A Centre for Research in Mathematics Education Collaborative Lesson Research Seminar
Presented by Dr Stef Edwards, Learn Academies Trust
There is a growing body of research evidence that Lesson Study has the potential to support teachers’ professional learning but there is little in the literature about how effective Lesson Study is led and implemented. This seminar will tell the story of a doctoral study of Lesson Study leadership practice; an investigation into what leaders at teacher, school and system level do in their efforts to implement and sustain effective Lesson Study across a network of eleven primary schools in England.
Questions have been raised about the efficacy of Lesson Study as a form of teachers’ professional learning beyond Japan. This study has revealed the complexity inherent in its leadership, variation in leaders’ interpretations of it, the supports it requires to function well, and the features that might enhance its effectiveness. There are documented difficulties in translating Japanese Lesson Study for significantly different education systems and national, cultural contexts. Combine these with variable and inconsistent interpretations of Lesson Study, even between neighbouring schools in the same locality, and it is unsurprising that the purposes of Lesson Study may not always be clear, and it may not always achieve its potential for improving teaching in ways that improve sometimes narrowly defined pupil learning outcomes, especially in the short term. Understanding better what kinds of leadership practices might promote and sustain the supports effective Lesson Study requires was therefore a worthwhile research goal.
This study was conducted over several years and considered Lesson Study leadership from a practice rather than a competency perspective. It set out to identify what Lesson Study leaders were actually doing, as well as what they were trying to achieve. Stef Edwards will explain how a conceptual framework encompassing theories about learning (including teachers’ professional learning), educational leadership, organisational culture, the leadership of change and school improvement, and complexity thinking informed qualitative research conducted within a methodological and analytical framework of crystallisation. Stef Edwards will present theoretical and practice findings that may interest anyone engaged in leading, implementing and sustaining effective Lesson Study in school contexts.
Stef Edwards, EdD, is the CEO of Learn Academies Trust, charitable educational Trust comprising eleven Church of England and Community primary schools in the English East Midlands. A former primary English specialist and headteacher, Stef has a keen interest in research-informed practice and teachers’ professional learning, and completed her professional doctoral study of Lesson Study leadership practice with the University of Brighton in December 2022. She has been a keen advocate of Lesson Study since 2010, participating in and leading Lesson Study in her own school and then as a system leader across a group of schools. She presented about her experiences leading Lesson Study and about her research at WALS conferences in Exeter (2016), Amsterdam (2019) and online with her colleague Alan Eathorne during the pandemic. Stef recently joined the CLR Strategy Group.