Lesson Study and Schools as Learning Communities

Asian School Reform in Theory and Practice

Atsushi Tsukui,Masatsugu Murase

• Editore: Routledge
• Anno: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781317426769
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Education
• Categoria: Education Teaching Methods

School as Learning Community (SLC), or Lesson Study for Learning Community (LSLC) represents an approach to lesson study that emerged in Japan in the 1990s and which has been studied intensively by educators and researchers worldwide to establish democratic learning communities for teachers and students in schools. The model, which involves all teachers in a school observing and sharing a lesson together, creates a listening pedagogy to embrace and develop diversity of learning in each teacher and student – a practice that is as yet, not commonly researched in Asian countries outside of Japan. The book's theoretical foundation reviews existing literature on SLC and LSLC in the Japanese contexts of educational theories and practices. The chapters discuss patterns of learning practices and the challenges of conducting LSLC in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Recommendations for research and practice involving SLC/LSLC are also provided in the book with a key focus on the impact of lesson study on school reform policies.

Part I
Theory of SLC

1
Spread and progress of School as Learning Community in Asia

Manabu Sato

Introduction: keystones and backdrop of School as Learning Community

School as Learning Community (SLC), which I designed approximately 30 years ago, has laid roots nationwide across Japan during the past 20 years (Claude & Sato, 2007; Sato, 2008). Currently, more than 350 pilot schools are active, which provide more than 1,000 open workshops each year. As a result, the total numbers that joint schools reach are 1,500 elementary and 2,500 secondary schools.

At the same time, since 2000, SLC has spread its wings abroad to such countries and area as China, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand, among others. It has grown into one of the most powerful school reform movements in Asia and wires together a robust international network that goes beyond national borders. This chapter depicts a brief history, its backdrop, the spread and the progress of SLC in global spheres (Saito et al., 2015).

What is SLC?

SLC is not a technical approach but a set of three components-vision, philosophies and activity systems. It redefines the school of the 21st century as a ‘learning community’, where students learn together, teachers learn together for professional development and even parents learn together through active participation in school reform. This definition is derived from two so-called public missions: the realization of human right to learn for all children and preparation for a democratic society.

In pursuit of the above public missions, SLC advocates three doctrines of public philosophy, demanding that teachers open their classrooms: a philosophy of democracy as ‘a mode of associated living’ (Dewey, 1916), which enables students, teachers and parents to be ‘protagonists’ and a philosophy of excellence to enhance ‘high quality’ learning.

The activity systems of SLC also include three components: collaborative learning in the classroom, collegiality in the staffroom and learning participation by parents.

This idea has captured the attention of teachers, accompanied by great success at ‘hard schools’ attended by at-risk children from poor areas, and has also encouraged democratic professionalism among teachers.

Reflecting on the spread and progress of SLC, the two canons that have been the keystones of SLC are the redefinition of learning and the ‘listening pedagogy’.

SLC redefines learning itself. Learning is not a simple process of accumulating an amount of knowledge or acquiring mechanical skills, but a journey from the known world to the unknown world, in which learners encounter and interact with the new world, new others and a new self. Therefore, learning is not a natural process, but rather a cultural, social and ethical practice integrating three dialogic practices: dialog with object, dialog with peers and dialog with self. Consequently, learning is a sophisticated process of the retexturing and re-contextualizing meanings and relations (Lewis, Akita, & Sato, 2010; Sato, 2008).

‘Listening pedagogy’ is another keystone of SLC. ‘Listening to the other’s voice’ is a starting point of learning and often a springboard to learning. The listening relationship prepares dialogic communication, which constitutes the dialogic practice of learning. It is ironic that, while school is a place where the importance of dialog is frequently mentioned, it is usually dominated by monolog. Listening pedagogy is a powerful strategy to shift the dominant monolog to a restorative dialog in both classrooms and the staff room.

The listening relationship does not merely change the classroom discourse for enhanced learning, but fosters democracy within a school. It encourages students, teachers and parents to be protagonists. Indeed, listening to the other’s voice is a strong base for democracy. Dewey (1927) wrote the following excerpt in the conclusion to his book about political philosophy:

The connection of the ear with vital and out-going thought and emotion are immensely close and more varied than those of eyes. Vision is a spectator; hearing is a participant.

