Challenging teachers' ideas about what students need to learn : Teachers' collaborative work in subject didactic groups

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the processes that make teachers learn in a collaborative arrangement similar to lesson study (LS) and learning study (LearS). The teachers in this collaboration wanted to enhance teaching and student learning (grades 4-7) about decimal numbers. Design/methodology/approach The analysis is based on data from five teachers’ collaborative work in an adaptive arrangement of LS and LearS called subject didactic groups. Data consist of eight audio recordings of the teachers’ meetings as well as written and photographic documentation of the meetings. The analysis was carried out through the lens of expansive learning within an activity system (Engeström, 1987). This entailed a focus on contradictions between teachers’ ways of thinking and acting when individually and collaboratively developing their teaching, on the solutions to the conflicts produced by the teachers, and on how these challenged the teachers’ ideas about what the students need to learn. Findings The authors identified contradictions between formative and summative assessment, exams and stressed students, prevailing norms about teaching and the theoretical tool used for planning and analyzing lessons and student learning, and the local curriculum and time constraints. The solutions to the conflicts were the driving force for developing new and more qualitative knowledge about what the students need to learn. Originality/value This paper gives explicit examples of contradictions and solutions that can challenge and drive teachers to expand their learning in an adaptive form of LS and LearS suited to daily teaching.