Content area
Full text
1. Introduction
In an article in Educational Researcher , [14] Morris and Hiebert (2011) propose a system that centres on the creation of shared, changeable knowledge products as one way to solve the problem of variation in educational quality from one school to another. They suggest the Japanese lesson study ([16] Yoshida, 1999) as an example of such a system in education. A lesson study, they argue, creates joint and shareable knowledge products in terms of lesson plans which could serve as a resource for other teachers. However, how specific is such a knowledge product to the school culture? How do "other teachers" appropriate a lesson plan produced for quite different conditions? In this paper we will report on a study with the purpose of examining how such a "knowledge product" produced in one context could be communicated, shared and adapted to a new classroom context. A group of Swedish teachers made use of and improved an instructional product developed in a school in Hong Kong. The approach used by the teachers there was a refined version of a lesson study, called a Learning Study ([2] Runesson, 2008; [7] Lo et al. , 2006; [10], [13] Marton and Pang, 2003, 2006). The knowledge product was not a traditional lesson plan but a description of features of the topic taught that they had identified as being necessary to bring out to the learners in order to enhance learning.
2. Lesson and Learning Study - some similarities and differences
Both the Lesson and Learning Studies are cyclic processes of planning and revising lessons. That is, setting a learning goal, reflecting on previous experience, consulting the literature, teaching the lesson in a natural setting with other teachers observing, analysing the lesson from the point of view of how the learning goals were achieved and revising the lesson on the basis of this. The new lesson plan is then developed and implemented in a new class with new learners. What is then specific about a Learning Study?
One significant feature of a Learning Study is that the approach is based on an explicit theoretical framework which has implications for the focus of the process, as well as for what comes out of the process - the knowledge product....