A Case Study of School-Based Lesson Study at a Japanese Public Elementary School for Foreign Language Activities

Abstract

This paper, based on a case study, documents how Japanese teachers in a public elementary school work collaboratively through lesson study. From this school’s case, three factors stand out as important for a collaborative lesson study. One is that under the leadership of the chairperson, all teachers had various roles. The second factor is that all teachers give their own research lesson every year. So they can be involved a lot of lesson study. The third factor is that there are many informal voluntary meetings. The last two factors show that lesson study is very much a part of the school’s teacher development culture. The results of the study suggest that school-based lesson study in Japan is highly structured and collaborative.