Alice Gill, and Bill Jackson, and Ruth K. Wade
In this paper, the authors review strategies and recommendations for supporting and sustaining lesson study in schools that are already implementing the process. Experiences from Farmington Schools in Farmington, CT and Paterson Public School No. 2 in Paterson, NJ help to highlight strategies for sustaining lesson study efforts.
Do you ever wonder how many professional development initiatives have come and gone through schools throughout the country? It is common knowledge in the education community that many interventions lose their support and can no longer be sustained after a few short years. Then, the intervention is chalked up as another fad. For an intervention to have lasting effect on student learning, support and sustainability are essential. This paper examines ways in which lesson study can be supported and sustained through developing a school's external and internal resources.
Lesson study efforts should not be isolated within the school building. In order for lesson study to succeed and be sustained, a school must be aware of and reach out to resources outside of its walls. A few such resources are described below and are shown in the conference presentation How Farmington Schools Engaged Teachers and Administrators in Lesson Study.
Like any professional development process, lesson study will not be sustainable over time unless the entire educational system supports it. What does the entire educational system entail? Consider the various stakeholders: the board of education, superintendent, cabinet, central office, principals, teachers, support staff, parents and community, and students. Knowing where to begin obtaining support in a system this complex can be confusing, but it helps to focus on the anchors of the system.
The anchors tend to be the board of education, superintendent, and the bargaining unit. The proponents of lesson study in Farmington Schools in Farmington, CT found one successful approach to garnering the support of these anchors. They determined that the best way to convince the decision makers of the importance of lesson study was to show them lesson study in action. By sharing results, inviting them to school activities on lesson study, and inviting them to observe lessons and participate in debriefing sessions, the key decision makers could see the value of lesson study and put their support behind it.
When communicating with the decision makers, it is also important to be able to back up lesson study's initial appeal with research that supports lesson study's core tenets. See the conference paper Challenges of Implementing Lesson Study for more detail on gaining support for lesson study through using existing educational and cognitive research.
In addition to persuading the school system's anchors to support lesson study, schools should also aim to develop a strong base of partners. Enlisting union assistance is very critical, as well as targeting key partners that enhance the lesson study goals, such as local universities, district content area specialists, state professional development administrators, teacher centers, and professional organizations. These partners will provide a coherent voice that says lesson study is important. They may also be the source of financial support. Establishing a base of partners will not happen overnight, but the school should target specific partners and once partnered, continuously nurture their relationships.
Like any initiative, lesson study requires resources. While schools may be tempted to seek grant funding to implement lesson study, the authors recommend that schools find a way to conduct lesson study with existing school or district resources if at all possible. Grant funding can be helpful to start an initiative, but typically grant-initiative efforts wane after the grant period ends.
A funding source embedded in the school, district, or state budget is a more certain way to sustain funding for lesson study. Paterson Public School No. 2 in Paterson, NJ is fortunate to be supported with additional financial resources through the Abbott v. Burke New Jersey Supreme Court decisions in 1990 and 1997, which called for more funds to be allocated to New Jersey's 28 poorest school districts, now called Abbott districts. With these resources, the school can support lesson study each year without having to rely on temporary grant funding.
Schools that are committed to sustaining lesson study should investigate what possibilities may exist within their districts and states as well. For example, lesson study funding could come from an existing professional development budget if lesson study is used as the umbrella for coordinating all other professional development needs. Lesson study can help teachers identify their professional development needs, find outside resources to provide the professional development (such as partnerships with knowledgeable others and their institutions), and integrate the professional development into practice through research lessons. Lesson study does not have to be one more task on the school's plate, but instead can give coherence and unity to all of the school's professional development efforts. (See the conference presentation Sustaining Lesson Study.)
Developing partnerships with the teachers' union, professional organizations, and local universities might also produce sources of funding that can be long-lasting if the partners' commitments and relationships are nurtured. Some organizations that provide assistance and partner with schools in implementing and sustaining lesson study are included on the RBS Lesson Study Readings and Resources page.
Involving knowledgeable others in the lesson study process-both content specialists and those who have experience implementing the process-can help sustain lesson study. Content specialists help drive the content learning forward, while experienced lesson study practitioners can be especially valuable in the early stages. Without an outside voice, lesson study may become stale within a school or suffer from lack of new input or guidance. Knowledgeable others are meant to keep an eye on content, stretch that content, and allow special insights, especially in situations where teachers may have weak and fragmented content preparation. By emphasizing content knowledge, knowledgeable others contribute to the continuous growth of lesson study (see the conference presentation Supporting and Sustaining Lesson Study.) A more detailed explanation of the role of knowledgeable others can be found in the 2002 conference paper The Role of Knowledgeable Others.
It is normal for any school implementing lesson study to experience roadblocks or frustrations with the process at some time. Online services such as e-mail discussion lists can provide a lifeline for educators to communicate about successes and challenges, and to work together to discover how to overcome obstacles. These are useful because they are immediately available when questions arise, can provide reassurances, and can help educators make connections with other educators. Technology is also a way to maintain local community in district-wide or cross-school lesson study groups.
