Chinese Lesson Study Reconceptualized in Time of Core Competencies-based (hexin suyang 核心素养) Reform [Special Issue]
China’s movement towards a key competencies-based curriculum represents a significant change in the curriculum orientation and stated learning goals for students, as well as a significant challenge for teachers. KCR [key competencies-based curricular reform] marks a fundamental shift from content-based to competencies-based reform. Since the publishing of OECD’s Key Competencies Framework in 2005, it has shaped the national curriculum reform efforts globally (Zhao and Tröhler, 2021). The Framework heavily prioritizes cultivating students’ ability to meet the complex demands using “cognitive and practical skills, creative abilities and other psychosocial resources such as attitudes, motivation and values” (OECD, 2005, p. 8).While content-based curricula rely on disciplinary knowledge as the basis for teaching and learning activities, competencies-based curricula are outcome-driven, focusing on the mastery of specific learning outcomes or competences that may or may not be related to a specific discipline (Anderson-Levitt, 2017), such as global cultural awareness, civic responsibility and cyber wellness, and so on. These learner-centered competencies define the new curriculum standards and how teachers should translate them in teaching, but they fall outside the familiar knowledge and skills of frontline teachers. University faculty members and researchers have thus been increasingly involved in schools to work with teachers as brokers of theories and knowledge that are needed for this reform (Fang et al., 2022). This special issue reflects this shifting context. While it follows the earlier 2017 special issue, edited by Huang, Fang, and Chen, which examined Chinese lesson study, the current special issue for International Journal of Lesson and Learning Studies (IJLLS) specifically examines CLS at a period of major curriculum reform. The papers included here illustrate the power of CLS to continue to serve as a bridge to reform practices in teaching and learning. That apparent continuity in support of change is visible in multiple ways across the cases illustrated in the 7 contributing papers.
[Excerpted from Editors' Introduction, pp. 49-50]
International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies
Continuity and Change: Chinese Lesson Study Redefined in the Context of Key Competencies-Based Reform
Facilitating EFL Teachers’ Professional Development Through CLS of English Literature Instruction
Subject Competency Framework in Fostering High-End Lesson Study – A Case of Teaching “Properties of Iron Salts” Unit in a Senior High School
Teacher Mindset Change in Boundary-Crossing Lesson Study: A Case From China
How Does Lesson Study Promote District Education Reform? – A Case Study of a District in Shanghai
Exploring Teacher Learning Process in Chinese Lesson Study: A Case of Representing Fractions on a Number Line
A Teacher’s Learning of Transforming Curriculum Reform Ideas Into Classroom Practices in Lesson Study in China
Chinese Lesson Study: Critical Aspects of Transfer From China to Italy
Theory and Practice of Chinese Lesson Study and Its Adaption in Other Countries [Special Issue]
Fang, Y., Huang, R., & Chen, X. (Eds.). (2022). Chinese Lesson Study Reconceptualized in Time of Core Competencies-based (hexin suyang 核心素养) Reform [Special Issue]. International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies, 11(2).