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1 Introduction

1.1 Purpose and goals of the blueprint

Short version
This document is part of the LIFT project’s resource suite designed to support the implementation of lesson study (LS) within initial teacher education (ITE). It aims to assist stakeholders across ITE programmes in shaping and enacting this process.

At its core, LS is a practice-based process where pre-service teachers, teacher educators or mentors collaboratively plan, conduct, and reflect on a research lesson designed to address a specific issue about student learning. This involves in-depth preparation: studying the curriculum and research, designing detailed lesson plans with anticipated student responses, and enacting and observing the lesson. Structured reflection follows, based on evidence of student learning, with the goal of improving both understanding of the teaching issue and participants’ learning.

In ITE, LS not only enhances pedagogical and educational knowledge, but also develops pre-service teachers’ collaborative, reflective, and inquiry skills. It can address broader priorities such as inquiry-based learning, inclusive practices, or technology use. Given the constraints of ITE, the LS process can be adapted to various contexts, like practicum settings or coursework. This blueprint is designed to provide assistance to adapt LS to the possibilities of the context, while respecting its fundamental elements.

Long version

Purpose

This document is intended to guide teacher educators and pre-service teachers in incorporating Lesson Study (LS) into initial teacher education (ITE). In a context of teacher shortages across Europe, strengthening ITE quality in a sustainable way is critical: LS provides a collaborative framework that allows pre-service teachers to grow professionally, develop their sense of self-efficacy and adapt their practice to focus on student learning. The LIFT project builds on experimented LS models to empower pre-service teachers through meaningful partnerships, offering different resources to promote high-quality ITE.

The purpose of this blueprint is to support teacher educators in using LS in ITE programs for all school levels. It is addressed to teacher educators at teacher education institutions and to school-based mentors or cooperating teachers who collaborate with ITE. It will also be of interest to pre-service teachers participating in lesson studies.

What is lesson study?

LS is a practice-based teacher education approach in which a group of participants – in ITE, pre-service teachers and teacher educators – work together in preparing, enacting and reflecting on a lesson. The activity begins with the LS group identifying a research question, often based on a common learning challenge observed among school students. The group then collaboratively formulates the aim of the lesson in relation to this question, using it to guide planning and reflection throughout the LS cycle. Then, the activity proceeds by carrying out a study of curriculum materials, professional and research papers and other documents that address such difficulty and perhaps making a close diagnostic of students’ knowledge and difficulties. Then, based on this, the participants do a detailed planning of a lesson. This lesson, called the research lesson, is enacted by a member of the group and observed by the remaining members. Finally, considering the aims of the lesson, the group reflects on the observed students’ learning and provides suggestions for improvement in the

2 Introduction

2.1 Lesson Study Cycle

LS is often graphically represented as a cycle.

The LS process, with in-service or pre-service teachers, may be described in the following way:

“In a lesson study, a group of teachers or a combined group of teachers and teacher educators/researchers work together, identifying the students’ difficulties on a given concept or issue, studying the related curriculum guidelines and research results, analysing tasks, and planning what they consider as a suitable lesson to address the proposed concept or issue. This “research lesson” is taught by a member of the group to a class of students, whereas the others observe the lesson with a focus on student learning. The participants seek to verify to what extent this lesson achieves the sought objectives and what difficulties arise. On the basis of this analysis, they may revise the lesson and re-teach it to another class […] Given the focus and the nature of the process, lesson studies may be regarded as a small investigation of the participants carried out on their own professional practice” (Ponte, 2017, p. 169).

Identify issue in teaching and learning
At this stage, the group chooses a topic or an issue to focus on. This topic might be one that causes difficulty for students, is challenging to teach, one that pre-service teachers want to get better at teaching. The topic can be disciplinary and/or cross-disciplinary focused. Before or at the start of the process, participants take time to get acquainted, clarify expectations, and agree on how they will collaborate as a group.

Ideas/support/hints Link to casePMore materials

approaches such as inquiry-based learning, preparing and leading whole-class discussions, using technology in the classroom, conducting inclusive education, and developing a relational practice perspective. The consideration of these more specific goals may justify increasing the number of sessions a bit.

What are the different ways to conduct lesson study in initial teacher education?
LS in ITE may be conducted in a variety of ways and with different pre-service teacher groups. When pre-service teachers are in their practicum, they may be working in isolation, in pairs, or small groups. Sometimes, it is possible to join pre-service teachers working individually or in pairs in a small group of three or four. A small group with three or four pre-service teachers preparing a common research lesson is a very good organisation to carry out LS, but this may be adapted to other arrangements if necessary. When pre-service teachers are attending courses in the teacher education institution, for example, attending teaching methods courses, it is also possible to carry out LS by organising them in small groups of three or four members, which may be preparing a single or different research lessons. The purpose of this blueprint is to help ITE stakeholders navigating the different possibilities and chose the best-fitting one to the context of the institution, while maintaining LS fundamental characteristics and benefits.

1.2 How to use the blueprint

This blueprint provides a general orientation and specific suggestions for carrying out LS in ITE. It can be navigated both in a linear and a non-linear way, depending on the topics that the reader wishes to explore in depth.

To get a general sense of the content, Chapter 2 provides a broad presentation of LS core ideas. Chapter 3 presents the main variations of LS in ITE, and Chapter 4 provides some practical suggestions to the challenges that may appear. This document also provides a “decision tree” to help stakeholders such as teacher educators or school-based mentors to choose the LS variant that is most adjusted to their particular situation. The general presentation is also linked to three case studies presenting concrete examples to the reader regarding adaptations to various ITE contexts, subjects and degrees. It is also important to look at the appendix and the

resources attached to this blueprint: the former presents each variant of LS in detail phase by phase while the latter provides some practical tools such as lesson plans and templates for LS meetings.