Sustaining Lesson Study in schools with positive peer leadership

Abstract

Purpose – Multi-cycle Learning Study and multi-cycle Lesson Study are the main collaborative action research approaches for teacher professional development in Hong Kong. The sustaining of these Lesson Study innovations may be inhibited by many challenges. The purpose of this paper is to identify the strategies school leaders utilized to overcome challenges and sustain Lesson Study innovations successfully in a Hong Kong primary school. Design/methodology/approach – In-depth case study was adopted as the methodological approach to explore how Lesson Study was implemented to improve teaching and learning in the school and what leadership practices were enacted to sustain Lesson Study in the case school. Findings – It was found that the leadership team under study had adopted positive peer leadership to successfully implement Lesson Study activities. The strategies of positive peer leadership will be discussed in detail. Research limitations/implications – The paper concludes with implications for sustaining school development and professional development with Lesson Study and a checklist of positive peer leadership practices for school leaders, teacher leaders and teacher trainers. Originality/value – This paper will enrich the understanding of successful leadership practices for sustaining Lesson Study innovations in schools, on which few empirical studies have been conducted.

Reflexive professional development in reflective practice: what lesson study can offer

“…In tandem with this, effective (and also socially just ) PD practices should afford teachers the space to enact and exercise their agencies. When engaged in PD activities , mediatory precautions such as facilitation and mentorship (Zhang, 2015) should be provided before seminars by the outside experts. As the agents of the activity, teachers should adopt such PD events if they think they would mediate their PD practice, which is a sociocultural phenomenon, especially in institutionalized settings.…”

“…The coordinator, on the other hand, took the responsibility of creating common free time for the participants in their busy teaching schedules. In an LS group with four LS group members, finding a common time at the school was a challenge and needed administrative support (Zhang, 2015). Having said that, the coordinator aimed to maintain the efficiency and the sustainability of the LS process.…”

Task design and enactment: Developing in-service and prospective teachers’ didactical knowledge in lesson study

“…It is important to create national policies that support teachers' professional development by considering their needs and giving them the time and conditions to work collaboratively with other teachers and with prospective teachers. In addition, disseminating the work done in lesson study by PTs during their teacher education courses is also important for their professional development (Zhang, 2015) and may encourage their involvement with the research community.…”

Merging lesson study and response to intervention

“…Despite these issues, future research should examine this combination. It is well known that implementations of new ideas or models, as part of school development, often come with challenges; both RTI and LS research report difficulties in maintaining sustainability after implementation (Ball and Trammell, 2011;Burns et al, 2013;Zhang, 2015). As with all new ideas to be implemented in organizations, such as the school, a merged RTI and LS model may encounter such difficulties.…”