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Article
Publication date: 11 August 2020

James Calleja and Laura Formosa

The paper focuses on lesson study, which generally engages the collaborative work of a group of teachers, as implemented with a primary school art teacher who had limited…

Abstract

Purpose

The paper focuses on lesson study, which generally engages the collaborative work of a group of teachers, as implemented with a primary school art teacher who had limited opportunities for collaboration. Through lesson study, the teacher worked closely with a lesson study facilitator and an art education expert to plan a research lesson. The study explores how this collaboration generated cognitive conflicts and eventually teacher change.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents a case study using a thematic approach to data analysis. The lesson study involved weekly face-to-face meetings and daily online communications over a period of eight weeks. In an attempt to reflect upon and resolve conflicts, the teacher kept a journal in which the teacher wrote down lengthy accounts of the discussions with knowledgeable others, the teacher’s struggles and ways of resolving these. Data were complemented by the different lesson plan versions, the post-lesson discussions and a detailed report documenting the lesson study process.

Findings

The paper provides insights into the role that cognitive conflicts play for teacher change. Through ongoing communication, reflection and support to resolve conflicts, the teacher recognised more collaborative opportunities for professional development, freed from rigid lesson planning practices and reported a new conceptualisation to teaching.

Practical implications

Drawing on the literature about effective teacher professional learning, the paper offers implications for supporting teacher change.

Originality/value

This paper provides insights into how lesson study may provide conditions that enable teachers' cognitive conflict and facilitate their consequent resolution.

Details

International Journal for Lesson & Learning Studies, vol. 9 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2046-8253

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 February 2021

James Calleja and Patrick Camilleri

The research reported in this paper brings forth the experiences of three teachers working in different schools. These teachers learned about lesson study through a course offered…

Abstract

Purpose

The research reported in this paper brings forth the experiences of three teachers working in different schools. These teachers learned about lesson study through a course offered at the University of Malta while, at the same time, leading a lesson study with colleagues at their school. With the COVID-19 outbreak, these teachers had, out of necessity, to adopt and accommodate for their lesson study to an exclusive online approach. This paper, hence, focuses on teachers' learning as they shifted their lesson study online.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents a case study that delves into the experiences and perceptual insights that these teachers manifested in shifting to an exclusive online lesson study situation. Data collection is derived from a focus group discussion, teacher reflective entries and detailed reports documenting the lesson study process and experiences. Employing technological frames as the theoretical lens, a description-analysis-interpretation approach was employed to analyse and interpret reflections and grounded experiential perceptions that the respondents disclosed during their lesson study journey.

Findings

Notwithstanding their initial discerned sense of loss and unpreparedness of being constrained to migrate lesson study to exclusive online means, teachers eventually recognised that digitally mediated collaborative practices enhanced self-reflection about the lesson study process. Therefore, the extraordinary situation that the teachers in this study experienced not only disrupted their modus operandi but also allowed them to discern new opportunities for learning about digital technology use in lesson study.

Practical implications

Disruption, brought about by unforeseen circumstances, takes teachers and professional development facilitators out of their comfort zones, invariably helping them grow out of their limitations and rethink lesson study practices.

Originality/value

Intentionally driven disruptions prompt teachers to resolve their dissatisfactory situations by thinking out of the box, eventually helping them to improve their professional practices.

Details

International Journal for Lesson & Learning Studies, vol. 10 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2046-8253

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 December 2019

Juan Smart and Alejandra Letelier

The purpose of this paper is to do a systematic assessment and testing of identified human rights norms alongside social determinant approaches in relation to identified health…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to do a systematic assessment and testing of identified human rights norms alongside social determinant approaches in relation to identified health issues of concern in four Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay) to show how social determinants and human rights frameworks improve population health.

Design/methodology/approach

To do so, in the first part the authors analyze the inequalities both between and within each of the selected countries in terms of health status and health determinants of the population. Then, in the second section, the authors analyze the level of recognition, institutionalisation and accountability of the right to health in each country.

Findings

From the data used in this paper it is possible to conclude that the four analysed countries have improved their results in terms of health status, health care and health behaviours. This improvement coincides with the recognition, institutionalisation and creation of accountability mechanisms of human rights principles and standards in terms of health and that a human rights approach to health and its relation with other social determinants have extended universal health coverage and health systems in the four analysed countries.

Originality/value

Despite of the importance of the relation between human rights and social determinants of health, there are few human right scholars working on the issues of social determinants of health and human rights. Most of the literature of health and human rights has been focussed specific relations between specific rights and the right to health, but less human right scholar working on social determinants of health. On the other hand, just a few epidemiologists and people working on social medicine have actually started to use a universal human rights frame and discourse. In fact, according to Vnkatapuram, Bell and Marmot: “while health and human rights advocates have from the start taken a global perspective, social medicine and social epidemiology have been slower to catch up”.

Details

International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare, vol. 13 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-4902

Keywords

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