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Although CLS has been implemented in China for over a century, it is barely known to educators internationally. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the salient characteristics of Chinese lesson study (CLS), introduce the major themes of this special issue, and invite dialogues about the theories and practices of CLS.

The authors of this editorial paper conducted an extensive literature review on CLS, analyzed the contents and methods of the existing research categorically, compared CLS with other models of LS globally, and present this special issue articles and their major contributions thematically. The theoretical framework of the paper relies mainly on cultural theories and theories on research paradigms such as improvement science, which explain why and how CLS functions in Chinese education system over time.

Existing studies suggest that CLS is a deliberate practice for developing instructional expertise, a research methodology for linking research and practice, and an improvement science for instruction and school improvement system wide. In addition to the theorization of CLS, this special issue also introduces some adaptations of CLS outside of China such as the USA and Italy.

This paper, for the first time, spells out some salient features of CLS, and discusses issues in adapting CLS in other parts of the world. It will enrich the understanding of LS theories and practices in China and promotes trans-cultural development of LS internationally.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the lesson study (LS) processes and evaluate their effectiveness in Japanese elementary and secondary (middle and high) schools, through a school survey by the National Institute for Educational Policy Research of Japan (NIER).

The authors randomly selected 1,000 elementary schools and 1,000 middle schools and 500 high schools in Japan. Survey items are methods of LS, and indicators of building professional learning communities (PLC) through LSs, close communication between teachers, high quality instruction by teachers, and test scores of students of the school.

Based on the school survey in elementary and middle schools, almost all schools set up a school‐wide committee, a research theme, and a schedule for LS, and LSs were implemented as part of a school‐wide lesson study from which an action research report is produced. On the other hand, in high schools, almost all the schools implemented LSs, but each LS is independent and implemented specifically for the professional development of the individual teacher who undertakes the research lesson. The authors consider LS as a way to facilitate a PLC in the school. There are correlations between the methods of LS and the indicators of a PLC in elementary and middle schools. However, the effectiveness of LS differs between elementary and middle schools. With respect to the research theme and the organization and discussion of lesson plans, LS methods in middle schools are developed into LS methods in elementary schools. The LS methods may be developed gradually both in elementary and middle schools.

Statistical data of LS in Japanese elementary and secondary schools are presented for the first time, demonstrating the effectiveness of LS.

Emerging research on education reform in Shanghai for the last decade or so has either focused on broad contexts and trends of the second-cycle curriculum reform or the professional development in response to the reform or a few detailed cases of teaching improvement to meet the reform demand. Little attention has been paid to how schools as institutions have been made to respond to and enact the reform. Through three detailed school cases, the purpose of this paper is to understand their distinctive responses to reform in terms of how they interpreted, enacted and sustained their reform efforts and how more importantly lesson-case study and multi-tiered research projects has become a reinvigorated form of Chinese lesson study and teaching research to significantly mediate the school’s curriculum reform efforts. Features of sustainable development behind these cases are conceptualized by Lave and Wenger’s notion of transparency of the mediating technology of a community of practice.

Drawing on master’s thesis reports of school leaders (2010-2016), school research publications and lesson cases as secondary data sources, an instrumental multi-case research design was adopted to build detailed case narratives and tease out cross-case comparisons.

Building on unique strengths and legacies to solve school problems, the three secondary schools responded to, enacted and sustained the reform in unique ways: case 1, a municipal key school, has focused on “three translations (of curriculum)” involving all teaching research groups (TRGs) in specifying broad curriculum standards and turning them into concrete, actionable designs and student tasks which are tested and refined through iterative cycles of lesson-case study, with the decision making for each translation informed by research projects studying problems arising. Case 2, a district key school, has capitalized on its strong TRGs and used research projects and lesson-case study to unite teaching, research and PD into a whole; and case 3, a regular neighborhood school, has aimed to build a structured PD system to tackle teacher stagnation by stressing the reflection components of each cycle of lesson-case study, challenging teachers to learn in the district-level curriculum integration experiment, and nudging them into their own research projects with well-staged support. In all the three cases, research projects have been networked connecting municipal, district, school and teachers in building a research climate. The lesson-case study has turned designs into refined actions to ensure quality of curriculum implementation and teacher growth.

