Implementing Japanese lesson study as a professional development tool in South Africa

Continuous professional development is an integral part of the professional life of teachers since learning is a life-long activity. Lesson study is a practical approach to promoting teachers’ professional development. Lesson study refers to teachers’ classroom-based collaborative research to bring teachers together to work collaboratively to plan a lesson. In South Africa, there is a dire need for teachers’ professional development due to many challenges in professional development in this country. However, there is very little documented research into the implementation of lesson study in South Africa. This study explored the Japanese Lesson Study to improve teaching quality and to learn in South Africa. The researchers adopted qualitative research with an interpretivist paradigm to explicit participants’ experiences of lesson study. A purposive sampling technique was employed to select three participants in a school from Gauteng Province, South Africa. The findings revealed that participants appreciated the workshop and gained knowledge of a good understanding of the lesson study. All the participants acknowledged the awareness of their professional development as a motivating factor for them to continue to plan and work together. The researchers recommended that lesson studies be implemented with teachers from different grades and phases. School leaders should become ambassadors for setting up communities of practice within their schools, districts and provinces. Further studies should be carried out with similar grades in a phase and also in phase planning.