IMPLEMENTATION OF THE LESSON STUDY APPROACH AND ITS POSSIBLE APPLICATION FOR QUALITY EDUCATION.
Martin Surya Putra
State Polytechnics of Samarinda
A lot of attempts have been made by different parties: the Department of Education, Universities and schools to improve and upgrade the standard of our national education. General opinions developed within the Indonesian society nowadays have revealed that our education standard is not satisfactory and is at the stage of declining. Compared to
Another interesting hotly debated issue is the expansion of international standard schools in
Apart from debates upon the direction of the national education standard, we have forgotten that not only do we need to merely focus on the instructional issues, methods or techniques, but also on the future generation who attain the lessons in class, that is students. It was for the student-centered focus that an approached called “Lesson Study” was born and disseminated to different countries. The paper tries to reveal how this approach works and helps our future generation to more effectively learn their lessons at schools and to propose how this approach could possibly be adopted by other schools in
What is lesson study?
Lesson study is an observation toward the actual study process that takes place in the classroom, done by a number of teachers in order to improve their own professionalism. What they do is to collaboratively start with the planning of the study to be conducted in the classroom, implement the actual study in the classroom observed by their partners (the group), and finally conduct a reflection on what has been done. Therefore, there are three (3) main stages in lesson study: planning, implementation and reflection.
Many people have assumed for far, that lesson study is a teaching method or a teaching technique that is commonly used in classroom to improve the teacher’s performance in delivering instructions to his students. This is certainly a misinterpretation towards lesson study. It is not a teaching method or a teaching technique, and neither is it a model of sustainable teacher training. The philosophy behind lesson study is to enable the teacher to teach better by improving their students’ attainment. What this translates is by having a professional teacher, students will study better, and this will finally lead to the improved education quality.
The activity engaged in lesson study is an open lesson to be let observed by other teachers or other educational stakeholders. Fernandez (2001; 2) highlights the core activity in lesson study as to enable teachers to collaboratively work on a small number of “study lessons”. These lessons are called ‘study’ lessons because they are used to examine the teachers’ practice. Lesson study is not intended to display a perfect lesson to be adopted by particular teachers to perform, but its focus is more concentrated on observing and analyzing the students’ learning activities in the classrooms, that is how they interact with the teacher, how they attain and comprehend the lesson delivered, and how they respond to the topic taught within the lesson, to the techniques and method implemented in their class. What is expected from doing this observation is both the observers and the observee can share experiences they will be gaining from the classroom atmosphere. They can then use what they will be gaining for their own benefits to improve their own quality from time to time and students will also improve their learning quality from time to time.
History of Lesson Study
Lesson study is a professional development process that Japanese teachers engage in to systematically examine their practice with the goal to improve the effectiveness of the experiences that teachers provide for their students (Lesson Study Research Group, Isrg@columbia.edu, 2001). In fact, it was initiated in 1890s in
In
Mathematics and science being the initial focus of lesson study is because the method of teaching science subjects in Indonesia has always been monotonous, predominantly occupied only by lecturing method followed by doing exercises on the available textbooks. Students just listen to their teacher explaining the lesson from A to Z ending with “Do you have any questions?” Well if you don’t, let’s do exercise 1”. Students do not get much access to more practical experience to do laboratory experiment, which would help them boost the learning process. They just have to memorize what they have studied, and this would gradually be faded by the time they are confronted to the final exams.
The world Bank (2005) cited in Saito et all (2006; 172) saw the necessity for continuous professional development programs. Joni (2000) cited in Saito et all commented that in-service programs in the country are seldom capable of addressing the realities faced by teachers in the classrooms. And JICA (2003) citied in Saito et all viewed that in-service training programs tend to be delivered as lecture and there are few impacts of training in real classroom situations, therefore, there is a strong necessity that more in-service training for teachers in Indonesia should be based on real teaching practices in the classroom through collaboration with other teachers. All these views can be interpreted that a lot of in-service programs given to teachers have become ineffective because they are not given in an integrative way or are in isolation. In the educational context, such isolation is known as a mono-discipline approach, which, according to Banathy (1991) cited in Pannen and Malati, an approach that views education as fragmented or disconnected (1997; 4). This view can certainly be applied only on a particular discipline partially and is based on particular independent theories. Education should be formulated in an integrative, complete and comprehensive system, as Mudyhardjo (1993) cited in Pannen and Malati defines that a system is a unity of different elements or parts that have a functional relationship and interact dynamically to achieve the expected result. So to sum up, education is holistic human works formed by different parts having functional relationship in an effort to achieve the final goal.
