TC1 stated that “timely information books” were the source of lesson study information, while TA1 reported that head teachers who had been trained in lesson study in Japan taught others about lesson study with SPRINT being the school CPD forum for teaching others. Similarly, TB1 reported having sourced lesson study information within the school from teachers who had attended lesson study workshops.
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Differences between lesson study and other CPD approaches
According to TB2, lesson study differed from other CPD approaches because teachers make a lesson plan together, thereby enabling teachers to discover areas with some challenges. Furthermore, TB2 said that lesson study helped both the teachers and students understand concepts properly.
According to TA1, unlike lessons study, other CPD approaches sometimes resulted in teachers being sent for training outside the school, only to come back and fail to implement what they had learnt.
Sometimes when a teacher sent somewhere comes back, he wouldn’t be able to teach. But if like we had one today, and then you can sit down and plan. Go to the class, come, and discuss again. You find that it becomes more of the something, which will be able to apply, and something that would be able to improve on. (TA1)
TA2 said that it was too early to compare lesson study with other CPD methods because lesson study in School A had been implemented for less than three years.
4.5.2 Mathematics teachers versus school administrators
Unlike the school administrators and in-service providers, who seemed to have been exposed to Japanese experts on lesson study – some during their training in Japan, and others when participating in JICA-aided projects in the Central Province of Zambia or Kenya – the teachers seem to have sourced information on lesson study from within their schools, through a cascade approach.
At School A, both the school administrators and the two teachers that the researcher interviewed understood lesson study from what it aimed to achieve. However, the school administrators, also pointed out the lesson study process (cycle) and some of its essential features.
At School B, the two teachers and the school administrators understood lesson study as a process through which teachers could be helped to address challenging topics or problems.
Similary at School C, both the school adminaistrors and the two teachers understood lesson study from the point of view of what it aimed to achieve. However, school administrators focussed further on the process.
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At Schools B and C, the school administrators and the teachers regarded lesson study as being superior to other CPD approaches that relied on a cascade model with teachers being sent out for training but, on their return, failing to implement what they had learnt.
However, at School A, one teacher was not convinced that lesson study was more effective than other CPD approaches at their school.
4.6 Conclusion
The Zambian Ministry of Education identified three primary areas of mathematics education that required reform: teacher-centred instruction, the mathematics curriculum, and continuing professional development of mathematics teachers (MOE, 1996). It introduced lesson study to transform the teacher-centred lessons to student-centred lessons, and to enhance continuing professional development of mathematics teachers (MOE & JICA, 2010a).
The Ministry defined the Zambian lesson study model substantively in three key publications – the Implementation Guidelines (MOE & JICA, 2010b), the Teaching Skills Book (MOE & JICA, 2009), and the Master Plan (MOE & JICA, 2010c). These key publications describe in detail the eight-step lesson study cycle; the responsibilities of in-service providers, school administrators and teachers; and the challenges in implementing lesson study in schools.
Based on the Ministry publications and the interviews, the conceptualisation of what lesson study aims to achieve in Zambia across the Ministry (Ring 1 of the Onion Rings Model), the In-service providers (Ring 2), the School administrators (Ring 3) and the Teachers (Ring 4) appear to be threefold: to help the Ministry achieve the goals of the Zambian education system (Ring 1); to transform teacher-centred lessons to student-centred lessons (Rings 1, 2 and 4); and to help teachers address the topics they find difficult when teaching mathematics (Rings 3 and 4). These aims are in line with the National Policy on Education, which states that the goals of the education system should inform the education policies and practices of all partners in the provision of education and be the basis for teaching and learning in schools and colleges of education (MOE, 1996).
The interpretation of the Zambian lesson study model varied between in-service providers, school administrators and teachers, with in-service providers and school administrators interpreting the model more accurately than the teachers did. This is unsurprising
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as the former had been exposed to Japanese experts while the latter learnt about lesson study through a cascade approach. Moreover, the in-service providers who were responsible for supporting schools to implement lesson study according to the policy documents were involved in the rolling out the lesson to 10 provinces and had become monitors instead of supporters of lesson study.
There was consensus across all the four levels of the education system (Rings 1 to 4) that lesson study is different from other CPD approaches that the Ministry had used previously. Unlike other CPD approaches, lesson study can train many teachers at once (Ring 1); is school- owned, more effective, and collaborative (Ring 2); more practical and does not have “I know it all” teachers (Ring 3); and mathematics teachers claimed not to have enough time for lesson study because of the overload from the syllabus (Ring 4).
Unlike Rings 1 to 3, where information about lesson study was sourced directly from Japanese experts (in Japan, Kenya or Zambia), the participants in Ring 4 sourced information from non-Japanese experts – through key Ministry documents and a cascade model, through which those who had been trained by Japanese experts transmitted the information to teachers. Although the cascade approach reaches many participants in a short period of time (Leu, 2004) and is cost effective (Hayes, 2000; Ono & Ferreira, 2010), there is a strong likelihood of transmitting misinterpreted crucial information (Fiske & Ladd, 2004) and does not offer follow- up support structures for teachers involved in the long-term implementation of the new reforms (Robinson & Carrington, 2002). These reasons may explain why the teachers (Ring 4) seem to show a superficial understanding of lesson study. The cascade method tends to fall under what Ebaeguin and Stephens (2015) referred to as fidelity approach that treats lesson study “as just another program[me] or ‘package’ to be copied and not ways of thinking and habits that support good teaching and professional learning” (p. 377).
The definition of lesson study by the Ministry understated the role the knowledgeable others can play in enriching lesson study in Zambia. The policy treats the knowledgeable others from higher institutions as mere observers and does not state that they should be asked to give insights into the research lesson and what teachers could learn from the lesson.
These findings have implications for understanding the mechanisms put in place to support lesson study (SQ2) and the actual implementation of lesson study by teachers (SQ3), which will be explored in the next two chapters.
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