The Lesson Study Research Group is one example of an organization that provides online support. LSRG manages an extensive e-mail list that allows members to exchange ideas, learnings, and questions about lesson study, as well as be kept informed of lesson study events and activities throughout the country. More online resources can be found on the RBS Lesson Study Readings and Resources page.
In addition to reaching out to external resources, in-house resources must also be considered and maximized in order for lesson study to be sustained. The following examples of internal resources are areas for schools to consider as they implement lesson study.
Lesson study can serve as an umbrella that integrates other professional development needs throughout the school year. Through lesson study meetings, lesson planning, observations, and debriefing sessions, gaps in teacher professional development can come to light. These gaps could be in content knowledge, or they might be in strategies and techniques, such as learning how to organize a chalkboard effectively, use manipulatives appropriately, or integrate technology purposefully. With these gaps identified, the school can more readily meet the professional development needs of the teachers and provide professional development that is coherent rather than piecemeal. With lesson study as the centerpiece of professional development, it becomes integral to the school and thereby becomes more sustainable. Over time, the school may develop a culture of lesson study that drives both professional development and instruction.
According to lesson study advocates Makoto Yoshida, Clea Fernandez, and Sonal Chokshi, a central element to sustaining lesson study is staying focused on the school's research theme and the study groups' lesson study goals (Chokshi and Fernandez, 2004). Focusing on stated goals helps to keep the process coherent and leads to a richer, more valuable experience for teachers, and ultimately for students as well. Internalizing the goals leads to better planning, understanding, evaluation, learning, teacher satisfaction, and the sustaining of lesson study. It helps teachers remember why lesson study is being implemented. One way to help internalize the goals is to take time at every lesson study meeting to re-state the goals and discuss ways in which activities are or are not addressing the goals.
In order for lesson study to grow roots within the school, it needs to become a part of the daily lives of teachers and administrators. With monthly or infrequent meetings, lesson study will not become part of the culture and will mostly likely fail. Schools need to provide time for lesson study during the regular school schedule every week, including time for teachers to study instructional materials, plan lessons, organize observations, reflect on learning, and write summary reports.
Some districts have found time by thoughtful scheduling of assignments for substitute teachers, special teachers, and paraprofessionals so that lesson study groups can meet. School 2 has made lesson study "a part of their daily lives" through instituting a school schedule that allows for dedicated lesson study meetings every week during the school day. Teachers are released from class time, and their students are taught by teaching assistants or scheduled for special classes like art and music. The schedule can be found in the article "It's a Matter of Time" and the 2002 conference paper Lesson Study at Paterson Public School No. 2: A Teacher-Facilitator's Perspective.
Even a teacher-driven model of professional development like lesson study can lose teacher support in the face of other activities, pressures, and priorities that teachers face in a regular school day. To help make lesson study a benefit rather than a burden to teachers, it helps to form a promotion committee that is dedicated to sustaining lesson study. The committee can be made up of a team representative from each lesson study group, the principal, the vice principal, subject-area facilitators, and a knowledgeable other.
At School 2, the promotion committee holds voluntary bi-weekly meetings after school and shares its minutes through e-mail and at subject-area meetings. The committee keeps communication open between lesson study groups to ensure that groups are not working in isolation. It schedules lesson study activities throughout the year, including lesson observation schedules and debriefing sessions, open houses, and other related professional development events. Perhaps most importantly, the committee helps to focus teachers' efforts on reaching the lesson study goal that each group has established.
For schools just beginning lesson study, the authors recommend "starting small" and establishing teacher buy-in from voluntary participants rather than mandating lesson study school-wide. A year or two of implementing lesson study with a voluntary group may help to build interest and overcome obstacles in order to sustain the effort and extend it to the whole school. Furthermore, if it looks as though a school is targeting "low performing" teachers for lesson study, lesson study will be seen as a way of judging and evaluating teachers, rather than a method that focuses not on teacher inadequacies but on examining and improving teaching and learning. Starting small allows schools to develop a thoughtful process and avoid such pitfalls.
Another key to sustaining teacher support is to set up a system of incentives that encourage involvement in lesson study. Schools may consider both intrinsic and extrinsic incentives for teachers, including recognition, respect, time, credit, stipends, materials, release time, opportunities to deepen knowledge, network meetings, publications, and celebrations. Still, when lesson study is done well, the learning itself is the most powerful support to sustain involvement and attract new participants.
For lesson study to take hold and not simply fade away as another educational fad, issues of support and sustainability require serious consideration. The authors recommend further discussions among the lesson study community to develop strategies for gaining and maintaining support from decision makers and influential institutions. Also needed are means for developing a stronger research and evidence base, deepening and focusing the current implementation efforts, and expanding the reach of lesson study.
This paper was first published online in July 2004.
| School Improvement |
Research and Evaluation |
International Studies |
RBS Publications |
Education Resources |
About RBS |
| Contact Us | Home |
