Supporting natural science pre-service teachers during work-integrated learning: A case of a lesson study approach

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the issue associated with final-year Natural Science pre-service teachers’ lesson design abilities. This paper reports how the implementation of a lesson study approach served as an intervention to support the lesson preparation abilities of pre-service teachers during a work-integrated learning (WIL) process. The case study generated rich qualitative data from multiple sources such as e-mail communications, WhatsApp responses, video capturing, and focus group team discussions. Couched within the critical emancipatory theory, the study found that the planning and preparation of innovative and inclusive Natural Science lessons are inseparably associated with the collaborative practices and interaction that existed among the team of pre-service teachers. The accommodative and engaging nature of the lesson study sessions empowered pre-service teachers to share their diverse subjective experiences and contextual ideas, which were pivotal to the generation of knowledge and design of Natural Science lessons. Consequently, the lesson study approach not only affected the pre-service teachers’ lesson design abilities but also better positioned them for the WIL experience.