How Does Lesson Study Promote District Education Reform? – A Case Study of a District in Shanghai
Item
Title
How Does Lesson Study Promote District Education Reform? – A Case Study of a District in Shanghai
Abstract/Description
Purpose
Lesson study (LS) is generally regarded as a pathway for teachers' professional development and a method for teachers' instructional research. LS has been regarded as having the potential to drive large-scale reform but little is known about how it does so from a district level. Therefore, this paper aims to reveal how lesson study promote district education reform.
Design/methodology/approach
This study offers an in-depth case study of how District Y of Shanghai, China, took LS as the primary method in promoting its District Project of Building Curriculum Leadership in Schools. By analyzing the key project documents and achievements in project promotion, and interviews with the major Project leaders at District and school levels, this study explored the practice and impact of LS as a tool to promote district reform.
Findings
In the District Project, LS has been a medium to address each individual school's real problems of practice and turn them into reform vision and reform will in alignment with District goals. Five levels of school curriculum texts have been planned, designed, translated, implemented, reflected on, updated and mutually adjusted systematically through LS to ensure consistency in transforming District reform vision into classroom practice. Different models of teaching-research community building were found in sampled project schools and professional expertise was built with district support to promote reform. The curriculum leadership development through LS has shaped reform leader schools and formed a collection of LS exemplars circulated in schools as high-quality curriculum packages, which laid the foundation for district-wide reform.
Originality/value
The innovative practice of LS in China's education reform has expanded its reach from within one classroom to the entire district curriculum system and made it an important tool to drive large-school district-based education reform.
Lesson study (LS) is generally regarded as a pathway for teachers' professional development and a method for teachers' instructional research. LS has been regarded as having the potential to drive large-scale reform but little is known about how it does so from a district level. Therefore, this paper aims to reveal how lesson study promote district education reform.
Design/methodology/approach
This study offers an in-depth case study of how District Y of Shanghai, China, took LS as the primary method in promoting its District Project of Building Curriculum Leadership in Schools. By analyzing the key project documents and achievements in project promotion, and interviews with the major Project leaders at District and school levels, this study explored the practice and impact of LS as a tool to promote district reform.
Findings
In the District Project, LS has been a medium to address each individual school's real problems of practice and turn them into reform vision and reform will in alignment with District goals. Five levels of school curriculum texts have been planned, designed, translated, implemented, reflected on, updated and mutually adjusted systematically through LS to ensure consistency in transforming District reform vision into classroom practice. Different models of teaching-research community building were found in sampled project schools and professional expertise was built with district support to promote reform. The curriculum leadership development through LS has shaped reform leader schools and formed a collection of LS exemplars circulated in schools as high-quality curriculum packages, which laid the foundation for district-wide reform.
Originality/value
The innovative practice of LS in China's education reform has expanded its reach from within one classroom to the entire district curriculum system and made it an important tool to drive large-school district-based education reform.
Author/creator
Date
In publication
Volume
11
Issue
2
Pages
106-120
Resource type
Research/Scholarly Media
Resource status/form
Published Text
Scholarship genre
Empirical
IRE Approach/Concept
Primary national context
Open access/full-text available
No
Peer reviewed
Yes
ISSN
2046-8253
Citation
An, G., Chen, Y., Fang, Y., & Liu, J. (2022). How Does Lesson Study Promote District Education Reform? – A Case Study of a District in Shanghai. International Journal for Lesson & Learning Studies, 11(2), 106–120. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLLS-01-2022-0003
Item sets
Linked resources
Filter by property
| Title | Alternate label | Class |
|---|---|---|
 Chinese Lesson Study Reconceptualized in Time of Core Competencies-based (hexin suyang 核心素养) Reform [Special Issue] |
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