Dealing with the Complexity of Adaptive Teaching through Collaborative Teacher Professional Development

This chapter focuses on the challenges that teachers face in today’s heterogeneous classrooms when it comes to addressing students’ educational needs. By means of a conceptual discussion about this topic, relating to recent empirical studies in this field, we discuss whether teachers’ adaptive teaching behavior could be promoted through professional development approaches – such as Lesson Study – that focus explicitly on students’ learning. Taking students’ learning as a starting point in collaborative and classroom-based professional development approaches, one could expect that teachers gain more awareness of the variety of their students’ educational needs which, in turn, may lead to teachers better addressing these needs in classroom settings. It is argued that through such a cyclical and inquiry-based way of working, teachers may start to feel more competent and able to address the learning needs of students, leading to increasingly adaptive teaching practices. However, despite promising results in the literature, there is still much debate on the evidence of how Lesson Study influences adaptive teaching behavior in favor of all students and how this, in turn, impacts student learning. A “local proof route” to testing the effectiveness of Lesson Study might offer suitable directions

Promoting a professional school culture through lesson study? An examination of school culture, school conditions, and teacher self-efficacy

Professional school cultures, which can be characterized by teachers who take an inquiry stance and in which exchanging knowledge and collaboratively developing classroom material is common practice, receive increasing attention. However, teachers in many schools still often work in isolation and generally do not critically examine their practices. This could lead to decreased feelings of self-efficacy and could negatively impact teacher learning. To counteract such an isolationist school culture, Lesson Study, known for its integration of collaborative and inquiry-based features, could play an essential role. Using a quasi-experimental design (N = 60) including two questionnaires, this study explores whether participating in Lesson Study influences teachers’ perceptions of the school culture and conditions in their schools (such as leadership and collegial support), as well as their feelings of self-efficacy. The results reveal significant between-group differences in terms of efficacy in student engagement and significant within-group differences in the intervention group in terms of teacher autonomy and support from the school department leader as well as all teacher self-efficacy. This study could support school leaders who wish to implement, sustain or upscale Lesson Study practices in order to promote a professional school culture in their schools

Understanding teacher learning in lesson study through a cultural–historical activity theory lens

Although lesson study (LS) is widely considered a promising approach to teachers' professional development, the variation in teacher learning in LS is not yet well understood. Using a cultural–historical activity theory lens, we identify aspects of LS as a learning activity of significance for teacher learning. Using mixed-methods analysis of questionnaire and interview data drawn from 17 secondary school teachers, we find multiple variables of relevance in relation to teacher learning. This study clearly shows that participants’ understanding of and attitude toward LS are at least as important as how LS is conducted

Online lesson study:Virtual teaming in a new normal

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore how lesson study (LS) can be transitioned to an online mode,with the purpose to derive recommendations for performing online LS while being loyal to the defining elements of a face-to-face LS.Design/methodology/approach – A theoretical analysis into the core components and procedures of LS resulted in five big ideas that capture essentials of LS. Using these big ideas, constraints were derived for online LS and a pilot online LS was performed. Data were collected on the process and team members’ reflections. The experience in the pilot was mapped against the outcomes of the theoretical analysis.Findings – Setting up close collaboration and the observation of the online lesson appeared to be the most challenging issues. A set of recommendations in the form of do’s and don’ts was derived from the experience.Practical implications – The set of recommendations can be applied by practitioners who face the challenge of performing LS in an online environment, and can serve as a start for further research in online LS.Originality/value – The original contribution of the article is the combination of the theoretical analysis of LS combined with the practical experience in the pilot. This gives rise to a framework that can help understanding LS in general and online environments in particular.<br/

The ARETE Ecosystem for the Creation and Delivery of Open Augmented Reality Educational Resources: The PBIS Case Study

Augmented reality (AR) is rapidly emerging as an increasingly useful technology in educational settings. In the ARETE (Augmented Reality Interactive Educational System) H2020 project, consortium members designed and implemented an ecosystem aimed at supporting teachers in building a collaborative learning environment through the use of AR in order to improve educational experiences. In particular, one of the pilot projects aims to introduce AR into school behavior lessons for the first time, leveraging the Positive Behaviour Intervention and Support (PBIS) methodology. Specifically, in this paper we will discuss the proposed architecture within the ARETE project that incorporates AR technology into the learning process of behavior lessons to support the teaching, practice and reinforcement phases of expected behaviors. Through the combination of different technologies and systems, it is possible to create an example of a technological and innovative ecosystem designed for creating behavioral lessons in AR