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The main focus of this study is preschool teachers’ own learning from a specific course aimed to develop their knowledge of how to use learning study (LS) in preschool. The study included 24 qualified and experienced preschool teachers who took part in the course. The course was funded by the Swedish National Agency for Education and the teachers were chosen by their municipal employers. An analysis is made of their experiences of the in-service course on LS and variation theory. The 24 preschool teachers were divided into seven groups, each of which implemented one LS. A total of 162 preschool children participated. After the course, the participants were asked, “How do you think LS can contribute in preschool?” Their answers were analyzed, and six qualitatively different categories were found, capturing their different perspectives. In the studies reported in this chapter, the results of the children's learning outcomes are also briefly reported to offer readers a background understanding of the teachers’ experiences. The children's learning outcomes did all show an improvement. In describing their experiences of the in-service training using LS, all of the 24 participating preschool teachers reported that their understanding of children's learning had changed and improved. They specifically mentioned having a stronger focus on content than before, seeing the difference between learning and method by separating them, and focus on the learning of a defined content in the first place.

The purpose of this paper is to explore in what way gradually increasing teachers’ theory-based instruction affects the students’ learning outcomes, illustrated by the example of learning how to regulate body tension in the upper secondary school.

In total, 72 students from four classes participated in the study. The way the students were offered to understand “regulation of tension” was designed by variation theory, and the method used was learning study, an iterative process whereby the results from the first lesson are the basis for the design of the next implementation in a new group of students.

There is a significant increased learning outcome in all four lessons, but in Lesson D, where the highest increase (129 percent) was found, all students improved their results. The use of the theoretical framework had effect on the teachers to vary only the most important aspects in the instruction in the last cycle, where the features chiselled out during the study (e.g. heart rate, respiration, muscle tension) were contrasted more clearly, which had an impact on the students’ learning. Based on the theoretical framework, the teachers got more skilled at experiencing what should vary and what should be kept invariant in order to facilitate the students’ learning. In the last intervention, the teachers found one pattern of variation which was more powerful than the previous. In this one, the physical activities were kept invariant, but different responses of the sympathetic nervous system were contrasted, one at a time, to establish knowledge of different bodily responses to tension.

Learning study has mainly been used in subjects such as Mathematics or other theoretical issues but this paper describes in what way learning study can be used in PE. So second, the result of this study contributes to knowledge about how students’ learning outcome in PEH can increase by directing focus on an object of learning rather than actual learning activity. The object of learning in this study is to learn to regulate tenseness and the learning outcomes have been analyzed in the perspective of variation theory.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a learning study with a complex object of learning – democracy.

The study consists of four research lessons in four different classes in grade 6. In the study two teachers, 78 students and two researchers participated. In the first lesson (A) 21 students participated, in the second class (B) 17, in the third class (C) 21 and in the last lesson (D) 19 students. The research lessons were 80 minutes each, designed based on variation. The students took a pre-test before the lesson and a post-test after.

The results show the relationship between the pattern of variation used by the teacher during the lesson and students’ learning outcome. In lesson A contrast was used between democracy and dictatorship. In lesson B the aspects were varied due to the discussions between the teacher and the students that resulted in less focus on the whole perspective. The design of lesson C offered students a sequential presentation of the aspects, the concepts were handled separately and simultaneity was not used. In lesson D the whole was in focus during the entire lesson and the aspects were presented simultaneously in relation to the whole. Group A's increased at the test scores was 63 per cent, B 32 per cent, C 29 per cent and D 91 per cent.

The results points at using learning study with complex objects of learning requires offering the relationship between aspects of the phenomenon presented by a background of the meaning of the concept develop the students’ understanding.

The purpose of this paper is to report a case study that qualitatively describes and analyses teachers’ discussions when planning and evaluating lessons under supervision, and what is described is the focus on their reasoning, the activities decided upon and how they decided to assess the pupils’ learning outcomes when transforming formal curriculum objectives for English as a foreign language (EFL) into classroom instruction. The effect of this transformation, expressed in different ways of designing lessons, is evaluated by assessing the pupils’ learning outcomes.

The content analysis is based on variation theory. An iteratively designed method, the learning study, is used and data from five teacher meetings in this iterative process is analysed.

The analysis shows that the areas the teachers focus on initially are: implementation (activities); content; and pupils’ knowledge, prioritised in this order, even if they partly seem to be intertwined and handled as a whole, with the three different areas being put in the foreground or background during the learning-study process. In the later part of the process, the perspective has changed to a focus on: pupils’ knowledge; content; and implementation (activities).

The findings in this paper suggest to teachers a way to implement a formal curriculum in a local context. The authors also argue for the importance of collective work in this process.

