Characterizing teachers' collective learning through lesson study as document development: a case study in China

PurposeThis study aimed to explore how an adapted theoretical framework by networking two theories could help document teachers' collective learning through lesson study.Design/methodology/approachInterconnected Model of Teacher Professional Growth (IMPG) and Documentational Approach to Didactics (DAD) has been used individually to document teachers' professional learning from different aspects. The IMPG captures teachers’ growth through the iterative process and dynamics (i.e. enactment and reflection) among four domains (personal domain, external domain, practice domain and consequence domain). At the same time, the DAD primarily focuses on teacher learning through the interactions between resources and teachers. To deepen understanding of teachers' learning through lesson study, in this study, a networked theoretical framework through which the DAD model is enriched by incorporating some ideas from IMPG is proposed. A lesson study, including five stages of study, plan, enact, reflect and refine, facilitated by a researcher was conducted in Shanghai China. The data sets including all videotaped meetings and research lessons and lesson plans of the lesson study are analyzed based on the adapted framework qualitatively.FindingsThe results show that the teachers' document evolved from adopting the traditional teaching materials to adapting both traditional ones and e-resources with careful consideration of student learning through the lesson study process.Research limitations/implicationsThis study advances our understanding of networking strategies and their usefulness for deepening teacher professional learning as document development through lesson study. However, the sustainability of this type of professional learning needs to be further explored.Originality/valueThis study expands teacher learning through lesson study as the document development and enriches the DAD theory by illuminating the process of the documentational genesis.