Phil Wood

Lesson Study: Towards a Collaborative Approach to Learning in Initial Teacher Education?.

Lesson Study (LS) case studies were conducted in two secondary school teaching practice placements in England. Using Dudley’s framework, Geography and Modern Languages trainees and school-based colleagues collaboratively planned a ‘research lesson’. This was taught by the mentor while the trainee and other teachers observed the learning of three ‘focus’ students. The lesson was reviewed and revised for teaching to a parallel group by the trainee and the cycle of observation and evaluation was repeated. In post-lesson study interviews, analysed from a Communities of Practice perspective, mentors claimed that LS facilitated rapid integration of the prospective teacher into departmental working practices while trainees claimed they benefited from the team approach inherent in LS. The process enabled participants to explore collaboratively the ‘pedagogic black-box’ enriching the experience and learning of both trainees and mentors. Successfully integrated, LS improves support for teacher development in teaching practice placements.

Lesson study as a vehicle for collaborative teacher learning in a secondary school

This paper reports the outcomes of a ‘lesson study’ project conducted in a mathematics department with four serving teachers in a secondary school in England. Using Dudley’s lesson study framework and drawing on Hargreaves and Fullan’s notion of professional capital, the feasibility and value of collaborative lesson study as a vehicle for the development of teacher learning were explored. Planning and evaluation meetings as well as end-of-project interviews were analysed to investigate how teachers planned research lessons together and how these were evaluated. Despite time constraints, teachers who engaged in lesson study reported that the process improved understanding of their students; that collaboration helped them to develop less-teacher-centred approaches and created a stronger sense of teacher community. The project demonstrated that lesson study has potential as an alternative or complementary model of teachers’ learning, but it also throws up substantive organisational challenges if its use is to expand.

Blogs as Liminal Space: Student Teachers at the Threshold

Trainee teachers undergo a complex series of changes as they move through their training, from subject specialists to teachers of their subjects. This paper considers the results of a small-scale action research project, part of which used blogs as a medium for developing students’ understanding of geographical concepts, and as a space for developing ideas and approaches for a ‘model lesson’ they were asked to teach before starting their first school placements as trainee teachers. The blogs acted as pivotal spaces for the students to develop creative ideas for later use in teaching, and were important in their transition from subject specialists to teachers. The concept of liminality is used to demonstrate how the students can be identified as having crossed an important threshold in their own initial practice and in their own identities. As such, the blogs acted as ‘liminal spaces’, important in the initial development of the trainee teachers.

Initial Teacher Education in the Panopticon.

The schools’ inspection regime in England has shifted in recent decades from a focus on external assessment of practice to a scrutiny of external data and schools’ self‐evaluation, culminating in a normative system based on self‐surveillance by school senior managers. This model of inspection (characteristic of the performative approach to public sector accountability) is now being extended to providers of initial teacher education, with providers using a standardised self‐evaluation template. A qualitative analysis of this template demonstrates its attempt to normalise and manage the development of initial teacher education programmes in order that they reflect political priorities rather than being based primarily on the professional knowledge and judgements. Further, the potential for a conflict of interests between the government agencies responsible for delivery and inspection is considered.

Adapting ‘lesson study’ to investigate classroom pedagogy in initial teacher education: what student-teachers think

This paper reports findings from a project that explored the use of a modified form of ‘lesson study’ in a one-year programme of secondary school initial teacher education (ITE). Twelve mentors and student-teachers worked in pairs to design and teach two ‘research lessons’ in the course of two eight-week teaching practice placements as part of a university–school partnership for the preparation of new teachers. Participating student-teachers reported that engagement in this form of lesson study with a mentor was an effective way to help them grow individual teaching skills, knowledge and confidence in teaching placements. In addition, in most cases, it enabled active and creative participation in a community of teacher learners. However, engagement in lesson study not only supported student-teachers to meet ‘qualifying to teach’ standards, but also offered opportunities for holistic study of teaching and learning, leading to growth in what we characterise as ‘pedagogic literacy’.