(p. 219)

What is more, the ‘listening pedagogy’ generates caring relations among students and teachers. As Noddings (1992) noted, caring relations, relationships between the cared and the cared for, are basically responsive relations which are constructed through listening relations. Thus, a learning community derived from listening relationships is also a caring community.

An all-encompassing consideration of SLC reveals the following characteristic features of its approach to school reform.

• a SLC is not a recipe, a technique or a formula, but a combination of a vision, philosophies and the activity systems.
• b SLC is not a single approach, but an integrated and holistic practice for collaborative and reflective learning, learning-centered lesson study, professional collegiality, school autonomy and the democratization of school policies in pursuit of the human right to learning for all children and professional growth of every teacher.
• c SLC fundamentally relies on a ‘listening relationship’. A ‘listening relationship’ makes communication dialogic, which enables learning to become ‘jumping with peers’.
• d SLC is not a ‘movement’ but a ‘network’, so that it is decentralized and diversified. It has no boss and no center. ‘You are the center, and your classroom is the center’ is its creed. In this sense, the community is less like a coral but more like an orchestra.

A brief history of SLC in the world

SLC in Japan

The above-mentioned canons and conceptions of SLC were enthusiastically grasped by progressive teachers, principals and educational administrators. The first pilot school of SLC was founded at the Hamanogo Elementary School in 1998, having been advocated by the Board of Education in Chigasaki City, near Tokyo. It was the first public school to declare a mission in defense of public education and against neo-liberal attacks on public education. The impact was huge, with thousands of teachers visiting the Hamanogo School every year, and TV channels, newspapers and magazines reporting on the school nearly every month.

Three years later, in 2002, the Gakuyo Junior Secondary School in Fuji City, at the bottom of Mt. Fuji, launched SLC reform; it was the first pilot school in junior secondary education. In addition, the Attached High School of the University of Tokyo became the first pilot school in senior secondary education.

Since then, SLC schools have rapidly spread nationwide. About 350 pilot schools have been established; more than 3,000 schools have joined SLC networks, and nearly a million copies of books documenting the SLC approach have been sold over the past 20 years.

SLC has been welcomed mainly at ‘hard schools’ in high-poverty areas. Miraculous success has furnished these ‘hard schools’. If a school introduced the SLC approach with a U-shaped desk and chair arrangement and small-group, collaborative learning, even though the school had been suffering from school vandalism, ‘escape from learning’, or, in other words, truancy or neglect in learning, school refusal and low achievement, then the school experienced drastic change: six months later, there was no vandalism and no ‘escape from learning’; one year later, there was a drastic decrease in school refusal and dropping out, and two years later, there was a remarkable increase in test scores.

SLC in the United States and Mexico

After five years of domestic diffusion, SLC has gradually expanded beyond national borders. The first SLC expansion abroad was in the United States and Mexico from 2002 to 2006. In the United States, SLC was introduced when I was visiting professors at Harvard University and New York University in 2002, and I was honored to be invited to the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) as a presidentially invited keynote speaker in 2006 (Sato, 2008).

In Mexico, it was a pleasure to be invited as a policy advisor to the Secretaria de Educacion (Ministry of Education) several times from 2000 to 2002 and as an invited professor of El Colegio de Mexico in 2001 in order to resist neo-liberal educational reform. Mexico City and several local cities adopted ideas from the SLC approach.

At this moment, I could not have imagined that the SLC approach would be approved in the Asian region. It was truly surprising for me that SLC was enthusiastically accepted by Asian countries, often more so than in Japan, in Korea, China, the Taiwan area, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand.

SLC in South Korea

South Korea was the first country in Asia to introduce the SLC approach.

Son Woojung, currently a professor of Korea National University of Education is a central leader for SLC in Korea, who earned a Ph.D. at The University of Tokyo, while being mentored by me. After several years of trials in the Pusan area, in 2008, she attained great success at the Ewoo School in Seoul, a representative alternative school. After that, a drastic SLC movement occurred among public teachers. Within this movement, Son Woojung established the Korea Institute of School as Learning Community.

