Lesson Study

Making a Difference to Teaching Pupils with Learning Difficulties

Brahm Norwich, Jeff Jones, Brahm Norwich, Jeff Jones

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781780935843
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Inclusive Education

Lesson Study has been developed and used in Japan for over a century and is increasingly used in the Far East, USA and now in Europe. Lesson Study shows how this powerful model of professional learning has been integrated with the principles of inclusive practice by classroom teachers in the challenging area of teaching pupils in the spectrum from Moderate Learning Difficulties (MLD) to low attainment. The book illustrates how Lesson Study has been practised and explores the optimal conditions in schools for its effective use. Essential reading for trainee and practicing teachers with an interest in how professional practice can enhance reflective practice as a means of school improvement and innovation for all pupils.

PART ONE

Introduction

The first section of the book aims to explain what is meant by Lesson Study, how it has come to prominence and the contribution it stands to make to the learning of pupils generally, and to pupils with learning difficulties in particular. It also describes the development and outcomes of the development and research project undertaken by a team from the Graduate School of Education at the University of Exeter that investigated the impact of LS on the teaching and learning of pupils with Moderate Learning Difficulties (MLD). The first chapter by Brahm Norwich and Jeff Jones introduces Lesson Study, outlines its relevance to inclusive teaching of pupils with learning difficulties and summarizes the Lesson Study-Moderate Learning Difficulties project. In the second chapter Pete Dudley explains the rationale and underlying principles of Lesson Study and suggests reasons for its use by teachers of children with MLD. In the third chapter Ruth Gwernan-Jones examines the background and contemporary ideas and research about moderate learning difficulties and pedagogic issues in teaching pupils with MLD.

1

An Introduction to Lesson Study: Its Relevance to Inclusive Teaching of Pupils with Learning Difficulties

Brahm Norwich and Jeff Jones

Introduction

Our aim in writing this book is to explain how the principles of Lesson Study work in practice for children and young people with learning difficulties, its distinctive features compared to other collaborative developmental techniques, and to offer examples from schools in the UK of its successful use by teachers in both primary and secondary schools.

The book presents an account of Lesson Study’s varied use, with particular reference to a recent development and research project at the University of Exeter that focused on secondary school teaching of pupils with moderate learning difficulties (MLD) across a range of curriculum areas. Lesson Study case studies are used to highlight teachers’ experiences of applying a Lesson Study approach to address varied pedagogic themes and questions and capture how teachers develop more inclusive teaching strategies for pupils with learning difficulties, especially those with MLD.

Lesson Study is a powerful development strategy that has its origins in Japan and has also been used internationally in Singapore, Hong Kong and the USA for many years, but less so in the UK. The key role of shared planning, teaching and assessing to improve practice was highlighted in an international review of school systems that were assessed as the most improved by the consultants McKinsey (Barber et al., 2010). Lesson Study represents just such an approach. However, its use has been mainly in the professional and teaching developments in specific subject areas, e.g. mathematics education (Hart et al., 2011). Although Lesson Study can be used in different phases and areas of education and with a focus on different pupil characteristics, we have found no references to its previous use in developing inclusive teaching of pupils with special educational needs or disabilities in ordinary schools.

In Singapore, Chia and Kee (2010) have adopted a version of Lesson Study in the training of special education teachers who teach in separate classes and schools, but not for general class teachers. Also, although there is a tradition of inquiry-based approaches to inclusive school and teaching developments (Ainscow, 2000; Miles and Ainscow, 2011; Howes et al., 2009), these approaches have not used Lesson Study practices. We chose Lesson Study as a general teaching development approach because of its previous international record of promoting pedagogic knowledge and strategies. In particular, the UK version of Lesson Study, with its focus on particular pupils’ learning (Dudley, 2004), had specific relevance to the teaching of pupils with identified special educational needs (SEN) or disabilities as part of general class teaching (see Chapter 2 for more details).

The main themes and issues dealt with in the book are:

1 the theory, practical uses and benefits of Lesson Study for pupil learning, with reference to pupils with learning difficulties;

2 how Lesson Study works in practice in different areas and phases of schooling; and

3 how Lesson Study can promote developments in areas of class teaching that continue to challenge practitioners, such as meeting the needs of pupils with learning difficulties.

In this introductory chapter, we discuss the concept of MLD as used in the UK, and explain why the focus is on this aspect of SEN. We then examine Lesson Study in more detail to show how it is relevant to developing the teaching of pupils with learning difficulties. This leads to a brief outline of the development and research project – Raising levels of achievement through lesson development for pupils with moderate learning difficulties – on which the contributors to the book collaborated as a team. The project will be called the Lesson Study-MLD project in this book. We conclude with an outline of the chapters to follow in the rest of the book.

