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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.

Teacher educators' emotions are shaped by the fluctuating conditions of their work and variable interactions with students and colleagues. Many studies report on emotions in classrooms and teachers' regulation of emotion, yet there is limited research on emotion in teacher education. This chapter focuses on emotions that teacher educators from diverse contexts encountered during the Covid-19 pandemic. Data were written responses and interviews from teacher educators from 29 countries. Coding included identifying explicit and implicit emotion, the mood of the narrative/interview, and categorizing by theme. A shared excel sheet was used for comparison, which generated emergent themes. Interrater reliability was established using 7 data sets; the remaining were individually coded following the same procedure, then discussed. Common emotional experiences were expressed across all countries, save 3, despite the different people and cultures. Although not representative of the entire country, in general, seven themes emerged, which are: (1) feeling sorrow (2) feelings of optimism, (3) concern for future of teaching, (4) concerns for student mental and professional well-being, (5) fulfilment with ethic of care in higher education, (6) concerns over inequity, and (7) efforts in resilience. Viewed as a whole, the future of teacher education is made apparent. Despite the divergent contexts, the state of concern and goals are similar. Such insight can provide guidance for supporting teacher educators' careers, well-being, and professional development.

The purpose of this paper is to present how experiences gained from a theory-informed lesson study – learning study (LrS) – in regard to a specific learning goal can be shared and used by other teachers in new contexts.

A group of teachers worked together in a cyclic, iterative process of planning, evaluating and revising teaching. The aim was to provide possibilities for grade 2 and 3 students to become familiar with negative numbers. The teacher group came to the conclusion that the students needed to be able to differentiate some aspects of negative numbers. The conjecture was put to the test in a follow-up study (FS) with five new teachers and eight classes. One lesson was taught based on the empirical findings in the LrS.

The results suggest that teachers’ collaborative work has possibilities to produce knowledge about critical aspects of learning that can be communicated and adopted in new contexts. The teachers in the FS were able to make sense of the results from LrS and incorporate the critical aspects in their teaching in a way that enhanced students’ learning.

It is demonstrated that teacher collaboration in LrS can create knowledge that goes beyond the border of the local context.