Lesson study and 21st-century skills: Pre-service Teachers Reason, Produce and Share

Year 2022, Volume: 9 Issue: 3, 315 - 329, 01.05.2022

Sabahattin Yeşilçınar , Ahmet Aykan

https://doi.org/10.17275/per.22.68.9.3

Cited By: 3

Abstract

Being a collaborative professional development model and contributing to the collaboration and communication skills of the group members, lesson study was coined in Japan and has been applied in many countries since then, which supports and enhances the professional development of teachers or pre-service teachers. Although literature abounds in studies on lesson study or on 21st-century skills, there is no study examining the impact of lesson study on 4Cs. Therefore, adopting an intrinsic case study approach, this paper examined to what extent a lesson study implementation influenced pre-service teachers’ 21st-century skills in the Turkish context where lesson study is not an embedded tradition. Participants were six senior students of English language teaching. The data generated were wide-ranging: recordings of meetings, teachers’ in-class observation notes, 4Cs checklist, recorded pre- and post-interviews, lesson study observation forms, and post-lesson evaluation forms. Findings showed that 21st-century skills of pre-service teachers were developed, and pre-service teachers started to REASON the issues they face in the classroom, PRODUCE alternative way(s) to overcome troubles or support learning, and SHARE their experiences and solutions with colleagues sincerely in a collaborative atmosphere. However, one intriguing finding is that, in a context which does not embed lesson study, if the process is not internalized, it may cause the future teachers to be loath to reason, produce and share due to the lack of self-efficacy as well as the fear of being criticized.

Keywords

lesson study, professional development, 21st-century skills, practicum

References

• Armstrong, A. (2011). Lesson study puts a collaborative lens on student learning. Tools for Schools, 14(4), 1-8.
• Asyari, M. Al Muhdhar, M. H. I. and Susilo, H. (2016). Improving critical thinking skills through the integration of problem based learning and group investigation. International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies, 5(1), 36-44. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLLS-10-2014-0042.
• Aykan, A. (2019). Öğretmen adayları açısından ders araştırması modelinin mesleki gelişim kapsamında incelenmesi. Yayımlanmamış doktora tezi, Gaziosmanpaşa Üniversitesi, Eğitim Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Tokat.
• Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological review, 84(2), 191-215. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.84.2.191.
• Chassels, C. and Melville, W. (2009). Collaborative, Reflective, and Iterative Japanese Lesson Study in an Initial Teacher Education Program: Benefits and Challenges. Canadian Journal of Education, 32(4), 734-763.
• Connolly, P. (1998). Dancing to the wrong tune: Ethnography generalization and research on racism in schools. In P. Connolly, & B. Troyna (Eds.), Researching racism in education: Politics, theory, and practice (pp. 122-139). Open University.
• Estrella, S., Zakaryan, D., Olfos, R., & Espinoza, G. (2020). How teachers learn to maintain the cognitive demand of tasks through Lesson Study. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 23(3), 293-310.
• Frykholm, J. A. (1998). Beyond supervision: Learning to teach mathematics in community. Teaching and Teacher Education, 14(3), 305–322. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0742-051X(97)00043-7.
• González, G. and Deal, J. T. (2019). Using a creativity framework to promote teacher learning in lesson study. Thinking skills and creativity, 32, 114-128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2017.05.002.
• Hamarat, E. (2019). 21. Yüzyıl Becerileri Odağında Türkiye’nin Eğitim Politikaları. İstanbul: Seta Yayıncılık.
• Lamb, P. (2015). Peer learning between pre-service teachers: embracing lesson study. International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies, 4(4), 343-361.
• Lampley, S. A., Gardner, G. E. and Barlow, A. T. (2018). Exploring pedagogical content knowledge of biology graduate teaching assistants through their participation in lesson study. Teaching in Higher Education, 23(4), 468-487. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2017.1414786.
• Lewis, C. (2000). Lesson Study: The Core of Japanese Professional Development. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association (2000 Annual Meeting), New Orleans, LA.
• Lewis, C. (2002). Does Lesson Study Have a Future in the United States? Nagoya journal of education and human development, 1(1), 1-23.
• Mills, A. J., Durepos, G., and Wiebe, E. (2010). Encyclopedia of case study research. London, England: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412957397.
• Murata, A. and Pothen, B. E. (2011). Lesson study in preservice elementary mathematics methods courses: Connecting emerging practice and understanding. In Lesson study research and practice in mathematics education (pp. 103-116). Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9941-9_8.
• Obara, S., & Bikai, N. (2019). Promoting math teacher active learning with the lesson study approach. International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studie, 8(2), 135-148.
• Ong, E. G., Lim, C. S., & Ghazali, M. (2013). Enhancing Communication Skills in Mathematics Teachers through the Lesson Study Collaboration: A Pilot Study. SpringerPlus 5, 1590. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40064-016-3215-0.
• Onwuegbuzie, A. J. and Leech, N. L. (2010). Generalization practices in qualitative research: A mixed methods case study. Quality & Quantity, 44(5), 881-892. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-009-9241-z.
• Partnership for 21st Century Learning. (2015). P21 framework definitions. http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/P21_Framework_Definitions.pdf.
• Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Powney, J. and Watts, M. (1987). Interviewing in educational research. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
• Purwanti, E., & Hatmanto, E. D. (2019). Understanding EFL teachers’ beliefs about lesson study and their knowledge development viewed from social cultural theory of Vygotsky. English Language Teaching Educational Journal, 2(2), 50-61.
• Samaranayake, G., Premadasa, K., Amarasinghe, R., and Paneru, K. (2018). Teacher change through Lesson Study collaboration. International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studie, 7(4), 263-276. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLLS-12-2017-0055.
• Skott, C. K. and Møller, H. (2020). Adaptation of lesson study in a Danish context: Displacements of teachers’ work and power relations. Teaching and Teacher Education, 87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.102945.
• Stigler, J. W. and Hiebert, J. (2009). The teaching gap: Best ideas from the world's teachers for improving education in the classroom. Simon and Schuster.
• Stigler, J. W. and Hiebert, J. (2016). Lesson study, improvement, and the importing of cultural routines. ZDM, 48(4), 581-587. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-016-0787-7.
• Tasker, T. C. (2014). Exploring EFL teacher professional development through lesson study: An activity theoretical approach. Doctoral Dissertation.
• Villalon, J. J. (2016). Lesson study: Its influence on planning, instruction, and self-confidence of pre-service mathematics teachers. US-China Education Review B, 6(7), 429-439. https://doi.org/10.17265/2161-6248/2016.07.003.
• Vygotsky, L. (1978). Interaction between learning and development. Readings on the development of children, 23(3), 34-41