Moderate learning difficulties

While pupils with MLD represent the largest proportion (23 per cent) of all those identified as having special educational needs in the English school system, they have tended to be neglected as a focus for educational initiatives. (Chapter 3 has more details of the relative proportion of identified pupils with SEN.) Another way to represent the incidence of identified MLD is that 2 per cent of all pupils in the English school system in 2010 (about 168,000 pupils) were identified as having MLD at School Action plus or Statement levels (see below for details of these levels). This compares with the 8.6 per cent of all pupils identified at these levels as having a SEN (DFE, 2011b). The neglect of this group can be attributed to several factors. Pupils identified with MLD come disproportionately from families who experience socio-economic disadvantage compared to other areas of SEN, such as autism, and speech and language impairment. There has also been no well-established advocacy or voluntary group dedicated to the interests of these pupils in this country.

Part of the neglect of the education of pupils with MLD comes from the uncertainties and contention about the educational definition of MLD. This is partly about whether the category refers to general low attainment (very low attaining) or whether it involves both general low attainment and low general intellectual or cognitive functioning, as indicated by low general cognitive abilities, as measured by cognitive ability or IQ tests in the score range of 50/55–70 (Norwich and Kelly, 2005). The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) definition of MLD refers to ‘much greater difficulty than their peers in acquiring basic literacy and numeracy skills and in understanding concepts’ (DfES, 2003), but the phrase ‘and in understanding concepts’ is unclear as to whether this means low cognitive abilities and, if so, how low? However, there is no doubt in the Government’s definition that MLD is regarded as a form of SEN.

This means that there will be different pupils identified as having MLD depending on how the term is understood and used. In the English SEN system, at the point of writing this book, there are three levels of special educational needs: 1. School Action; 2. School Action plus; 3. Statement. (Legislation is going through Parliament to reduce this to two levels – 1. School Action; 2. Education, Health and Care Plan). There is also a decreasing rate of identification from School Action to the Statement level. The area of SEN is also only recorded at the more significant levels of SEN, School Action plus and Statement. Table 1.1 shows recent data about the number of pupils at these two levels and in ordinary or special schools.

Table 1.1 shows that just under half of all pupils identified with MLD at the most significant level (Statement of SEN) are in primary and secondary schools, with the rest in special schools. Those with Statements and in special schools are also likely to have lower levels of attainment and have more associated difficulties (e.g. social skills, emotional and language difficulties) than those with Statements in ordinary schools (Norwich and Kelly, 2005). The table also shows that those with Statements are a minority (23 per cent) of the total identified as having MLD in the annual census; most are in ordinary schools (77 per cent), which is where the Lesson Study-MLD project was mostly focused. However, the figures above do not represent pupils identified at School Action (11 per cent), who make up about half of all those currently identified as having SEN (21 per cent).

Table 1.1 Breakdown of percentage of English pupils with MLD by level and placement in 2012 (DfE, 2012b)

Identified with MLD	School action plus	Statement
Primary schools	65,930	6,390
Secondary schools	48,790	10,895
Total in ordinary schools		17,285	49%
Special schools		17,430	51%
Total overall	114,720	34,715
	(77%)	(23%)

The difficulties of pupils with MLD – like all those with SEN – do not fit neatly into single categories. Though the above figures represent pupils’ main area of difficulties, they are likely to have other associated difficulties.

Table 1.2 shows one scheme that involves two dimensions, the degree of learning difficulties (i.e. difficulties in acquiring literacy, numeracy and understanding concepts) and whether these dif...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Also Available from Bloomsbury
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Notes on contributors
• PART ONE Introduction
• 1 An Introduction to Lesson Study: Its Relevance to Inclusive Teaching of Pupils with Learning Difficulties, Brahm Norwich and Jeff Jones
• 2 The General Rationale and Underlying Principles of Lesson Study, Pete Dudley
• 3 Pedagogy for Pupils in the Moderate Learning Difficulties–Low Attainment Spectrum, Ruth Gwernan-Jones
• PART TWO Lesson Study in Practice: Case Studies
• 4 Teachers’ Lesson Study Practice in Primary Schools, Gill Jordan
• 5 Teachers’ Lesson Study Practice in Secondary Schools, Di Hatchett
• PART THREE Lesson Study Evaluation: Ways Forward
• 6 Lessons from Evaluations of Lesson Study, Annamari Ylonen and Brahm Norwich
• 7 What Have we Learned? What are the Future Prospects and Ways Forward?, Brahm Norwich and Jeff Jones
• References
• Index
• Copyright