A study of the partnership between schools and universities to improve science and mathematics education in
Types of Lesson Study
Under the IMSTEP (the Indonesian Mathematics and Science Teacher Education Project) funded by JICA, lesson study, due to the benefits gained from this project, was then developed into: 1) the MGMP(Musyawarah Guru Mata Pelajaran)-Based Lesson Study and 2) School-Based Lesson Study.
1) The MGMP-Based Lesson Study
MGMP has been in operation for a long time where teachers teaching a particular subject, get together on a regular basis in an appointed centralized school to equalize their perception, to discuss educational issues, trends, examination systems, test model, coverage of topics of the subject they teach in. With the inclusion of lesson study as part of their MGMP routine meetings, not only do they discuss the coverage of topics in planning their lesson, but also the open class with a model teacher conducting a real teaching in the classroom observed by their colleagues and followed by reflection on different aspects right form lesson plan, opening the lesson, presenting the materials, distributing hand-outs and assessment worksheets.
Upon the charity of PT Sampoerna as part of their community development program and dedication to improving the quality of education, MGMP routine meetings in Pasuruan have been inviting the lesson study professional advisors from State University of Malang under the company’s budget. This program, however, is unfortunately still restricted to focus only on science: physics, chemistry and biology, and mathematics, but hopefully in the future it could also be extended to cover the other subjects. Based on the observation conducted in Pasuruan, the advisors have been working very hard and have always been fully-prepared and innovative in providing guidance and services to the science and mathematics teachers. One thing that I noticed extraordinary is that they are sensitive to paying attention to details, which means that they can always see weaknesses from different angles and try to put the proper solution to everything. They also showed very detailed steps required to be taken and followed by science teachers when teaching their subjects, and gave additional practical knowledge gained from Japan to be transferred to the MGMP teachers.
2) The School-Based Lesson Study
Unlike MGMP attended by teachers of a particular subject, the school-based lesson study is an opened class attended by any teachers teaching any subjects in a concerned school. Each teacher in the school implementing this type of lesson study is expected to have his/ her open class once a year for observation. The head master is expected to lead the observation and to give inputs and corrections at the reflection stage. The curriculum or syllabus designer within the school should make a routine schedule for lesson study and allocate the budget for this activity.
SMA Laboratorium State University of Malang has been implementing this school-based lesson since 2005. My interview with the teachers in this school reveals they have positive responses towards the implementation of this approach, and commented that the teachers gain benefits from experiences shared by their colleagues. Students’ motivation in particular, has also enhanced quite considerably with the existence of observation, as they know that they are being watched, supervised and evaluated. Two male students, for examples, were easily found out to have been absent when a lesson study was being conducted in their class, and were immediately called by the vice head master for clarification in SMA Laboratorium of Malang observed.
Stages in Lesson Study
There are three (3) stages required in lesson study: plan, implement/ do and see. During the first stage: plan, teachers collaboratively analyze their subject syllabus content. Our KTSP (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan) curriculum now requires that teachers to develop their own lesson contents, unlike the previous curriculum which tended to be more centralistic. Assessment is obviously made on the competence standard, basic competence and indicator formulation as stated in the syllabus.
Plan
This first stage can be done in a regular meeting in the concerned school where lesson study is being conducted or can alternatively be brought into a regular MGMP meeting in an appointed school. Another thing that needs to be done in this stage is to study the lesson or to examine the materials, to decide what method to be used and what media to be used later when teaching. Students’ hand outs or worksheet (LKS) should also be planned. It is suggested that a school that has never implemented lesson study to find assistance from a lesson-study expert advisor either from universities trained under JICA, or from a lesson-study well-trained teacher. A teacher opening his/ her class for an observation should also be determined at this stage.
