Lesson Study in Higher education

Lesson study is a growing area of higher education (HE) and promotes professional development opportunities for pedagogy in ways that other forms of research and professional engagement lack. It can promote faculty cohesion through collaborative working and enables teaching staff to gain stronger insights into teaching and learning through its intense focus on the students’ engagement. Despite the noted benefits of using lesson study in HE to develop lecturers’ pedagogical content knowledge, for some, self-imposed barriers, arising from being a leading specialist in a particular field, can act in contraposition to the collaborative planning process and thus negate its potential.

University professors are known for their expertise and professional development often involves research engagement in their subject area, the extent of which may include a growing self-awareness and an understanding of positionality in relation to pedagogical content knowledge. Reflection is thus a key tool for individual development, but it can also result in the manifestation of constraining parameters that can exclude or restrict much input from colleagues due to a perceived disparity in expertise. However, I argue in this symposium that once these obstacles are addressed, collaboration through lesson study can actually generate more efficient networking in HE and effective co-reflective processes, subsequently leading to a substantial growth in both general pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge.