Math Matters - Part 3 - Lesson Study: A Smart Way to Teach
The term PLC has been used to describe many educational groups; including grade level teams, school advisory committees, middle and high school departments, and school districts. While these groups serve an important
function, groups of educators who meet regularly do not constitute a PLC.
What are the components of a true PLC and are you involved in one?
The focus of all PLCs is student learning. Richard Dufour, the architect of the PLC concept, highlights three essential questions regarding school redesign:
- Exactly what is it we want all students to learn?
- How will we know when each student has learned it?
- How will we respond when a student experiences difficulty in learning?
The five elements of a PLC are:
- collegial collaboration
- student learning focused
- distribution of leadership responsibilities
- deep, narrowed curriculum
- shared best practices to improve instruction
- “assessment for learning” along with assessment of learning
According to Dufour, a PLC is not a program, a package, a recipe, borrowed system, or one more thing added to a cluttered school agenda. “A PLC is a process that changes the entire school culture.”
For more information about Professional Learning Communities, please access these links:
Read About Professional Learning Communities
| Are You Part of a Professional Learning Community? (Download PowerPoint Presentation or PDF version) |
| Professional Learning Communities at Work; |
What is a Lesson Study and how does it work in a real classroom?
AFT, under the leadership of Alice Gill, has been deeply involved in bringing Lesson Study, a Japanese professional development model, to the U.S. An AFT publication entitled “What is Lesson Study?” states:
It differs from other forms of professional development because it takes place in the moment of teaching
and learning. Its focus, as described by Jim Stigler and James Hiebert in The Teaching Gap, is teaching
not teachers, children working, not children’s work. The success of a lesson study is measured in teachers’ learning, not in the perfection of a lesson.
Groups of teachers work to formulate lessons that are taught, observed, discussed, and refined.
Teachers engage in lesson study only a couple of times a year because the process is intense.
A lesson study cycle consists of:
• Selecting a focus
• Planning the study lesson
• Public teaching of the lesson
• Focused observation of the lesson based on the group’s goals
• Evidence–based debriefing
• Revision based on the group’s reflection
• Teaching of a revised lesson
• Evidence–based debriefing
The Fall 2009 edition of the American Educator includes, “Growing Together, American Teachers Embrace the Japanese Art of Lesson Study.” This informative article gives a full description of the Lesson Study experience in Volusia county and offers our members perceptions and opinions of the Lesson Study process. Click here to read the article
Exemplary teachers from Volusia Teachers Organization (VTO) and Lake County Education Association (LCEA) have been actively involved in implementing Lesson Study for several years. If you have questions or need additional information, please contact:
