Lesson Study is a teacher-led and practice-embedded collaborative practice, which originated from and is being practised in Japan for decades. It attracted global interest during the 1990’s through the seminal work done by Stigler and Hiebert (1999) which culminated into the book titled The Teaching Gap. The dawn of the 21st century witnessed the adoption and adaptation of Lesson Study by different countries as well as different institutions of higher learning – mainly universities. Through Lesson Study, teachers plan a lesson together; one of them presents it while others observe and record their observations; they then participate in post-lesson reflection exercise; and then improve the lesson. Although Lesson Study focuses on improving teaching practice, this is achieved by implementing teachers’ collective ideas in the classroom in real time – therefore learners and the entire learning process constitute an important environment for teachers to strengthen their teaching practice. 

We have designed a short course on Lesson Study which is registered with Enterprises University of Pretoria (EUP) and accredited by the South African Council for Educators (SACE). The short course – Teacher Development Through Lesson Study: Theory and Practice – enables teachers to gain insights into the theoretical perspective of Lesson Study and then practically implement the stages thereof. For more information on the Short Course Click here