Lesson study in mathematics: current status and further directions

Abstract

Lesson study1 (LS), job-embedded, teacher-oriented, student-focused teacher professional development approach, has been in place in Japan and China for over a century Chen and F. Yang [2013] and Lewis and Tsuchida [1997]. The approach has played crucial roles in transforming mathematics teaching, promoting students’ learning, developing teachers, and implementing mathematics curriculum reforms in both countries system wide L. Gu and Y. Yang [2003], Huang, Gong, and Han [2016], Lewis and Takahashi [2013], and Lewis [2016]. It was the seminal work on introducing Japanese lesson study to the mathematics education community in the West in the late 1990s e.g. Lewis and Tsuchida [1997] and Stigler and Hiebert [1999] that has attracted educators around the world to adapt Japanese LS in their own countries, and consequently LS has spread the globe Lewis and Lee [2017]. LS has been widely incorporated in both pre-service teacher preparation and in-service teacher professional development programs. Although many positive effects of LS on improving teaching, improving students’ learning and implementing new curriculum have been documented around the world, the challenges and obstacles of adapting LS in other education systems were revealed Huang and Shimizu [2016] and H. Xu and Pedder [2015]. The goals of this chapter are to provide an overview of LS with examples in several selected aspects and discuss the directions of further development of LS. Thus, the chapter is organized into six sections. The first section is about overview and conceptualization of Japanese LS. The second section focuses on introduction into Chinese LS. The third section shows a case of adaptation of LS with pre-service teacher in Malawi. The fourth section presents a case of adaptation of LS with in-service teachers in Thailand. The fifth section discusses theoretical and methodological issues of studies on LS with an example in Switzerland. The chapter ends with discussions about further directions of LS.