Teacher Perspectives about Lesson Study in Secondary School Departments: A Collaborative Vehicle for Professional Learning and Practice Development.

Two departments in a secondary school in England participated in ‘lesson study’ projects over a five-month period to explore its usefulness as a vehicle for professional development. Through a cycle of two research lessons, conducted separately in each department, teachers identified challenges that inhibited the learning of their students and collaboratively prepared innovative approaches to address the learning challenges. The process yielded multiple sets of data: DVD-recorded lessons, lesson plans and resources, transcripts of preparation and evaluation meetings and individual interviews at the end of the project. This paper draws principally on detailed qualitative analysis of end-of-project interviews about teacher experiences of learning and practice development in the two contexts. While the teachers encountered some logistical challenges to the implementation of lesson study, a number of important gains were reported: collaboration in lesson study reduced feelings of professional isolation; teachers reported a sharper focus on pupil learning and more confidence to take risks with approaches to teaching, which led to greater opportunities for pupils to engage in interactive activities, for example, involving problem-solving and peer teaching in groups.

Boys' Underachievement in Geography: An Issue of Ability, Attitude or Assessment?.

Considerable evidence now exists of the problem of boys’ underachievement in a wide range of academic subjects, including geography. This paper offers examples of, and suggests tentative solutions to, problems of underachievement based on the findings generated by a research project conducted in an English secondary school. In so doing it raises questions about the ways in which geography is often taught and assessed, and considers the extent to which these factors determine the different levels of performance of the genders. We conclude by questioning whether the readily observed gender differences in assessed performance in geography are predominantly related to the students’ innate abilities, attitudes or to the types of assessment regularly used to measure their levels of attainment.

Exploring the use of complexity theory and action research as frameworks for curriculum change

This paper considers the impact of a small-scale action research project which focused on the development of an emergent approach to curriculum making in a general certificate in secondary education course in geography. In this context, we argue that complexity thinking offers a useful theoretical foundation from which to understand the nature of dynamic pedagogic change resulting from the application of action research methods. Results show that process-focused curriculum change can bring about shifts in both learning and assessment. This is seen as being the result of an emergence orientated approach to action research as a counter to more reductionist approaches which are often used and advocated in educational settings by teachers. We conclude that a combination of complexity thinking and action research can offer a valuable medium through which the educational needs of learners and teachers can be addressed in different, localized contexts.

Mentors and student-teachers “lesson studying” in initial teacher education

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study an adapted version of lesson used with mentors and student-teachers in a one-year initial teacher education (ITE) programme for prospective teachers of geography and modern languages. In partnership with eight secondary schools, the effectiveness of the lesson study cycle was evaluated as a vehicle for exploration of approaches to aid student-teacher learning during school placements. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 12 lesson study case studies were completed and analysed. Findings – Three principal findings emerged: first, most collaborating mentors and student-teachers reported that they engaged in a reflexive process, exploring the complexity of teaching, each learning more about the characteristics of teaching; second, in cases where collaboration allowed student-teachers a degree of autonomy, lesson study provided a collaborative scaffold for understanding the complexity of teaching, contributing to professional development along a continuum whi...

Locating place in school geography – experiences from the pilot GCSE

Geography, as with all subjects, has a set of organising principles and concepts. One of the central concepts which underpins the subject is that of place. However, it is very much the case that this is an evolving concept, which has taken on a number of guises over time. This paper reviews some of the major changes in perspectives on place as a concept in both academic and school-based approaches before discussing how school-level geography has recently begun to address the conceptual elements of the subject using place as an example. Using the pilot GCSE syllabus for 14–16 years as a case study, it is demonstrated that school-level students are now beginning to take the opportunity to understand conceptual elements of the subject rather than merely concentrating on the subject content. As such it is discussed how this enables students to gain a deeper understanding of the subject.