Some in-service providers regarded monitoring as one of the significant lesson study support mechanisms. ISP3 said that the Standards and Teacher Education Department of the Ministry were responsible for lesson study monitoring, and that the Ministry had trained people at each school to monitor lesson study activities. Further, each school had a School In-service Co-ordinator (SIC), and an organization called the School Education Support Team (SEST). Lesson study monitoring was implemented by the Standards and Teacher Education Department, with the department requiring the District Standards Officers not only to monitor lesson study but also to plan different activities to induct teachers into the lesson study requirements. ISP3 said that the Ministry required the District Resource Centre Co-ordinator to monitor lesson study at the District level. This was echoed by comments made by two Standards Officers with whom I had informal conversations.
The senior Ministry officers also described the monitoring of lesson study as one of the standards put in place to ensure that schools were implementing lesson study according to the prescriptions in the Implementation Guidelines and the Teaching Skills Book, with MOE1 stating that “However, occasionally, ourselves, as the national level, we also go to sample to see if indeed what the districts were telling us was happening”.
MOE1 further stated that the Ministry collected data periodically from schools to determine the effectiveness of lesson study. The Ministry headquarters had developed tools
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(forms) for monitoring lesson study and distributed them to resource centres and the education officers in charge of CPD.
We have monitoring tools. In fact, just a few weeks we finished analysing the data collected among schools to find out the effectiveness of the activities we have been doing. So, we have tools which we send to the provinces through the resource centre and the education officers in charge of continuing professional development where they collect data for us to check the effectiveness of the services of the activities we are doing there and the quality, and if quality issues are addressed in schools… by teachers as they do Lesson Study activities. (MOE1)
MOE1 added that the monitoring tools had been sent to the provinces through the Resource Centres and the Education Officers in charge of CPD activities and were part of the mechanisms the Ministry had put in place to measure the quality of lesson study activities.
Once in a while we find out that there's an improvement in learning and teaching by teachers using those same tools. Sometimes, in some areas, we find out that there's a lagging behind where teachers actually go down in terms of performance and learners. (MOE1)
In addition, Ministry headquarters monitored lesson study using the reports from provinces and districts. MOE1 said that reports were the basis for monitoring lesson study activities, emphasising that the reports for each teacher group were used as the evidence of lesson study implementation. Further, MOE2 stated that the reports were the basis for addressing the challenges teachers encountered when implementing lesson study.
When we come together, usually, there is the issue of reporting… [From the reports] we look at what impact they [lesson study cycles] had what challenges they [schools] had and then try to see how we can go round those challenges through those reports that we get. (MOE2)
ISP4 added that the Ministry had trained the people shown in Figure 5.3 at each school to spearhead the CPD activities at the school level and monitor lesson study using the prescribed tools (forms).
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Figure 5.3. The School Education Support Team (Based on interview data)
Regarding in-service providers actually monitoring lesson study, ISP4 said he monitored lesson study; participated in lesson study activities; and talked to Head Teachers about the implementation of lesson study during school senior management meetings.
Similarly, ISP6 reported that:
We monitor the undertakings of lesson study cycles in schools by getting to the schools and being part of the lesson study cycles. That was one of the ways that we support them, so that where they think they were lagging behind or they were not clear or there were questions, answers can be given. There was also an aspect of them reporting it was not an aspect of daily reporting or weekly reporting; but at the end of the term, they have to generate reports of the undertakings that they have done in terms of lesson study and we look at those reports and verify them and put them together to come up with our District reports. (ISP6)
ISP3 spoke about her experience of lesson study monitoring as follows: We monitor the implementation of CPDs in schools. We go and check even in the books, how the records were being kept, and how much money had been spent. Was it planned for? If so, can we see the work plan? You get in a school and you look at the activity-based budget of the school and the annual work plan. They must be able
School Head Teacher
Deputy Head Teacher
School In-service Co-ordinator SIC
HOD Mathematics
HOD English and Literature HOD Sciences HOD --- HOD --- HOD ---
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to link down to the individual work plans of all the officers in their respective specialised departments. (ISP3)
Meetings between Ministry Officers and school administrators were considered necessary. MOE2, for example, explained that Ministry officials held meetings with schools to learn more about how schools were implementing lesson study, to exchange ideas, to advise schools where and how they could do better, and to learn more about the challenges schools faced.
Another form of support given by the in-service providers was the actual services provided during lesson study. ISP4 explained her role in maintaining the standards and the quality of lesson study. She said that she ensured schools were not merely conducting routine lesson study cycles, but were also selecting new challenging topics. She also said she ensured the findings of the lesson study were treasured and kept, stating that:
Lesson study is research in its own right. We have invested time and resources. So, they must document. The standard is that I want to see documents for lesson study. When I go to the School, I ask for the work-plan for their lesson study activities and the updated records. (ISP4)
ISP4 added that teacher promotion was linked to their professional commitment to lesson study, as well as academic qualifications and other factors. Furthermore, she claimed to be a model for the teachers:
I put in my effort and I have provided a standard benchmark for the schools because they see how passionately I speak about lesson study and how knowledgeable I am. I am concerned about the professional growth of the teacher. If they were not involved then they were not growing professionally. And if they were not growing professionally, they were not making improvements to the teaching and learning. (ISP4)