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After
Lunch on Saturday: Makoto Yoshida, Global Resources, former Senior Researcher
at Columbia University, now a researcher on Lesson Study in Patterson,
New Jersey. NOTE: Vivian Boyd called to our attention that the
March 2002 Educational Leadership journal of the ASCD features three
articles of special interest to the conference: Tad Watanabe” “Learning
from Japanese Lesson Study” (much of this article based on Catherine
Lewis” and Makoto Yoshida’s study of the Lesson Study process in Japan);
Regie Routman’s “Teacher Talk,” emphasizing the importance of Time in
staff development; and Scott Willis’ “Creating a Knowledge Base,” reviewing
the Lesson Study reports of James Stigler (who cites Makoto Yoshida
in Stigler’s book The Teaching Gap.)
Pat Egenberger contributed to the notes below. Makoto
Yoshida began by reviewing the history of the development of Lesson
Study in Japan, beginning with the adoption of Dewey’s Project Method
as the-method by Japanese educators, the resulting failure of the Project
Method to produce the achievement gains hoped for, and the shift of
the Japanese from a hunt for the-method to the adoption of a Lesson
Study process to explore many methods, a process institutionalized in
all Japanese K-12 schools. The Lesson Study process is regionally organized
among school districts (opening up study beyond one’s school and district),
is organized by teacher associations (so that it is not setup as imposed
by administrators, representing the culture of teachers instead), is
part of the public mandate outlined for beginning teachers (thus, not
added on later but there from the beginning), and is often voluntary
(some Lesson Study processes are in addition to the processes sponsored
by schools and districts). Thus, Lesson Study takes place at the workplace
in schools, in teacher labs at Universities (open houses), in citywide
or district-wide Lesson Study days, at national conventions of University
educators or teachers, and even in voluntary local associations of teachers.
A teacher might join several different Lesson Study networks,
in addition to the community of practice at the school site.
Because Lesson Study was embedded in the institutional life of
all Japanese schools, K-12, the average Japanese Teacher, according
to Yoshida, would observe 10 Lessons each year, 100 Lessons in ten years,
and the average principal of a Japanese school would have a primary
expertise and experience in teaching and Lesson Study.
In contrast, U.S. teachers rarely observe other teachers, and
the average principal of U.S. schools tends to emphasize business matters
and public relations, and the average vice-principal emphasizes discipline.
In Japanese schools, the highest priority is given to Lesson Study and
a lower priority is given to testing and standards, and in the U.S.
the highest priority is given to Standards and Assessment and the lowest
priority is given to Lesson Study (next to zero).
The first major report on Lesson Study was sponsored by UNESCO
(MAKOTO: What is the title and citation for this study?). In summary,
the two locations of Lesson Study are: School-Based Lesson study is embedded in a school culture and in an institutionalized day in which teachers are on-site at the school from 8am until 4:30 or 5pm, classes ending at 2 (sometimes 3pm). Teacher can only stay at a school ten years, and they rotate through grades. In addition, they have their desks in the staff room, along with the school principal, and the staff room becomes a place for curriculum interchange. Thus, Japanese teachers have daily time for some collaboration. Contrary to some views, US and Japanese elementary teachers teach the same number of hours, and secondary Japanese teachers teach fewer hours than US teachers, but Japanese teachers have additional assignments (Club meetings sometimes even maintenance responsibilities, always homerooms substituting for guidance counselors who are rare in Japanese schools). Thus, secondary teachers teach about the same number of hours. The main difference is the length of the official day. On Lesson Study days at the school site, no other activities are scheduled.
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