Wiki: Lesson Study

PURPOSE of Lesson Study

To solve practical dilemmas related to intervention or instruction through participation with other professionals in systematically examining practice

DEFINING FEATURES of Lesson Study

Scope

Groups of interventionists or teachers and sometimes university faculty meet to examine and improve interventions with specific children or to develop lessons within specific curricular areas

Framework

Groups typically meet several times a month to complete the cycle of planning, teaching, observing, reflecting, revising, re-teaching, and finalizing

Strategies

Members design an intervention/lesson and observe and collect data on its implementation, discuss observations and data, revise the intervention/lesson and teach it again, agree on the final intervention/lesson, and may write a report to share with others outside the group

EXAMPLES of Lesson Study from the EARLY CHILDHOOD FIELD

An early intervention team forms a lesson study group to help them move from pull-out therapy to an embedded intervention approach. They observe as one member of the team uses embedded interventions to address the cognitive and communication goals of a three-year-old with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Then they meet to reflect on how the strategies were implemented and could be improved. These observations are used to improve the strategies and to document them for future use.