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BLENDED
FROM GOOD TO GREAT
Interview Peter Dudley
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means that everyone in the group is viewed by the group as equal learners . Ideas are treated with respect and taken seriously . When this happens the group quickly established itself as a learning community of practice and united behind the task of helping the pupils in question learn more effectively . Teachers lose themselves in the work of the group and start to use what Neil Mercer calls ‘ exploratory talk ’ to build detailed ideas together about sections of the research lesson , imagining the learning that will happen as a result , sometimes even going into role using their teacher voice to rehearse how something might be said ( in a planning meeting ) or how something might have been said differently ( in a post lesson analysis meeting ). My research at Cambridge showed that teachers move on in their thinking and practice the most when they are hypothesising about a specific element of a lesson or when they are ‘ rehearsing ’ it in role using their teacher voice and imagining the pupil reactions . The best way to create and protect this safe space within the lesson study group is to devise a simple protocol that promotes such conditions . There is an example of one in the LSUK Lesson Study Handbook which can be accessed here .
Your association covers both lesson and learning studies . What is learning study ? Learning study is branch of lesson study , mainly developed in Hong Kong and Sweden . It uses ‘ variation theory ’ to help you to analyse the key characteristics of the object of learning that distinguish it from anything else .
From the website : ‘ Variation Theory was initially developed by Professor Ference Marton and is a theory of learning . It is used to frame Learning Studies . When using Variation Theory a teacher will identify the aspects
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of the lesson content that is critical for students ’ understanding . The teacher can then use patterns of variation in these critical aspects to help students to discern differences and therefore learn .’ The International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies ( IJLLS ) publishes lesson and learning studies that are pedagogically aimed at improving the quality of teaching and learning in formal educational settings . It should be seen as a growing toolbox , with theories as well as practical ideas about learning and teaching that have been developed through lesson studies . Variation theory is one amongst a number of high currency theories of learning current at the moment . We should apply good theories as we apply good tools . There is not one learning theory to rule them all . All registered WALS members gain full access to the Journal ( website ). Why should teachers engage with research in the first place ? Shouldn ’ t they just teach ? We do suffer from the fact that education is not always viewed as a science . Because everyone has been a student at some time , everyone seems to have their own ‘ expert ’ view on what really works . Politicians do this as well . And because there is not a centuries old tradition of educational research in the West in comparison with other professions such as medicine educators are often vulnerable to fashions , fads and political whim . Fins have a stronger tradition of researching their teaching and pedagogies . ( Finnish Lessons ). Countries like Japan have a tradition of lesson study research in schools contributing to a national knowledge base of what is changing and developing in how children learn and how the curriculum needs to adapt to support these changes ( Kuno 2015 ). We can all see where Japan sits – high in the international comparisons . So in my opinion we are still quite immature in the way we use very large