Purpose This study aims to investigate how primary school mathematics lessons are implemented in Sweden and Türkiye when teaching the same object of learning and deepen understanding of how instructional design is shaped by contextual conditions and professional practices. Design/methodology/approach Grounded in variation theory, the analysis focused on how teachers vary and make discernible aspects of the object of learning through instructional enactment. A cross-case design was employed to initially compare instruction in 16 primary mathematics lessons, eight each from Sweden and Türkiye, to analytically identify four shared content areas: mental arithmetic, algorithms, problem-solving, and statistical graphs. Swedish teachers followed the model of learning study and planned lessons collaboratively, while Turkish teachers had no prior knowledge of variation theory and enacted lessons based on national subject plans (e.g. textbooks and curriculum documents). Teachers' enactment of the object of learning during instruction was analyzed using the framework of variation theory to identify patterns in how aspects of the object of learning were made visible. Findings The results revealed significant differences in the dimensions of variation of the object of learning in instructional design. Swedish teachers employed the dimension of contrast and meta-representational talk to emphasize conceptual discernment, while Turkish teachers more often used the dimension of fusion to promote procedural fluency by varying several aspects simultaneously. Research limitations/implications Variation theory can contribute to research on lesson study and learning study by providing a framework for examining how contextual conditions shape the way teachers design and teach lessons. It can also help researchers understand how different teaching practices make specific aspects of the content visible to learners. Practical implications In decentralized contexts, collaborative models like Learning Study can help teachers focus on the critical aspects of the object of learning. In centralized systems, curriculum materials and lesson plans can embed explicit patterns of variation to balance conceptual and procedural emphases. Social implications The study shows that both centralized and decentralized systems can make objects of learning discernible through different instructional patterns. This underscores the importance of context-sensitive approaches to instructional improvement. Originality/value This study contributes novel insights into how national education structures shape teachers' abilities to design lessons, with implications for research, policy, and practice.
Purpose This study examines how a Chilean mathematics lesson study community negotiates politically salient tensions that arise during post-lesson reflection, with particular attention to how unplanned classroom interactions are collectively interpreted, stabilized or deferred. Design/methodology/approach Using a qualitative case study design, the study analyzes post-lesson reflection discussions through discourse analysis and conocimiento mapping. Drawing on nepantla, conocimiento and political conocimiento, it traces how meanings are proposed, negotiated, stabilized and deferred across lesson study cycles. Findings Interpretive uncertainty emerged through interactional disruption rather than overt disagreement and was managed through discursive stabilization moves such as generalization, reframing and temporal distancing. These moves both expanded and constrained collective sense-making, stabilizing interpretation while deferring deeper engagement. Although potentially gendered interactions were not explicitly named or resolved, related concerns resurfaced in subsequent cycles, suggesting that political conocimiento developed longitudinally rather than through singular moments of critical recognition. Research limitations/implications Based on one lesson study community, findings highlight how institutional norms and relational dynamics shape what becomes discussable in collaborative professional learning. Originality/value By theorizing deferral and discursive stabilization as central mechanisms in lesson study discourse, this study challenges models that equate impact with visible insight or belief change. It argues that evaluating lesson study should include attention to how unresolved tensions shape inquiry trajectories over time.
Purpose We discuss the guided lesson and unit exploration (GLUE) Model, in which we've adapted local curriculum-based professional learning (CBPL) structures to the purposes of lesson study (LS). Our goal was to enact LS through adapting resources already devoted to pre-existing school CBPL structures. Design/methodology/approach We utilized educational criticism to disclose the connoisseurship we developed through our grassroots attempt to successively approximate the enactment of LS, using Kager et al. (2023) as a reflective framework. Findings By connecting disparate CBPL structures together into an LS macro-cycle, we sought a fixed place for LS within our school organization. We balanced the guidance of CBPL instructional coaching with the collaborative inquiry of LS by utilizing a micro–macro structure. Research limitations/implications Our reflections contribute to connoisseurship, not generalizable knowledge. While exact replication of the process we describe is implausible, our reflections may offer food for thought, edifying the work of others in their own unique school contexts. Practical implications We explore how we were able to move towards (and how we diverged from) Takahashi and McDougal's (2016) collaborative lesson research model as we adapted pre-existing professional learning structures to the collaborative study of our lessons in the context of a professional learning community (PLC). We also explore how circular organization (Romme and van Witteloostuijn, 1999) contributed to our practice of LS. Originality/value We show how LS can be a flexible, adaptable vehicle for enacting CBPL within a PLC structure as we learned from various models of LS such as Takahashi and McDougal (2016) and Maeda and Maeda (2024).
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the adapted model of lesson study implemented in an Italian upper secondary school and sustained over the past seven years. To illustrate and reflect on this approach, the paper reports an example of lesson study activity carried out during the last school year, aimed at introducing statistical models and helping students develop a meaningful understanding of the regression line. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on the description and qualitative analysis of a lesson study utilizing an iterative cycle of four successive lessons performed in four different grade 11 classes of a scientific secondary school. The systematic process of reflection and adjustment between each session serves as a powerful model, allowing teachers to track student misconceptions and difficulties. Findings The analysis underscores the value of collaborative lesson design, observation and reflection in strengthening teachers' awareness of students' thinking processes and building a professional learning community within the school. Practical implications The paper offers practical implications for mathematics educators by demonstrating how iterative reflection can bridge the gap between instructional design and student cognition. The emphasis on strengthening the link between teaching action and actual learning provides a framework for practitioners looking to move beyond formulaic instruction toward more meaningful, student-centered statistical modeling. Originality/value Overall, the study highlights the potential of lesson study as a sustainable and adaptable practice in the Italian secondary education context. It also underscores its potential to enhance teachers' awareness and confidence in promote exploratory and meaningful activities on topics often undervalued but increasingly important in today's technological scenario, such as statistics.
Purpose This study reports a practice-based inquiry into student-led interdisciplinary projects in secondary computer science education, using a lesson study (LS)–informed practitioner inquiry stance to examine how teacher mentoring sustains student agency and motivation when experimental outcomes are unsuccessful. Design/methodology/approach The study draws on a structured LS process conducted across one academic year by four subject teachers. Three cycles combined in-class diagnostic observation, joint observation of extracurricular project sessions and end-of-year synthesis. Five data streams were analysed through a three-pass iterative interpretive process with cross-source triangulation. Findings The focal case showed different patterns of student reasoning from the technically successful comparison case when mentoring reframed experimental failure as an epistemological resource. Motivation was sustained through autonomy, disciplinary relatedness and personal meaning rather than outcome validation. Competition outcomes provided external corroboration. After non-qualification for a national final, focal-case students independently diagnosed a robotics competence gap and developed a new project, providing evidence of self-directed learning agency following sustained LS-informed mentoring. Practical implications Four mentoring principles are proposed: agency-focused observation, failure-reframing language, affirmation of personal meaning and structured LS reflection on mentoring decisions. Originality/value The study extends LS to long-term mentoring contexts, reframes experimental failure as a productive site of teacher learning and identifies self-directed learning agency as a documentable mentoring outcome under uncertainty.
