Hi Joel,

Jugyou kenkyu, which is just the professional development area of educational and pedagogy studies in Japan is not *new* to the rest of the world. It is closer to the teacher peer mentoring that occurred in Britain and Germany at the turn of the 20th century. In fact that is where it originally was adopted from not long after the Meiji restoration. The neoconfuscian cultural values that influence and define the teacher-student senior teacher-junior teacher relationships are a good "fit" to the culture in British schools from that era. The Prussian style uniforms the high school boys wear are also a cultural borrowing from that era. 

Futhermore the junior and senior high school curriculum predominantly teaches to the test, I.e. the entrance exam to the next level of school. So teaching how to teach also requires a lot of wrote learning of teaching to the test. There's a parallel processes at work there. The value and duty to teach how to teach is seen in the Tannin-Fukutannin (lit. "Class head teacher - vice class head teacher") relationship. I've served as both teaching ESL and also teaching entrance exam English in Japanese (I also did a major part of my undergrad study through 2 scholarships at Japanese universities)

I've also taught into the Japanese education system (in Japanese) at university level teacher preparation. 

I don't buy Owen's stuff. It reminds me of the Kaizen "revolution" of the 80s. The difference is that Kaizen values that were especially emphasised at Toyota Automotive (another place I've taught at)  were more indigenious to Japan than the roots of jugyokenkyu. Neither are unique to the Japanese cultural experience. This is despite a huge amount of pseudoscientific literature about the "Science of the Japanese people" or nihonjinron. You will find discussions about jugyou kenkyu and Kaizen there. It seems Owen is adding to that body of literature.

I've taught in 4 countries in two languages at many school levels, but I am convinced the quality of the teacher student relationship (all of them) is the paramount importance. Get that one right then the learning follows. So yes if jugyo kenkyu inadvertently builds good teaching peer relationships and in turn good teacher student relationships then use it. 

Hope that helps. 

Your questioning is impeccable by the way.

Jason, wow; i learned so much from reading your response. Have you any published papers on all of your experiences? I will wait and see what others have to say, and then post a more summative response. Thanks for taking the time to provide such grat information. 

In my field of mathematics education, there are a number of books and papers on the lesson study approach.

Last month (September 2016), our research group had a seminar presentation from Naomichi Makinae, University of Tsukuba, Japan, on the topic of the origin of lesson study in Japan. In line with what Jason Dixon says, if you search for his publication on this you might be interested in his findings!

http://blog.soton.ac.uk/mshe/announcement-september-seminar-on-lesson-study/

Hi Joel,

Nice. I'm pleased it was helpful. I did publish something about 20 years ago in Japanese on intercultural education but it's been so long I can't remember the title. I've not thought to publish my professional experiences. Maybe it's because Japan is too familiar. My kids have just started high school, they're bilingual, but anything "Japanese" isn't cool for them. I think this is just a phase for them. My young adult years and more were spent in Japan, it is very much my home. I will take your encouragement on board though. My last transnational work was with students, who are now my academic peers and colleague, from some of the other Sinophere countries.

There are similarities when comparing students and teachers experience of each of those countries education system. The same neoconfucian values are at play, and the pressure to succeed measured by passing the entrance exams for schools and universities with the higher status. In Vietnam and China a son or daughter who gains entrance to one of the better universities in, for example Shanghai or Hanoi, also gives the family government approval to move to those cities. The movement of this families from rural areas to those cities is driven by the many times improved economic and quality of life benefits. So the study burden and pressure for successful educational attainment is considerable. The postwar Japanese experience is similar.  My colleagues and I have run Scale development, and epidemiological studies on educational stress in some of the Sinosphere countries, and I think maybe India too. The references are on my profile. There might be something of interest to you there.

That might marry up with with what Keith Jones' research group  has posted. I'm keen to have a read of that too! There has always been a lot of good stuff that comes out of Tsukuba University. 

I'll keep track of this thread it looks like it's coming together to be quite an interesting discussion. 

Thanks,

JD

Hi Keith,

Was there any printed resources you could post that came with Makinae's presentation?

jd

Hi Jason

I don't have slides from the presentation by Naomichi Makinae to our research group, but here is a link to a paper by him on the topic of the origin of lesson study in Japan:

http://www.lessonstudygroup.net/lg/readings/TheOriginofLessonStudyinJapanMakinaeN/TheOriginofLessonStudyinJapanMakinaeN.pdf

Hi Keith,

Very kind of you. Thanks!

jason

Hi Joel,

I might be preaching to the choir here, but below is a link to the IMPULS society that Makinae sensei serves as a consultant. There is a "Lesson Study Library" with example plans in English. It seems to still be a work in progress, but the math and science study areas have been partially completed. I've not taught K-12 for a long time, but what's there looks ok. 

http://www.impuls-tgu.org/en/

Joel - 

As a new doctoral student, I do not have any formal research to share with you.  However, as a k-5 administrator, I facilitated Lesson Study as PD for my teaching staff. I could go in to greater detail, but the focus of our 'studying of lessons' landed on questioning practices.  What guiding questions will you as the teacher prepare for your class based on the prediction of questions you think you class will have?  What follow up questions will teachers have ready to continue guiding students in their learning.  If you want more information on how we actually did this work I would be happy to add more information.  If this is too practical, meaning not enough formal research connected to it, I am not offended if this doesn't work for you.  Cheers  

Rynda

Hi Rynda, 

I like what you have shared. In your PD was there any emphasis placed on teaching peer relationships and teaching staff mentoring to improve "lesson study"? I'm interested because in the Japanese context, that is fundamentally important to the approach. It may have been left out or only attracted limited attention due to the different workplace cultures between Japan and the US...