This study yields insights into the inner workings of Shanghai’s recent curriculum reform. With strategic injection of research into the familiar institutional structures and organic cultural forms of collegiality, school innovations can be built on familiarity to create a sense of continuity, coherence and institutional identity so that teachers learn from doing with least disruption. The slow and steady work of sustaining innovations and reform goes beyond simple notions of scaling up and relies on building internal drive and institutional and teacher capacity for deep learning in responding to reform.

The purpose of this paper is to report on how an academy used lesson study to engage teachers in research, presenting the journey undertaken from its conception through to the implementation of the model. It suggests that lesson study is a suitable process to engage teachers in meaningful research. It shows that lesson study allows teachers to focus on their own practice and on the learning of their students and it is ideal in bridging the gap between research and practice. It will also show that research is enhanced through lesson study because it brings teachers together to work in a collaborative way.

The paper reports the intended and actual journey an academy took in planning and implementing lesson study across the academy.

The paper provides an explanation on how a school can set up a model which engages its teachers in relevant research. It explains how lesson study can be used as a powerful research tool which helps teachers develop collaboration and investigative minds around their own practice and their own students. It also puts forward recommendations for a school that would seek to introduce lesson study to its staff.

The paper provides an account for school leadership teams and those with responsibility for developing the practice of other teachers. It will be helpful in assisting schools who desire to strengthen or develop the time devoted to teachers’ professional development.

This chapter examines how lesson study is reported with pre-service teachers in initial teacher education programmes. Different voices are included talking about the ways in which lesson study has been reported in various settings so far. The chapter concludes with a qualitative study of student-teachers’ reflections drawn from their reports, written after finalising the lesson study cycle at the Universidad Católica de Valencia. The analysis provides support for the premise that lesson study significantly promotes research in ITE and develops a more critical approach to literature about pedagogy and good practice in teaching.

This study explores the perceptions of the leadership team on knowledge creation in lesson study (LS) using P. Gronn's concept of hybrid leadership.

This study included teachers from a public elementary school in Japan that has been engaged in autonomous LS for several years. Teachers (n = 8) from the leadership team of the LS practice for four years (2016–2019) were interviewed for the study.

The findings are threefold. First, teachers in the leadership team most often referred to teachers' leadership practices as occurring in the phases of externalisation and combination, which are the important phases in the organisational knowledge creation process. Second, in the context of LS, the study found that teachers in the leadership team used three approaches to take the lead in knowledge creation, approaching the individual and the groups using tools. Third, using the concept of hybrid leadership helped detail the complexity of the leadership practices performed by the leadership team in LS.

This study focusses on teachers in the leadership team in LS, which has been an overlooked topic in this field of research. In many Japanese schools where LS has been practiced for many years, leadership teams have been set up with certain expectations. The findings of this study highlight certain leadership team practices that will contribute to the development of a sustainable LS.

A first post-WALS attempt at a thematic analysis of the conference presentations since its first annual meeting in 2007, this paper aims to achieve two major purposes: first, to capture the trends of spread and diffusion of lesson and learning studies globally and second, to draw useful implications for future conferences.

A thematic analysis using NVIVO12.0 coding on all forms of conference presentations found in the WALS 2019 Conference Programme was conducted. Representative cases were selected from paper and symposiums sessions to support the claims generated from the analysis.

The study provides an evidence-based confirmation of the global spread and diffusion of lesson and learning studies. It uncovers findings key to the initial spread and continued diffusion; examines funding as a mechanism enabling university–school research relationships, models of adaptations and issues of sustainability; surfaces the theoretical models and methods adopted in paper and symposia presentations. The current situation, lessons learned and possible implications for future WALS conferences are discussed.