Implement (Do)
In the implementation or the do stage, the model teacher starts to implement his instruction in the classroom based on the planning or the first stage. The other teachers observe how the students learn with focusing on: how they work in individual or in group, how they respond to the teacher’s questions, how they pay attention to the lesson, what areas they have weaknesses and strengths. Concentration should be directed on the students’ work, motivation to learn and eagerness to share with his peer(s). The instruction, on the other hand, should be given as effective and efficient as possible as planned and anything distracting students’ concentration should be avoided. Remember that the teacher acts as a facilitator, while a lot of activities will be actively done by students (students-centered).
The other teachers who are being the observers should not distract the learning process nor should they help students, give comments or gestures, talk to the other observers, or come and leave the room during their observing the class. What they need to do is to carefully examine the classroom atmosphere with the worksheets provided and write their on own notes whenever it is necessary. The main focus of observation is the students’ learning activities, that is how they attain what is being instructed, how the lesson can be best given, how they interact with each other, and how they interact with the teacher and the teaching media used by the teacher. Observation would be more effective when students are seen closed by sitting near their tables, instead of sitting far behind at the back of the classroom away from their activities. Observers should be more focused on their leaning behaviors. Depending on the number of observers attending the open class, each observer can be assigned to observe one group of students. An observer regularly attending a number of observations, can observe more than one group.
See (Reflect)
When the lesson is over, reflection should immediately be done and should not be delayed until the week after. This is because the observers’ memory towards what has happened in the classroom is still being fresh and will be declining by the time the reflection is conducted long after the implementation. The model-teacher should be given a chance to reflect himself on what his impression is towards his lesson and students, why he chose such a method or approach and teaching media, how he relates them to the lesson plan, and whether or not the learning process has been successful.
The observers, then reflect their opinions and ideas towards the students not the model-teacher as their focus of attention, that is, how they attain the lesson, how they interact with each other and with the teacher in responding to the instruction, what they have been doing. Ideas that have been expressed by an observer should not be repeated in a different way, as it would waste time and would not produce an expected input for everyone to share. The discussion should cover the actual situation seen in the classroom not an expectation towards what would happen. All facts should be expressed in clarity that it will be easy for the others to analyze why or why not students attain something during the teaching-learning process.
What the teachers can obtain from this reflection is they can obtain something based on their observation i.e. what should be referred to for the next teaching-learning process in their own classes, and what things need to be improved for their own students. One thing that teachers should be aware of is that human-being is unique, which means that the application of the same method or approach and the same media will be varied from class to class, and will not be producing exactly the same results. Teachers should not take into account an assumption that it will just be of the same pattern from time to time. There should be an enthusiasm within the teachers’ side to always try to improve and to enhance the current condition. In the MGMP-lesson-study assisted by the lesson-study expert advisers, the advisers would normally give more input based on their practical and academic knowledge and provide further advice for future improvement.
REFERENCES
Fernandez Clea., (2001), Lesson Study Research Group (LSRG), www.tc.edu/ lessonstudy, accessed 3rd April 2009
Pannen Paulina, Malati Ida (1997), Pendidikan Sebagai Sistem, Landasan-Landasan Pendidikan, Pusat antar universityas untuk peningkatan dan pengembangan aktivitias instruksional, Direktorat Jenderal Pendidikan Tinggi, Departmen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan.
Saito Eisuke, et all (2006) Indonesian Lesson Study in Practice: Case Study of Indonesian Mathematics and Science Teacher Education Project, Journal of In-service Education, Vol. 32, No. 2, June 2006, page 171-184, On-line Journal: International Professional Development Association (IPDA)
Saito Eisuke, et all (2006) A study of the partnership between schools and universities to improve science and mathematics education in Indonesia, International Journal of Educational Development 27 (2007), 194-204 MA Laboratorium Malang
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