Pre-service teachers’ experiences of a lesson study approach as a form of student support

Abstract

This paper reports on how a team of final-year pre-service teachers experienced a lesson study approach, as a program-specific form of student support. Guided by Bandura's social learning theory, this purposive qualitative case study reveals how the pre-service teachers' engagement in the lesson study approach triggered feelings of commitment, dedication and motivation to succeed in the process of developing well-structured lesson presentations for a teaching practicum experience. The paper describes how the lesson study approach allowed the team of pre-service teachers to engage in collaborative practices which enabled them to share creative lesson ideas in a small-group format. The paper further reports on the lesson reflection experiences encountered by the pre-service teachers which empowered them to reflect and learn from their fellow peers' teaching experiences. The paper suggests that the lesson study approach, as a form of student support, serves as a valuable intervention that has the potential to better the lesson preparation capabilities of pre-service teachers in development. Further research should consider a larger sample that might render more diverse experiences in terms of how pre-service teachers experience a lesson study approach.