Lesson study toolkit

Defined broadly, lesson study encompasses a range of activities that:

• are guided by teacher inquiry/research into their professional practice
• have a strong element of classroom observation with a focus on student learning
• collaborative in ways that bring teachers together to discuss their practice in relation to student learning.

This definition is deliberately broad to highlight room for variation in the model, whereas the CfEM toolkit is based on a specific model used by the University of Nottingham in the CfEM mastery randomised control trial.

The trial looked at two models of intervention, each based on five lessons that exemplified how CfEM’s five key principles can inform classroom teaching.  In one of these models the teachers were additionally involved in a lesson study process in which they came together with colleagues to discuss their experience of TfM in the lessons. This particular model was found to make an impact on students’ GCSE scores, especially for students from the most deprived families. Further details of the research can be found on the Mastery randomised control trial page.

These findings suggest that it is Lesson Study that 'makes the difference'. A teacher taking part in the trial lesson study meetings reported:

“It is the most amazing experience to be able to watch someone else teach …. you saw this lad, the light bulb go on and all of a sudden he sat up straighter and started writing on his whiteboard. And I looked and I thought, yeah. I mean how many times have I given a prompt and walked away too quickly? … that lesson was amazing.”

The CfEM toolkit draws on this model of lesson study, which teachers came to know as the ‘cluster meetings’. It aims to support the continuation of such activity by providing information and supporting tools.

The toolkit is organised in three sections: