Developing relation, norm, and tool for teacher learning and leadership in an Indonesian primary school  Lessons learnt from a School Improvement Program: A Lesson Study Approach

School vision, as a strategy used by the learning community, involves three learning agendas: student, teacher and school learning as a system. Within a learning community, there exists numerous dimensions; namely, relation, agency, content, problem and context. This paper discusses those dimensions based on deep analysis of “School Improvement Program: A Lesson Study Approach (SIP-LS)” conducted at Santa Ursula Primary School , Jakarta (January-May 2010). The program aimed to develop participating teachers’ capacities, i.e. teacher learning, through studying the nature of teaching and learning processes. In doing so, the program developed two main activities: 1) Leadership for Learning workshop that focused on exploring the nature of learning, teaching and the role of teacher in Lesson Study activity; and 2) Lesson Study workshop that involved a plan-do-see cycle for designing, implementing and reflecting upon teaching and learning activities. Data were collected through focus group discussion, field observation and document study. Interpretative study was then employed to identify key features (i.e. patterns of emerging relation, agency, norm and tool), lessons learnt and critical factors of teacher learning. Leadership for Learning workshop discussed the nature of relation among teacher, learner and subject matter in a classroom, and the role of participating teacher in professional learning community through Lesson Study approach. During the Lesson Study workshop, collaborative works (relation) based on particular roles (agencies) of participating teachers in scrutinizing how the learners learn (content and problem) underpinned the nature of teacher learning. Those features were developed by means of norms, such as focusing on how students learn and avoiding to negatively criticising teacher, and tools, such as a framework in predicting and observing students’ thinking and learning. By using the notion of practice based professional education (Ball & Cohen, 1999), lessons learnt are identified from analysis of teaching practice and community of practice that underlie the substantial framework of Lesson Study. In addition, the paper highlights cultural (vision of learning community), structural (distributed works) and conceptual (understanding of the nature of teacher learning) factors that determine the nature of learning environment of such learning community in the participating school. Further development and directions are moreover discussed as a starting point in enhancing and establishing a prototype of a primary teacher learning community in Indonesia.

Key Phrase: Lesson Study, teacher learning, lessons learnt, key factors.