A Study On The Impact Of Lesson Study On Senior High School EFL Teachers’ Professional Development:An Activity Theory Perspective

To enhance high school teachers’ professional development is required by the national education policy and is also conducive to students’ learning and development.However,previous research has shown that senior high school teachers have encountered many difficulties in teaching.For example,their teaching is rigid,their collaboration with other teachers is too casual and unprofessional,and their reflections on teaching are superficial(Shi & Zhu,2021).Lesson study has been widely adopted as an effective way to improve classroom teaching quality and facilitate teacher development.Given this,based on activity theory,this study aims to investigate how senior high school EFL teachers gain professional development through lesson study,focusing on three aspects: instructional design competence,teachers’ collaboration competence,and teaching reflection competence.Following are two research questions:(1)How does the lesson study affect senior high school EFL teachers’ instructional design competence,teachers’ collaboration competence,and teaching reflection competence?(2)What are the difficulties and challenges in implementing lesson study encountered by senior high school EFL teachers?Three English teachers from Grade one of a key senior high school in Changzhi City,Shanxi Province,were selected as research participants.The three teachers in this study have experienced three cycles of lesson study,each of which included team teacher collective lesson planning,classroom observations,group discussion,and evaluation,as well as writing teaching reflective journals.Data was collected from the teacher and student interviews,classroom observations,teaching journals,and field notes by the researcher.Through thematic analysis,qualitative data such as interviews are iteratively coded from three aspects of the research focus.Based on the activity theory,the correlation analysis among many elements indicated that teachers had improved their professional competence by conducting lesson study.First,in terms of instructional design competence,teachers gradually paid more attention to the cultivation of students’ learning ability rather than teaching itself.At the same time,through collaborative discussion,teachers were able to improve the efficiency of lesson planning,and their ideas on teaching can also be expanded.Second,as for teachers’ collaboration competence,lesson study has provided a platform for them to exchange ideas in the collaborative discussion and create a professional development path of mutual promotion of teaching and research.In addition,due to the impact of favoritism,titles,and authority,teachers were unable to objectively evaluate the teaching process during team discussions.Third,regarding teaching reflection competence,the reflective contents of teachers gradually shifted from the external teaching environment to teachers’ professional beliefs and professional mission.Lesson study also promotes teachers’ continuous practice in reflection and reflection in practice.Moreover,this study showed that the heavy workload of teachers and the limited time for group discussion tends to make the lesson study ineffective.Drawing on the research findings,this study indicated that lesson study could effectively motivate teachers’ learning and promote teachers’ professional development.