The Enactment of Lesson Study by Science Teachers in England

This study explored the enactment of Japanese Lesson Study (JLS), an increasingly common form of collaborative-research orientated professional development (PD). Research on PD in general and JLS specifically, suggests that these forms of PD are not often exhibited in school settings. To better understand the contextual factors shaping the enactment of such PD, the study took a situated, social learning perspective to examine Lesson Study (LS) within the context of recent reforms in PD policy in England.
The aim of this research was to gather the perspectives of science teachers explicitly seeking to do LS for their PD and to identify multiple interacting factors that appear to influence LS enactment. To contextualise LS, a clear distinction was made between PD, seen as an isolated event to professional learning, seen as the broader, often more informal means by which teachers enhance their knowledge, skills and practices. The study used Opfer and Pedder’s (2011) model of professional learning and Wenger's (2000) notion of communities of practice to understand and to conceptualise teacher learning in LS.
Using a multiple case study methodology and design, the perspectives of 11 science teachers, in three secondary schools, were analysed using data from semi-structured interviews, field notes and artefacts, gathered in the early stages of LS. Analysis shows that variations in LS enactment were shaped by three underlying mechanisms: i) degrees of alignment or dissonance with the teachers' and school professional learning orientations, ii) reification of the teachers’ and school professional learning orientations and iii) brokering and boundary crossing enacted by science teachers in the role of LS facilitators and participants. Study findings suggest that school leaders and PD leaders need to take account of teachers’ and school professional learning orientations within the affordances and constraints of their local contexts.