By Lynn Liptak, based on an article by Lynn Liptak sponsored by Catherine Lewis. The article will appear in a forthcoming book by Catherine Lewis on Lesson Study to be published by Research for Better Schools.
With salaries and benefits accounting for over 75 percent of the school budget, there is no question that staff time is the most valuable resource a school has to allocate. Our decision to implement lesson study, with a school day investment of 80 minutes to two hours each week per participant, was based on the interest and commitment of the teachers and the belief that deep changes in teaching and learning as they occur daily in the classroom are best achieved through collaborative, reflective professional development in the classroom context.
As with any investment, there is a down side and a risk factor. On the down side, when teachers are meeting during the school day, it is in lieu of teaching classes or tutoring students. There is also risk. Although lesson study is a highly successful means of professional development and instructional improvement in Japan, it is not easy to adapt the process in an American cultural setting. Results of adaptations of lesson study in the United States setting have yet to be analyzed, and dividends may be deferred. Our experience these past two and a half years, however, convinced us that lesson study is potentially a powerful vehicle for improving classroom instruction and thus, in our view, well worth the investment of time.
The following principles were considered in developing a lesson study schedule for School 2:
Time for lesson study was thus built into the regular school day using non-
classroom teachers. School 2 is a K-8 school in an urban district and thus qualifies for Title I funding. It has also benefited from the Abbott court decision, which mandated parity in funding for poor school districts. Funding from these sources has been used to hire English-as-a-second language teachers, reading tutors, and other non-classroom teachers. The district also provides special-area teachers (art, music, physical education, etc.), a guidance counselor, and other non-classroom staff. Therefore, it has been possible to pair each classroom teacher in grades 1 to 8 with a non-classroom partner teacher.
The partner teacher has contact with the class during the week by teaching during teacher preparation periods, downsizing the class for mathematics or reading, or tutoring individual students. It is the responsibility of the partner teacher to know the students and become familiar with classroom routines. In the event of absence, the partner teacher helps to orient the substitute and assist, as needed, with the class. The partner teacher often teaches the class while the classroom teacher engages in lesson study. Students in grades 7 and 8 are in special area classes during the 80 minutes of lesson study time.
During our first two years, a group of 16 volunteers met each Monday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. to conduct lesson study in mathematics. During the first cycle, it was apparent that the two-hour weekly meeting was only "seed" time. Once we began to collaborate on lessons and test out ideas in the classroom, we did not wait until Monday to continue the process. E-mail communication and discussions before and after school, during lunch periods, and during preparation periods are common. Most importantly, these discussions and observations are focussed on how our teaching impacts student learning. We know from research and our own observations that grade level meetings and school management team meetings rarely focus on the lessons that occur daily in the classrooms.
By the end of the second year, a chasm was developing between volunteer lesson study group members and non-participants. To address this, School 2 decided to go school-wide with lesson study. In August 2001, a three-day lesson study seminar was offered to all teachers. In September 2001, five lesson study groups (kindergarten, grades 1-2, grades 3-4, grades 5-6, and grades 7-8) were launched.
Now all classroom mathematics teachers (with the exception of one who opted not to participate) are scheduled from 80-105 minutes per week for lesson study. In grades 7-8, the science teacher also participates, and our first lesson study science lesson is under development. In grades 5-8, special education teachers also participate. The mathematics facilitator attends all meetings and takes minutes, but the leadership of each group is shared among the participants.
While the teachers meet, classes are taught by a combination of partner teachers and special-area teachers. All student teachers attend lesson study with their cooperating teacher (not counted in number of teachers in the figure).
| Scheduling for School-Wide Lesson Study in Mathematics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Grade Levels |
Teachers | Meeting Day, Time | Class Coverage |
| K | 6 | Tuesdays, 1:35—3:00pm | Teaching Assistants |
| 1-2 | 6 | Wednesdays, 1:15—3:00pm | Art, ESL, World Languages, Partner Teachers |
| 3-4 | 5 | Thursdays, 12:55—2:35pm | Music, ESL, Art, Life Skills, Keyboarding, Partner Teachers |
| 5-6 | 6 | Tuesdays & Wednesdays, 10:15—11:00am | Special Areas: Art, Music, Physical Education, Technology, Life Skills |
| 7-8 | 5 | Mondays, 1:35—3:00pm | Special Areas |
Additionally, the grade level teams meet for 40 minutes weekly to deal with issues apart from lesson study. Teachers, by contract, receive one 40-minute preparation period per day.
Like most good investments, we expect that the growth and dividends from the time we invest in lesson study will accrue gradually over a long period of time. Improving our teaching in depth is hard, time-consuming work, which needs to be done collaboratively and in a supportive setting.
For too long, professional development time has been allocated to outside experts to "train" teachers rather than given to teachers to reflect collaboratively on their practice. We need to tap outside expertise; we need to improve our content and pedagogical knowledge. But the professional development process needs to occur in the context of our classrooms and be driven as an on-going activity by professional practitioners.
Lesson study—it's about time.
Liptak is the principal of School 2 in Paterson, NJ.
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