Examining the nature of teacher support during different iterations and modalities of lesson study implementation

ABSTRACT

Lesson Study is a professional development program, which engages teachers in a collaborative and long-term lesson planning process aimed at improving a single or a group of lessons. In the process, teachers may feel that they are offered three different types of support: social, emotional, and instructional. The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers’ perceptions of those supports received during Lesson Study. Specifically, this study focuses on teachers’ perceptions of the supports they experienced while working in a Lesson Study group, and the extent to which teachers’ perceived supports differed when participating in Lesson Study in-person and then via video. Furthermore, perceptions of supports were investigated based on modalities, and whether or not the Lesson Study was single-school based or cross-school based teams. Findings from this study revealed that participants did feel socially, emotionally and instructionally supported during Lesson Study, and felt higher levels of support during in-person Lesson Study, in comparison to a video-based Lesson Study iteration. Additionally, the results suggest that levels of perceived support did not vary based on being single-school-based or cross-school-based Lesson Study.

KEYWORDS:

• Lesson study
• mathematics teacher education
• professional development
• teacher support
• teacher research
• professional learning communities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.