I imagine every teacher contemplating the move to administration has a certain aspect of the job that they feel rather unprepared to handle. For me, that aspect has always been the supervision of teacher instruction. How do I go from being a teacher myself, to supervising the instruction of other teachers? How do I guide teachers who are reluctant to change toward innovative new techniques? As a teacher I have seen all manner of colleagues, from those willing to try any new strategy, to those who are petrified by change and consistently refuse all attempts to incorporate new practices. What a daunting task, to be the one to motivate that transformation!
This course on the supervision of instruction, then, has been perfect for me. In my last post (May 13th) I wrote about The Art of Questioning, and the growth that can happen in all learners - young or old - when prompted by the right questions. Our last class was a continuation of that, providing instructional strategies that encourage teachers to learn new techniques through their own inquiry. Some of them were traditional strategies employed by many administrators, such as mentorships with more seasoned teachers, book studies geared toward starting conversations, action research in the classroom, and purposeful teacher collaboration. One strategy, however, was new to me and I believe it has great possibilities for teacher-led growth.
A Lesson Study Group is a concept that has been around in Japan since the 1800s, and in the past few decades has begun to get traction as an excellent strategy for ongoing professional development in Europe and North America. The Lesson Study format involves a small group of teachers, between three and six, who recognize a common need among their students. This can be a group who teaches the same grade or subject, but might also be a mix of the above who simply recognize a Big Idea to be addressed. This small group of teachers is not led by the administrator, and all of their actions are completely self-directed based on what they feel to be the gaps in student achievement.
Together the group determines a focus, which could be something as broad as student engagement in a high school Social Studies class, or could be as specific as grade three students acquiring number sense. Having determined their focus, the teachers meet together and design a lesson that they feel will address the student needs. You’ll notice that I keep coming back to the student needs, as this is not a direct reflection of what the teacher is doing; rather, it is an examination of student behaviours and growth, and an exploration of how teachers can react and adapt to meet them. While designing this lesson, the teachers are as specific as possible, even anticipating what student comments, questions, and reactions will be during each phase. Once this is finished, the group decides who will teach the lesson, and the other members come to observe the class and take detailed notes. During this time, I again stress that the observers are focused not on the teacher, but on the student reactions and demonstrations of growth.
Following the observation, the teachers meet again to debrief the lesson and discuss the observers’ notes. These are then analyzed to determine if the students achieved the learning target, and to brainstorm any adjustments that should be made. As the observations and suggestions are all coming from trusted peers and are focused on better meeting student needs, there is a greater sense of teacher autonomy. This also removes the lingering sense of judgement that often occurs for many teachers when an administrator, no matter how well intentioned, observes and comments on a lesson. Once this analysis piece is complete, the teachers may decide that revisions were necessary and the lesson can be re-taught with the new suggestions in mind. This would lead to a new set of observations and discussions, always focused on the indicators of student growth that were decided by the group as essential. Finally, when the group feels that the goal for student achievement has been realized, the group is able to share out their learnings to the larger staff.
I have never seen a Lesson Study in action, but now I can’t wait to be a part of one and see its benefits for myself!
