THE LESSON STUDY CYCLE
A lesson study cycle is organized around four basic steps and their essential elements:2
1. Study
- Form a team of teachers.
- Define a clear lesson focus and goals.
- Conduct in-depth research on the lesson focus, student learning, and the applicable standards and curriculum.
2. Plan
- Write a lesson proposal.
3. Teach
- One of the teachers from the team teaches the lesson to a live audience that includes the rest of the team and other knowledgeable people.
- The other team members and observers note and record the students’ learning and responses to the lesson.
4. Reflect
- The teachers and observers discuss the observations made during the lesson and how the lesson might be adjusted to improve student reception and learning.
- The team communicates its lesson study and findings to others within and potentially outside of its school.
Each of these elements is worthy of in-depth consideration, and a growing number of organizations and schools provide open-source, detailed guidance for the steps of the lesson study cycle. A few of these excellent sources of assistance are the Lesson Study Alliance, 1 the Lesson Study Group at Mills College,2 and the Lesson Study Project at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.3
One group that has embraced lesson study is the Onondaga, Cortland, and Madison counties region of the New York State Board of Cooperative Educational Services (OCM BOCES). The OCM BOCES in central New York State uses lesson study to help teachers in its 23 school districts build good science instructional practices, incorporate new state science standards that are being rolled out over the next few years, and implement new grades K–6 science curricula.