Inform research on practical cases.

Lessons learned are discussed.

These are possible implications for future WALS conferences.

The originality lies in its being the first WALS post-conference analysis aiming at identifying substantive themes with potential to draw important implications for future research and subsequent years' conferences.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the development of mathematics teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) over successive cycles of lesson study. Utilising the framework of mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) (Ball et al., 2008), this research classifies features of PCK as utilised by post-primary mathematics teachers in their planning and reflection conversations in lesson study. The development of these features of PCK is then traced over successive cycles.

In total, 12 teachers in two Irish post-primary schools participated in this research. Over the course of one academic year, these two groups of teachers completed a number of cycles of lesson study and qualitative data were generated through audio recordings of all lesson study meetings and through individual interviews with participants.

Analysis of teacher dialogue reveals distinct features of knowledge of content and students (KCS) and knowledge of content and teaching (KCT) incorporated by these teachers in their planning and reflection conversations, providing empirical evidence of MKT in lesson study. The occurrence of these features of KCS and KCT in lesson study conversations increased over successive cycles, demonstrating teacher learning.

This research contributes to the literature in expanding the theoretical underpinnings of teacher learning in lesson study. It also provides further empirical evidence of MKT (Ball et al., 2008) in teacher practice, specifically related to post-primary mathematics teachers.

The primary research question in this study concerns the establishment of a platform for intercultural collaborative lesson study, which promotes reciprocal dialogue between culturally distinctive educational research groups. Therefore, this study aims to introduce a case of intercultural collaborative lesson study projects between Hiroshima University and Leipzig University and to illustrate the issues in intercultural collaborative lesson study.

This study reconstructed the sequence of the project as a case under the narrative structure. Data were retrieved from a collaborative project between Hiroshima University and Leipzig University, which corresponds to the theoretical framework, as they represent a clear cultural contrast. The description of the project is reconstructed and reduced into a linear storyline of procedure.

This study identifies three key issues: (1) sharing data and culture, (2) visualising methodology and process, and (3) responding to research questions and answers.

This platform does require one cultural group neither throwing their own norms away nor creating an utterly new paradigm beyond their own cultures. It is a place “between” original places that enables groups to capture their own culture and another culture, which does not compel to change but effectively allows reflection and changing themselves.

Although several transcultural reports find that one cultural asset is imported and exported, the arena of bi-directional intercultural dialogue remains undeveloped. The collaborative project between Hiroshima and Leipzig is then introduced and examined to overcome the current problems in transnational lesson study.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of scaffolded lesson study on the content knowledge, conceptions of curriculum, and classroom practice of 22 elementary and secondary history teachers in four school districts.

Teachers, teacher educators, and historians collaborated to design and test research lessons grounded in a theory-based framework for problem-based historical inquiry (PBHI) practice. The authors sought to support consonance between the reform ideas of the formal, professional development, curriculum, and the curriculum as enacted in participants’ classrooms.

Project participation was associated with significant gains in content knowledge and the conceptualization and implementation of more challenging instruction consistent with the PBHI model and the standards of authentic intellectual work (AIW). Mean AIW instruction scores for research lessons were more than double the scores for participants’ non-lesson study lessons and indicated noteworthy progress in integrating the formal and enacted curricula. Evidence suggested that many teachers developed more nuanced understandings of historical phenomena, gained greater appreciation for the importance of authentic purpose in motivating student engagement in challenging learning, and began to reconsider what is required to facilitate complex learning and to refine their repertoire of learning strategies.

Evidence from the first year of this project offers hope for the potential of collaborative communities of practice to facilitate a shared professional knowledge base of wise practice that brings the formal, intended, and enacted curriculum into greater alignment. These results also emphasize the evolutionary process of conceptual change.