WALS 2024: how Lesson Study can change a country
In November 2024, a small delegation of the LIFT project team visited the yearly conference of the World Association of Lesson Studies (WALS). This conference was held in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. The location was special, as members from the WALS community, in particular Elaine Wilson and Pete Dudley, had worked with the Nazarbayev Intellectual schools in Astana, on a program to develop and implement a new teacher training program in which Lesson Study played a central role. Nazarbayev Intellectual schools was also the host organization of the conference.
It was clear from day one of the conference that the organizers and the country are proud on their achievements in Lesson Study. The conference was announced on the national news, and both the vice-prime minister and the minister of education attended the opening ceremony. The latter shared that in the last decade, around 80 000 teachers were engaged in Lesson Study activities, a very impressive number. And this policy has results, for instance, Kazakhstan is climbing in the PISA rankings. We thought this was an excellent example of what a focused education policy can achieve, which might be a good example for other countries. Approximately 600 people participated in the conference of which more than half were teachers from Kazakhstan. Having such a big turnout from teachers is quite special for international educational conferences.
Sui Lin Goei and Wouter van Joolingen, both in the LIFT project team, organized a workshop titled: “Debunking Lesson Study”. This workshop dealt with the question what is important in Lesson Study, where focus on Lesson Study procedures was contrasted with focusing on essential aspects, such as Lesson Study being a collaborative research activity. The workshop attracted approximately 40 attendees who engaged in lively discussions on propositions like “Lesson Study should aim at designing a perfect lesson”.
Another member of the LIFT team, Shirley Tan held a keynote speech on the third day of the conference. She elaborated on the theme of her PhD research, Bansho, a Japanese approach of carefully designing lessons with special attention for planning the use of the blackboard.
On the day after the conference, delegates were invited to visit schools in Astana and observe research lessons. One of the schools was Nazarbayev Intellectual school, a school that implements the International Baccalaureate. This school is very well equipped, and two students showed us around all rooms of the school before we could observe a lesson on ethical aspects when assessing art. This was an example of an interactive lesson and deep student involvement.
Overall, the visit to Kazakhstan left a lasting impression of how a dedicated policy, professional teachers and teacher educators in combination with Lesson Study can be a real leverage for the quality of education.
Author: Wouter van Joolingen from Utrecht University
Photos: by Wouter van Joolingen
