Lesson study is a teaching improvement process in which teachers work together to: formulate goals for student learning and long-term development; collaboratively plan a ‘research lesson’ designed to bring to life these goals; conduct the lesson in a classroom with one team member teaching and others gathering evidence on student learning and development; and discuss the evidence gathered during the lesson, using it to improve the lesson, the unit, and instruction. (Lewis, C. & Hurd, J., 2011)

Lesson study differs from lesson observation in that teachers teach the same lesson they plan together one after the other, making revisions each time after discussion. Variations are also made in the teaching object, learning process and interaction mode according to the classes they teach.

To provide focus and direction to this work, teachers chose to look at reading as this was one of the major concerns of the department. Teachers studied the reading skills to cover at KS3 in the curriculum document, then mapped out the ones that corresponded to the reading passages found in the textbooks. Revisions were made when teachers dealt with the selected units in an in-depth manner over the year.