Leading Lesson Study: A Practical Guide for Teachers and Facilitators

"Provides readers with a compelling rationale for the process, offers experience-tested tools, and suggests ways to address commonly-occurring challenges. This book will assist teachers, and those who support them, in understanding and implementing all phases of lesson study, from initial planning through sharing with others what was learned."
—Dennis Sparks, Executive Director
National Staff Development Council

"A powerful teacher professional development process that focuses collaborative teams directly on the classroom, and the perfect tool for teachers, professional developers, and team leaders. Gives you everything you need to use lesson study to support teachers in thinking deeply about practice."
—Roberta Jaffe, Science Education Coordinator, New Teacher Center, University of California, Santa Cruz

Use this team-centered approach to directly enhance teaching and learning in your school!

First introduced in Japan, lesson study has gained enthusiastic advocates in US educational circles as a powerful, collaborative approach that brings teachers together as researchers into the science and craft of teaching and learning in their classrooms. Teachers work as teams to develop a lesson plan, teach and observe the lesson to collect data on student learning, and use their observations to refine their lesson. Participants build their sense of professional authority while discovering effective practices that result in improved learning outcomes for their students.

This "how-to" guide provides teachers, administrators, and team leaders with practical strategies, models, and tools. The book leads a beginning team through the phases of the lesson study cycle and provides an experienced team with new perspectives. Using examples from U.S. classrooms, this handbook:

1. Encourages educators to generate and share knowledge
2. Inspires a teacher-researcher stance
3. Illustrates both the process and substance of lesson study
4. Encourages collaboration
5. Provides guidelines for avoiding common pitfalls

Leading Lesson Study is an excellent resource for both experienced and novice lesson study teams, administrators who want to start a lesson study program, and lesson study team facilitators such as instructional coaches and professional development providers.