mathematics Education (pp. 699-706). Tokyo: Japan Society of Mathematical Education.
• Guskey, T.R. (2014). Planning professional learning. Educational Leadership, 71(8),10-16.
• Helmbold. E., Venketsamy, R. van Heerden, J. (2021). Implementing Lesson Study as a professional development approach for early grade teachers: A South African case study. Perspectives in Education, 39(3),183-196.
• Hervas, G. & Medina, J.L. (2020). Key components of lesson study from the perspective of complexity: A theoretical analysis. Teachers and Teaching Theory and Practice, 26(1), 118-128.
• Hiebert, J., & Stigler, J.W. (2017). Teaching Versus Teachers as a Lever for Change: Comparing a Japanese and a U.S. Perspective on Improving Instruction. Educational Researcher, 46(4), 169-176. http://dox.doi.org/10.3102/0013189X17711899.
• Hunter, J. & Back, J. (2011). Facilitating sustainable professional development through Lesson Study. Mathematics Teacher Education and Development, 13(1), 94–114.
• Lewis, C. (2008). Lesson study: A handbook of teacher- led instructional improvement. Philadelphia: Research for Better Schools, Inc.
• Lewis, C.C., Perry, R.R., Friedkin, S. & Roth, J.R. (2012). Improving teaching does improve teachers: Evidence from lesson study. Journal of Teacher Education, 63(5), 368–375.
• Maree, K. (Ed). (2020). First Steps of Research. Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers.
• Patton, K., Parker, M. & Tannehill, D. (2015). Helping teachers help themselves: Professional development that makes a difference. NASSP Bulletin, 99(1), 26-42.
• Seleznyov, S. (2018). Lesson study: an exploration of its translation beyond Japan. International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies, 7(3), 217–229.
• Serrat, O. (2017). Knowledge Solutions. Singapore: Springer.
• Spaull, N. (2015). Accountability and capacity in South African education. Education as Change, 19(3), 113–142.
• Stewart, C. (2014). Transforming professional development to professional learning. Journal of Adult Education, 43(1), 28–33.
• Stols, G. & Ono, Y. (2016). Lesson Study. An Implementation Manual. Available from: http://palsnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Lesson-Study-Manual-1.pdf
• Takahashi, A. & McDougal, T. (2016). Collaborative lesson research: maximizing the impact of lesson study. ZDM Mathematics Education, 48, 513–526.
• Takahashi, A., Lewis, C. & Perry, R. (2013). A US lesson study network to spread teaching throughproblem-solving. International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies, 2(3), 237–255.
• Thomson, K., Bell, A. & Hendry, G. (2015). Peer observation of teaching: The case for learning just by watching. Higher Education Research & Development, 34(5), 1060–1062.
• Venketsamy, R. & Hu, Z. (2022). Exploring challenges experienced by foundation phase teachers in using technology for teaching and learning: a South African case study. Journal for the Education of Gifted Young Scientists, 10(2), 221-237.
• Yin, R.K. (2018). Case Study Research and Applications: Design and Methods (6nd). The United States of America: SAGE.
• Yoon, K. S., Duncan, T., Lee, S. W.-Y., Scarloss, B. & Shapley, K. (2007). Reviewing the Evidence on How Teacher Professional Development Affects Student Achievement (Issues & Answers Report, REL 2007–No. 033). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Regional Educational Laboratory Southwest.