Klaus Rasmussen

Theorizing Lesson Study: Two Related Frameworks and Two Danish Case Studies

Lesson study refers to certain well-established professional development practices for teachers in Japan. Over the past 30 years, the phenomenon drew the attention of scholars in other countries, and their writings have inspired several ‘movements’ of lesson study implementation. As scholars observe both successes and difficulties in these endeavors, the need arises for finer methods to characterize and monitor the processes and objects which go into what is broadly referred to as lesson study. This brief presents an overall characterization of lesson study in terms of the notion of paradidactic infrastructure, in relation to specific adaptations of two related theoretical frameworks. We argue that the use of these frameworks can help sharpen researchers’ understanding of lesson study as a phenomenon. We exemplify the use of these tools with cases from our own work on pre- and in-service teacher development in Denmark.

The emergence and institutional co-determination of sustainability as a teaching topic in interdisciplinary science teacher education

Abstract This paper takes an institutional perspective on the topic of sustainability in order to analyse how this ‘idea’ enters science teacher education through an interdisciplinary approach. It shows how the development and implementation of a course for Danish pre-service teachers was conditioned and constrained by a complex web of interactions in and among the teaching disciplines of biology, geography and physics/chemistry and among the institutions of school, teacher college and university. The data collected are used to identify influences among the disciplines as well as disciplinary differences, conceptualised through a new reference model that separates the analysis from the usual sustainability dimensions. The findings reveal how sustainability as a teaching topic can be a unifying idea in an interdisciplinary setting. Disciplinary differences evidently impact course planning and implementation significantly, but not exclusively. By elaborating on the interactions between these circumstances, the paper provides insight into the processes of developing interdisciplinary teacher education.