David Brody serves as Academic Dean and Chair of the Early Childhood Department at the Efrata College of Education in Jerusalem where he teaches and conducts his research. His research interests include men in early childhood, professional development among teacher educators, thinking education, and how early childhood educators cope with emotionally charged issues. He taught preschool for 15 years in the United States before immigrating to Israel where he has engaged in teacher education for 20 years.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a review of the most frequently cited English articles of five models of collaborative professional development for mathematics teachers, aiming to describe the character of the development addressed and its quality issues.

The most frequently cited articles were chosen for their impact on the scientific discourse; they identify what aspects of the models are most focused and of interest. The research questions were: how is professional development described in the articles?, and what improvements are the models trying to increase or what problem are the models trying to solve? The review of these articles was also analyzed in relation to four quality indicators for praxis improvement (Holmqvist Olander, 2015): (A) ecological validation for predictive power, (B) generalization in theory, (C) cross-setting interventions, and (D) continuing professional development.

The result shows differences in focus. Educational action research focuses on solving the participants’ problem in the school environment while learning study tests different instructional designs to find the most powerful relationship between instruction and student learning. Lesson study and teacher research groups are collaborative professional development models integrated into the teachers’ ordinary work to develop everyday teaching and learning, and educational design research is mainly designed by researchers studying areas of interests, which can be shared by teachers.

The articles used for the analysis are a selection, and not a total sample of everything published about the models. This can be both a limitation and strength. A very small sample of typical studies is used for the analysis, even though the models are used in several other situations and contexts as well, which can be seen as a limitation. However, as the selection of articles have the strongest impact on the research of each model, as they are the most cited articles and affect the way they are used. The contexts differ and this can be seen as a limitation as the models might be more efficient in some cultural settings than other.

Based on the articles’ findings, these five models can all be recommended to develop students’ mathematical knowledge as well as teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge. The results of this review can be used to guide what model to use depending on the need for professional development.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2015) and Hattie (2013) state that effective professional development is positioned as close to practice as possible, and that research questions should be raised and outcomes tested in teachers’ workplaces as a form of collaborative professional development. There is a contradiction between such claims and how we traditionally value research. Collaboration with teachers in research projects can, as well as aiming to have an impact on practice, sometimes be considered to be less scientific than a more objective standpoint that follows traditional indicators of scientific quality. This review shows how professional development can inform practice-based research and contribute with new knowledge of how to develop teaching and learning in the classroom.

The overview is different from an ordinary research review, as the focus is on the most cited articles. This is made to capture the main shape of how the models are presented in an international research context as the articles have an impact of how the models are understood and shared between contexts in different countries.

Collaborative professional development for inclusive teaching is a limited area of research, although there is an extensive need for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) teachers. Research findings of how teachers’ professional development can contribute to support the development of powerful learning situations for all students are presented in this special issue. The aim is to contribute to the knowledge of how the use of lesson study can develop teachers’ capabilities to offer high-quality education for students with SEND.

The guest editor presents each of the papers and introduces key themes and concepts.

The collection of papers is divided into two themes; the first has a focus on lesson study used by teacher educators during SEND in-service training. In this theme, the teachers are the students who are studying different fields of SEND, supported by teacher educators. The second theme studies different forms of lesson studies carried out by researchers and teachers in the collaboration focused aspects of content that are of importance for students in SEND.

The papers focus on areas of education with a limited research tradition, and as a result, the studies may be seen as starting points for further research. The results so far lack generalisability. Therefore, the researchers have to test the findings further under different conditions and with wider groups of teachers and students.

The results of the papers can be used to develop both SEND teacher education, and collaborative professional development for in-service SEND teachers. This issue will, therefore, be of interest to school and system leaders.

The papers contribute initial findings from an under-researched area and also combine lesson study with methods and designs not previously explored.

This study determines which aspects of the intended object of learning (planned by teachers during the first phase of a learning study) is made discernible from a learners' perspective. In a learning study, the intended, enacted, and lived object of learning are considered. This study focuses on the learning material used by teachers while designing a lesson.

In many learning studies, variation theory is used to design lessons, which predicts difficulties in and possibilities for student learning. The data consisted of a lesson part – instruction through a video-recorded dance choreography – employed to enhance primary school (in a Swedish context, grade 4) students' dancing skills in the subject of Physical Education and Health. The choreography comprised five different sequences, where a variation occurred when the subsequent (new) sequence was applied to the previous movement pattern. The sequences acted as building blocks, where the students' transitions from one movement pattern to another were logical and distinguishable.

The results of this study show in what way an analysis of learning material, based on variation theory, can help teachers take into account the level of complexity of the object of learning. The results also identify which parts of a lesson design can be predicted to present a higher degree of challenge and by that more difficult to grasp, especially for students with different educational needs.

Lessons may be designed based on theoretical assumptions to ensure effective classroom learning and provide guidance to teachers based on student needs.