 Jason,

Yes, we spent the first 3 months of the school year creating trust through a peer-to-peer relationship model.  We included every teacher in the process of trust building and risk taking activities.  An expert facilitator came in for a few of out meetings so I could be part of the team.  As we moved in to the actual planning for the Lesson Study, we had almost a quarter of the staff request to step out of that specific PD.  I allowed it without question because I felt that was part of the "trust" I built with them.  If they weren't ready, I wasn't going to force them.  

The learning that occurred with the other 20 teachers involved, was shared during PLC time and during our whole staff monthly meeting.  Although a few of the teachers did not participate even in to the next year, many of those same teachers spoke to me about their own growth and readiness to invite peer observers in to their classroom.  It was quite a leap from their perspective 2 years prior.  I am no longer at that school, but have been told the staff continue to apply an adapted model of Lesson Study to their yearly PD.

Hi Rynda,

That's fascinating stuff. It would be interesting to know what was going on with the 25% of teachers who opted out in the 1st phase of the PD. 

Thanks for sharing your insights and experiences, that's really helpful.

Hi Rynda,

Your experience is very encouraging. Peer trust is definitely a guarantee for Lesson Study model. As a matter of fact, I'm quite interested in how you successfully built up mutual trust in 3 months. Can you share some of your practices? 

Hi Joel,

I've been thinking a bit about your original question, and thought I'd look to see if there are any cultural nuances in lesson study resources that might distinguish teacher peer collaboration between japan and the US or perhaps even Australia or elsewhere. I've translated the table of contents of a publication from a local K-12 teaching professionals research group in Japan.

I'm posting my draft translation (table of contents)  and the entire original document.  It might be helpful to get a general idea of what lesson study looks like at the grass roots level.

Hope that helps.

Hi Joel, with my colleagues Silvia and Francesca, I have run a pilot with a group of Italian teachers using a protocol we named "Evident". It builds on the Lesson Study approach blended with the School Effectiveness approach (we changed the classroom observation with the class videorecording).

Hereafter you can find the abstract of a paper we have presented at the IAFOR Conference. 

If you are interested, feel free to ask more info or clarification.

Elena Mosa

“Teachers need feedback”, said Bill Gates in a famous TED talk speaking about thetechnique of using videorecording in the classroom. In fact, the use of video is a powerful tool to analyze behaviours and to reflect on implicit teaching routines in a sort of “self-mirroring” activity, as described by Shön in the reflective practitioner theory (1983).

Within the University course “Multimedia research methods” offered by the on line Italian University IUL, addressing CPD for teachers, trainees were asked to record their typical lesson and to analyze it by using a grid derived from research (the School Effectiveness Approach by B. Creemers e L. Kyriakides 2012 and “Visible Learning” by Hattie, 2009).

After analyzing their videos, teachers would visualize their positioning in a Radar diagram helping them to understand what factors should be improved in order to carry out an effective lesson. Furthermore, teachers were asked to peer review the Radar and the grid of a colleague and to receive a first feedback from her/him. This resulted in a very powerful exercise to improve and better plan an effective classroom lesson.

In the second part of the course, the teachers worked in small groups, according to the cooperative learning model, with the task of producing a toolkit, giving operational tips and examples derived from the videorecordings, on how to perform a good lesson.

The paper provides a detailed description of the methodology employed, the

corresponding tools and the analysis of the main results coming from the pilot.

Full text in the conference proceedings: 

http://iafor.org/archives/proceedings/ECE/ECE2015_proceedings.pdf

(pags. 403-417)

These are all very interesting commentaries. Each of the approaches described grew from considerable attention from "teacher to teacher" interactions, in a prescribed manner. In the county school system where i teach, such things are not done. Instead, we fill our "professional development" with an array of activities mentioned in my attached article. So, my question is: 

1. What makes your schools different in that they have not only recognized some form of "lesson study," but allowed you time and resources to do this, and 

2. What level of schooling are you teaching: secondary, university, or primary? 

Thanks, and I will have more to add once I have read all of your attachments. 

Joel 

Hi Joel,

Indeed the manner in which in-house teaching peer collaboration for professional development is conducted makes the approach distinct from the usual experience in the Western context.

What I thought was particularly interested in reading the Japanese lesson study resources is the emphasis placed on "Workshop" style professional development to learn the basics of implementing lesson study. This auxiliary aspect of lesson study is a cultural borrowing from the West, but emphasis of peer collaboration is compatible with group-oriented Japanese culture. That doesn't mean it's not compatible in the Western context, it just helps to know what to look for and what to use.

I think what you are doing is exciting stuff.

Hello Elena, what would you say personally are the greatest advantages to the Evident approach you are pioneering? Did it arise in place of or from some previous practice? thanks, Joel