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The purpose of this paper is to briefly describe the role of lesson study in implementation of national curriculum reforms in Japan, identifying key features that may be of interest to policy-makers in other countries.

Literature review, observation, and artefact collection were used to study the role of lesson study in educational reform in Japan.

One key characteristic of implementation of national curricular reforms in Japan is that lesson study allows primary and secondary schools, universities, district and prefectural offices, and subject-matter associations to collaborate in implementation. Some key features of the lesson study-supported system of implementation of curricular reform in Japan includes: the ability of school-based lesson study groups to leverage regional and national subject-matter expertise; school learning routines that enable systematic study, refinement, and dissemination of practice (e.g. kyouzai kenkyuu, public research lessons, grade-level collaboration); and policy structures that support implementation (e.g. grants for designated research schools, a period to try out new standards before they are required by law).

While some features of lesson study transfer readily from Japan to other countries (such as the usefulness of curriculum study, live lessons, and interchange with more experienced teachers), comprehensive systems for using lesson study to support curricular reform are yet to develop outside Japan. This paper identifies the policy, cultural, and infrastructural elements of the Japanese system that allow lesson study to effectively support implementation of new curriculum.

Successful implementation of curricular reform at the classroom level is a persistent difficulty in many countries. Japan's system illustrates how the strengths of teacher leadership and research-based content can be joined to support curriculum implementation, through interlocking systems of lesson study.

Much has been written about the failure of curriculum reforms to bring about pedagogical transformation in classrooms. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue about facilitating curriculum reforms through lesson study.

The guest editors introduce the papers while also discussing key themes and concepts.

The collection of papers shows that it would be naïve to assume that the intended, enacted and lived curriculum would be the same. Teachers play a very important role in bringing the intended curriculum to life in classrooms, and lesson study provides a process through which the intended, enacted and lived curriculum could be brought closer together.

It is only through such collaborative discourse among teachers supported by “knowledgeable others” that reform ideas can take root in classrooms and bring about lasting change.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the design and initial implementation of a lesson study network in the US intended to support implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

Participant observation and artifact collection document the development of the teaching through problem solving (TTP) network over a 14-month period.

The TTP network draws heavily on Japanese practices (e.g. lesson study) and Japanese materials (e.g. coherent, focussed mathematics curriculum) to support changes envisioned in the US CCSS related to students’ mathematical practices and dispositions. The reasons for choice of these key Japanese features are explicated, and teachers’ initial reactions described.

The design shows promise for combining teacher “ownership” with implementation of high-quality approaches designed by others; and allowing instructional innovations developed in Japan to flow into US practice. TTP in mathematics has persistently resisted implementation in the US, so the network is designed to target a central problem in implementing the CCSS.

A method for instructional innovations to spread from classrooms in one country to another is suggested.

Over the last 15 years, Japanese lesson study has attracted growing interest as an alternative to conventional teacher professional development. Despite its popularity and results, the descriptive knowledge base of authentic lesson study in Japan is still limited to a few cases from elementary math and science teachers. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the expansion of the lesson study descriptive knowledge base by offering a first-hand account of two American educators’ experience with lesson study at the secondary level while working as licensed teachers in a Japanese school.

Using an autoethnographic case study methodology, the authors document their personal experience working through a complete lesson study cycle with a ninth grade English course in Japan, systematically reconstructed from field texts and deliberate co-construction techniques.

The paper describes significant cognitive and socio-cultural adjustments that were required to participate in the process, and highlights essential skills and mindsets for lesson study: fashioning a coherent lesson storyline, articulating and testing working hypotheses, relying on evidence to guide planning and reflection, embracing collective ownership of improvement, and persisting with problems over time.

This first-hand account provides a distinctive inside look at lesson study from an American perspective and offers a rare description of Japan-based lesson study at the secondary level. The detailed records and insights contribute to researchers and practitioners emerging understanding of prerequisite skills for lesson study.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a small-scale research undertaken to examine the preservice English as foreign language (EFL) teachers’ collaborative understanding of lesson study. It constitutes the first of two empirical steps undertaken for integrating lesson study in initial EFL teacher education. The paper takes to the belief that preservice teachers’ understanding is a key factor that determines success or failure of lesson study projects and should therefore be investigated.

There were four preservice teachers who volunteered to participate in the study. Data were collected based on two procedures. Participants read the works of Lewis and Tsuchida (1999) and Dudley (2014) and were asked to collaboratively reflect about their readings on a WhatsApp platform. They were afterwards brought to a face-to-face discussion guided by questions mostly built from their previous reflections on the WhatsApp platform.

Participants have demonstrated a joint understanding which was essentially achieved due to the collaborative procedures. Likewise, participants have collaboratively reflected on the factors that could affect the process of lesson study and its application to EFL classrooms in Niger. These factors have been related to the issues in research methodology and the contextual learning culture.

The findings from this study draw attention to the need for teacher educators to use interactive and collaborative strategies while instructing preservice teachers about lesson study. The paper also offers insights about contextual factors which require preliminary and immediate actions before implementing lesson study in Niger.

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.