Lesson Study Resources
Lesson plans and reports
Search and download lesson plans and reports from our lesson reports database.
Note that these are resources to support your own planning, not tried-and-tested lessons to be implemented without adaptation.
This database is still a work in progress, so send us your feedback.
Useful articles
See this page.
Tools and useful documents
Template for a lesson research proposal
(Last revised April 4, 2018) There is no one format used for lesson study in Japan, but many groups have found this template useful for organizing their lesson study work and communicating their thinking and learning to others.
Click here to download this MS Word version.
See the revision history here.
We also recommend the template and other tools developed by the Mills College Lesson Study Group.
Guiding questions for kyouzai kenkyuu (research)
Click here to go to the webpage.
Guide for facilitating a post-lesson discussion
Here is the guide developed in San Francisco
Click here for an older version developed by LSAlliance.
Teaching guide for the 2008 Japanese Course of Study (English translation)
This document is published by the Japanese Ministry of Education as an elaboration of their national standards, discussing both the content and ideas for the teaching of that content. It is frequently consulted by Japanese teachers involved in Lesson Study as part of their kyouzai kenkyuu. We believe it can be useful to non-Japanese educators as well. The original Japanese document was translated and edited by Lesson Study Alliance personnel, as well as others, under contract with the U.S. Department of Education.
Lesson Study Research
There is an increasingly active academic and professional community conducting research on lesson study. Here is a brief listing of published source material and information on line based on this research. Hart, Murata, and Alston (eds.) Lesson Study Research and Practice in Mathematics Education, published by Springer in 2011. The link is to an on-line excerpt of commentary by Catherine Lewis of the Mills College Lesson Study Group. The Mills College Lesson Study Group maintains an extensive listing of their own and others’ research. One item in particular is a collaboration between Catherine Lewis of the Mills group and Dr. Takahashi of our Lesson Study Alliance.
Lesson Study in the news
Lesson Study, and Lesson Study Alliance, have been written up in several recent articles. Catalyst Magazine has written about lesson study and the Alliance as “an example of quality professional development that both improves their teaching and fulfills requirements for state certification renewal and salary advancement.” The New York Times, in an article headed “Why do Americans Stink at Math?” wrote about how lesson study was brought from Japan to the United States in part through the work of Dr. Akihiko Takahashi. It also describes how in
“… one experiment in which more than 200 American teachers took part in lesson study, student achievement rose, as did teachers’ math knowledge — two rare accomplishments.
WBEZ, Chicago’s NPR-affiliated radio station, featured a story on lesson study, which in part looks at the impact on individual teachers working to implement higher order thinking in their mathematics classroom. In California’s Bay Area, this article talks about the role that lesson study plays in professional development for teachers there.
Using LessonNote to capture data during a research lesson
KQED radio in San Francisco did an article on lesson study and our free iPad app, LessonNote: Lesson Study? There’s an app for that
