While lesson study is often lauded as a school-based, teacher-driven form of professional development, its full implementation also demands that schools connect with professionals from outside of the school, known as "knowledgeable others."
Who are these knowledgeable others? In Japan, they are typically educators from universities or the Ministry of Education who are master observers and content specialists. As schools implement lesson study in the United States, they need to make more of these important connections.
"When lesson study groups think about whom to ask to participate in their professional development, college-level educators are not even on the radar screen," says Tad Watanabe, associate professor of mathematics education at Towson University in Maryland. "There are many missed opportunities. If teaching is a complex activity-and we know that it is-then the value that knowledgeable others can bring should be explored."
Watanabe attributes this disconnect to the fact that lesson study feels "school-based" and that in the United STates a palpable gap already exists between school and college-level educators. Bridging this gap will involve changing attitudes and building trust.
"Universities have to be willing to go to schools and talk with teachers as equals, and teachers have to perceive that the discussion is among equals," says Watanabe.
Because lesson study is relatively new in the United States, there are very few experts available to teach schools how to conduct lesson study. But this limitation should not deter schools from trying, says Clea Fernandez, assistant professor at Teachers College/Columbia University and a former mentor to New Jersey's Paterson School 2, a foremost practitioner of lesson study in the U.S.
"I'm more and more optimistic about people being able to pick up [lesson study]," says Fernandez. She encourages schools that are embarking on lesson study to look for knowledgeable others who can help teachers transcend the limits of their own content knowledge.
In addition to her university colleagues, Fernandez has found "invaluable contributions" from School 2 mathematics teacher Bill Jackson, who initiated lesson study at his school a few years ago along with the principal, Lynn Liptak. School 2 also enlisted the support of Patsy Wang-Iverson from the Mid-Atlantic Eisenhower Consortium at RBS, who was already working with the school and made lesson study her priority as well.
"Many schools conducting lesson study tend to have partnerships already that they can draw upon," notes Fernandez. Such partners may include trusted content specialists or mentors who are skilled in classroom observations and who can help teachers to develop content knowledge and observation skills.
Teachers in America who are beginning to implement lesson study can draw upon knowledge from Japan, where the approach has been practiced widely for decades. Lesson study in Japan is well documented, and hundreds of teachers' lessons are available at local bookstores.
"Lesson study is really a form of research," says Fernandez, who hopes that its practice will generate widespread publication by teachers in the United States. "The process of writing about it is critical."
Fernandez notes that in Japan the teachers' writings are used by another type of knowledgeable other-instructional superintendents-who are the equivalent of district-level specialists in the U.S. These professionals share reports and findings between schools and lesson study groups and "infuse these groups with new ideas," says Fernandez.
Knowledgeable others should be involved in every step of lesson study, according to Watanabe, in order to deepen teacher content knowledge and to push a group's thinking-much like the role teachers plays for their students. They also need to be master classroom observers.
"Observation is a special skill that is nurtured through lesson study," says Makoto Yoshida, president of Global Education Resources, who has worked extensively with School 2. He explains that knowledgeable others contribute experience and a different perspective, which helps teachers to go beyond simple collaboration to actual improvement. They also needs to foster an open dialogue without any conflict of interest. "It's not the same as a principal observing," he says.
Yoshida acknowledges the difficultly teachers have with opening up their classrooms to observation, and he has seen the tears that can result when teachers take criticisms of their lessons as personal attacks. One technique he uses to avoid this feeling is to focus the lesson discussion on understanding the process of student thinking instead of on the teacher's style. He notes that, in contrast to how Japanese teachers respond after observing lessons, American teachers tend to comment more on what the teacher did than on what the students learned. For lesson study to be successful, student learning must always be at the center of the process.
Another observation guideline comes from a colleague of Watanabe, who suggests that an effective knowledgeable other will "praise ten, critique one." This emphasis forces participants to acknowledge the complexity and craft of good teaching while still allowing for improvements.
Lesson study also offers benefits for knowledgeable others, who frequently are not full-time classroom teachers. It keeps them connected to actual learning in the classroom, which should keep them more honest about their ideas, says Watanabe.
Because of these benefits, finding a knowledgeable other may be one of the easier aspects of lesson study. Fernandez says that there is tremendous curiosity about lesson study and that she never has a problem convincing potential knowledgeable others to participate with her. She sees this swell of interest as good news for the future of lesson study.
"The power of lesson study lies in connecting all these groups," says Fernandez. She notes that initial efforts in California a decade ago met resistance, but that "now there's a will to do lesson study."
Where there is that will, there is most likely a knowledgeable other who will enhance teacher knowledge and student learning by providing honest criticism, encouragement, and vision.
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