Korean SLC has been promoted by three forces. The first force is the translation of my seven books concerning SLC. The books have been bestsellers in education and facilitated teachers to reframe theory in teacher practice.

The second force is the amazing leadership of Son Woojung. She has visited nearly or more than 200 schools in a year to supervise SLC practice by teachers. Currently, the Korea Institute of School as Learning Community embraces 140 supervisors who assist with SLC practice nationwide.

The third force is the ‘innovative school’ movement promoted by the ‘innovative superintendents’. The first ‘innovative superintendent’ was elected in Gyeonggi Province in 2012. He studied the SLC style pilot school and its network and invented the ‘innovative school’ movement. Three years later, the number of the ‘innovative superintendents’ increased from one to six, all of whom promoted the SLC approach at the ‘innovative schools’ in their Provinces. Currently, 15 out of 17 superintendents, including two conservative ones, support the SLC approach. Therefore, SLC has been the most powerful school reform in South Korea.

Two issues should be taken into consideration. The first is the balance of SLC components. In South Korea, while nearly 500 pilot schools are active, about 90% of them are secondary schools. SLC should expand to elementary schools that are struggling against conservativeness. The second issue is partnerships with university professors. In contrast to other Asian countries, South Korean SLC schools seldom obtain collaborative partnerships with university professors. These two issues are unavoidable items for the agenda of the future of SLC in South Korea.

SLC in China

SLC in China has developed over a long time. The first stage of SLC in China took place in the late 1990s, when voluntary research groups in Shanghai translated my books and papers to discuss SLC with teachers. My two books were translated and published in 2003, an academic theory book for researchers and a practical book for teachers, both of which quickly became best sellers. In particular, a book entitled Silent Revolution was read by teachers who researched innovative practice for 21st century. At this stage, SLC was regarded as the most robust foundation for ‘Quality Education’ in the curriculum reform declared in 2002.

The second stage began with my invited lecture at the People Congress in 2006. After that, many local bureaus of education adopted SLC for school reform in cities such as Shanghai, Pudong, Beijing, Harbin, Xianyang, Xian, Chengdu, Chongqing and more. The trials were countless, but with no organization and no network.

The third stage was set in motion with the 4th International Conference of School as Learning Community at Beijing Normal University (BNU) in 2016. After the conference, Zhu Xudong, Dean of the School of Education, announced that BNU would establish the National Center of School as Learning Community and hired Yu Lili, who had studied SLC under my mentorship for ten years at the University of Tokyo as a research lecturer. The Center currently founds new pilot schools and their networks nationwide. There are many varied agencies promoting SLC in China. The National Center of BNU is an umbrella for them, acting as a central hub for SLC.

Rapid and wide diffusion of SLC in China is a result of incredible progress in the quality of education in accordance with the rapid economic growth of the past 15 years. SLC, and its miraculous success in Japan, is the most fascinating model of schooling to pursue in the 21st century.

SLC in China is made up of characteristic features. First, in China, philosophy and vision of SLC have deeply captured teachers’ heart. Even though SLC practice is hard to perform in the Chinese context, principals and teachers manage to practice with a strong belief in the philosophy of SLC.

Second, the expeditious progress in the quality of teaching is apparent. Teaching practices in Chinese pilot schools are mostly excellent. The secret basis for this success might be the excellent professional leadership of principals. Most of the principals of SLC pilot schools hold the highest qualifications, authenticating the excellence of their teaching.

Third, in contrast to South Korea, 90% of Chinese SLC schools are at the elementary level. Therefore, opening an avenue for expanding the SLC approach to secondary schools is one of the most critical items on the agenda in China.

The Taiwan and Hong Kong areas

The Taiwan area shows a different landscape for SLC. The introduction of SLC to Taiwan occurred nearly ten years later than other Asian countries, but most quickly. Taiwanese teachers used to say, ‘just one book changed Taiwanese education’. The book, enti...

Indice dei contenuti

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Notes on contributors
• List of tables
• List of figures
• Preface
• PART I Theory of SLC
• PART II Practice of SLC
• Index