The Japanese endeavors to enhance Classroom Instruction – A Social Anthropological Perspective

The Japanese Lesson Study Approach is a collaborative teachers' training, where teachers explore, assess and improve their knowledge of content and pedagogy by learning from daily work. Teachers work together to challenge and scaffold their knowledge of the subject matter and of students’ thinking by observing one another's classrooms and share expertise. This unique classroom experience is deeply rooted in Social Anthropology; particularly in the Situated Learning Theory (SLT) and Community of Practice (CoP) by Lave & Wenger in 1991. For them, learning is not just receiving or absorbing information, rather, increasing participation in communities of practice. Social resources shape people’s learning trajectories and their professional identity. Learning partnership occurs among people who find it useful to learn from and with each other about a particular domain. Here, teachers use each other’s experience of practice as a learning resource. In this research, the Japanese classroom experience is explored in light of Lave & Wenger’s Situated Learning theory and Community of Practice to enhance teaching and hence students’ learning.