Lesson Study with Preservice Teachers: Lessons from Lessons

Source: Teaching and Teacher Education, Volume 25, Issue 5, pages 724-733 (July 2009).

This paper examines a 2-year process of integrating Lesson Study—a form of teacher-led professional development—into an introductory course on the principles of teaching for students majoring in early childhood education.
The course is taught in conjunction with beginning practicum work in area schools.
The authors describe obstacles, modifications, and outcomes as they adapted the Lesson-Study process to help preservice teachers pay closer attention to instructional strategies such as questioning techniques, anticipating student responses, and how lesson flow affects student understanding. The authors also help the preservice teachers to become more comfortable with constructive criticism by focusing on the lesson plan rather than the teacher.