ABSTRACT
Lesson Study (LS) was developed in Japan in the 1870s and 1880s (Dudley, 2019) as a mechanism for developing, transferring and mobilising classroom practice as the country opened up to the world, modernised and established a state education system. It is based upon collaborative teacher enquiry into how to improve pupil learning by improving teaching and curriculum. In these enquiries teachers study the curriculum and teaching and learning sequences they currently use and also what is known about more effective approaches. They collaboratively plan, teach and observe ‘research lessons’ (RLs) in which they introduce new elements of practice or curriculum designed to improve pupil learning. In post-lesson discussions, they analyse the learning they observed in the research lesson and may then plan further research lessons. These take account of what they found about the way pupils responded to the newly introduced elements in order to improve the teaching or curriculum model further. Once they believe they have found something of note, which other professionals would benefit from, they pass on the newly found knowledge.
