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Facilitating Lesson Study Discussion
Dr Yeap Ban Har | yeapbanhar@gmail.com |
www.singaporelessonstudy.blogspot.com | Marshall Cavendish Institute
The session focuses on observing, documenting, analysing and discussing a
research lesson. Several frameworks will be described to facilitate rich
observations. The facilitator will also demonstrate a post-lesson discussion. Six
elements of post-lesson discussion will be discussed.
Articulate Professional Learning Goal |
All discussion related to lesson study is guided by the professional learning goal. It
acts as a lens to observe and discuss observations.
What is your team’s professional learning goal?
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Does it have the features of professional learning goals?
Professional learning goals is focused on student characteristics.

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Summarizing Lesson Observation |
Based on your observation notes, (1) describe one scenario which you find
interesting, (2) interpret it, and (3) ask a question about it.
Example: When students were watching the video and finding words to describe
the characters in the story, they were able to find adjectives to describe the
characters. However, I saw this group struggling when the character’s behavior
was out of character.
My interpretation is that ….
The question I have is that ….
During post-lesson discussion, one structure observers can use to share their
findings is given above (What did I see? What is my interpretation? What is my
question?). This Observation-Interpretation-Question format acts as a lens / sieve
for the large amount of data that an observer may have.
Post-Lesson Discussion & Lesson Refinement Discussion |
What is the essential difference between these two types of discussion?
Post-lesson discussion is a data-driven discussion.
In lesson refinement meetings, team members discuss questions that remain
unanswered after the research lesson and post-lesson discussion.
They raise what-if questions. What if the same lesson is done with another group
of students? What if the students are high ability? What if this is a remedial lesson?
What of more technology is employed? What is this is lesson conducted out of the
classroom?

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Demonstration of Post-Lesson Discussion and Lesson Refinement Discussion
During the session, the facilitator leads a discussion of a research lesson that has
already been conducted.
What do you notice about the role of the facilitator?
What are some strategies that you see used by the facilitator to help transform data
into professional knowledge?
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Elements of discussion
1. Key Question
2. Instructions Between Desks
3. Polishing
4. Turning Point of the Lesson
5. Summing Up
6. Board Writing