## **Collaborative Lesson Research (CLR)** ## Registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation Charity Number 1183454 **REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES FOR THE PERIOD ENDING AUGUST 2024** The Trustees present their report with the financial statements of the charity for the period starting 1[st ] September 2023 and ending 31 August 2024. ## **I. Objectives and Activities** Our mission is for every teacher to have an entitlement to high quality professional development through lesson study. We aim to achieve this by advocating for such entitlement, providing professional learning opportunities and resources, and working with education partners to help make lesson study widely available. We support school leaders and teachers to implement, improve and sustain lesson study to re-professionalise teaching and improve learning. CLR-UK also provides a bridge between academic research and classroom-based practice. By working with partners at all levels of the system, CLR-UK aims to impact curriculum design and policy in a cyclical way through the expansion of lesson study. We continued to work closely with the CLR group led by Dr. Akihiko Takahashi in Chicago and colleagues working as IMPULS at Tokyo Gakugei University. In shaping the objectives and planning our activities, the Trustees have considered the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit. Events that took place in this period included ## 1. October 2023 Tsukuba Teachers We held a second event to showcase Japanese Lesson Study conducted by Japanese teachers who we organised to visit us in the UK. The visitors came to the event having participated in a similar few days in Copenhagen, Denmark. This event followed a successful event that we held in the previous year, in October 2022. As we reported last year we worked with Tsukuba University attached Elementary School is one of the leading ‘model’ schools in Japan, well known for their innovative lesson design and their role in professional development of Japanese elementary school teachers, both of which are based on Japanese Lesson Study. Tsukuba teachers play a key role leading Japanese elementary schools in this practice through their open Research Lessons, and often assist other schools as advisors and commentators). They also are key players in informing textbook development in Japan The two-day event aimed to provide an opportunity for teachers and other educators to engage directly with expert Japanese teachers working with English pupils in a Japanese-style mathematics lesson and lesson study processes. This provided participants with the experience of Japanese Lesson Study in the U.K. The event took place at the University of Cambridge Primary School on 12th and 13th October 2023. The maths topic that was central to the event was proportional/multiplicative reasoning. The teachers provided a very informative workshop on the topic on the afternoon of the 12th October. This drew on their expert curriculum knowledge and insights into the textbooks that they work with. This was followed by a lesson on the topic on the morning of the 13th October. This event attracted 35 participants. A number of participants were repeat attendees having attended the similar event last year. This is the second time we have been able to host Japanese teachers in England, observing them teach, and it again allowed for close observation of both curriculum and pedagogical approaches to the teaching of mathematics. Outcomes from the event have included two blogs: see these (Blogs 2 and 3) on the CLR website at: https://www.collaborative-lesson-research.uk/blog and a conference session titled “Trusting learners to think mathematically: learning from observing Japanese teachers in the UK” at the Joint Conference of the Mathematics Subject Associations in April 2023. The event was supported by a small grant awarded to CLR by the Sasakawa Foundation. 2. Publication of edited volume. October 2023. _The Mathematics Practitioner’s Guidebook for Collaborative Lesson Research Authentic Lesson Study for Teaching and Learning_ In close collaboration with the Lesson Study Alliance (LSA: https://www.lsalliance.org/ ) in the USA members of CLR contributed 16 chapters to the volume which was published by Routledge (https://www.routledge.com/The-Mathematics-Practitioners-Guidebook-for-Collaborativ e-Lesson-Research/Takahashi-Wake/p/book/9781032450759 ). The volume was edited by Akihiko Takahashi and Geoffrey Wake, Chair of Trustees of CLR-UK. The book was launched in advance of WALS (see below). This book provides mathematics educators with tools for conducting Collaborative Lesson Research (CLR), setting out the essentials for impactful Lesson Study. Uniquely it provides the dual perspectives of maths education researchers and teachers who have used CLR when reflecting on their own classroom pedagogy. CLR as a professional learning activity is defined and the book provide examples of successful CLR using real-life case studies, as well as introducing pathways for getting started and practical suggestions for implementation into different school environments ## 3. Curriculum event held in London November 2023. A CPD Saturday was held in London in partnership with the National Association of Maths Advisers, on November 25[th] at the Institute of Education, UCL. The event was over-subscribed, and we had a lively and absorbing day, led by Tad Watanabe, Professor of Mathematics Education, and an assistant chair of the Department of Mathematics at Kennesaw State University. Tad has a wealth of experience, knowledge and understanding of maths education in both Japan and the US and was on his way to the World Alliance of Lesson Study WALS (see below), so we were delighted that he agreed to divert to London for a couple of days prior to the conference in the Netherlands. The day focused on teaching through problem-solving and teaching problem-solving. ## 4. Sessions at the World Alliance of Lesson Study. November 2023. The World Alliance of Lesson Study annual conference was held in Zwolle, Netherlands during the period 27th - 29th November. The CLR group was well represented with four attendees all presenting work related to their contributions to the edited volume (see above). ## 5. Day conference March 2024. CLR held a day conference on 16th March at the University of Nottingham. This was well attended with 23 participants and 12 research presentations by CLR members and other advocates of Lesson Study in the UK, and a keynote with a personal reflection by Pete Dudley, a leading proponent of Lesson Study in the UK. All paying attendees were given a copy of the CLR Practitioners’ Guide reported above. ## 6. Online CLR webinar. June 2024 Learning from Lesson Study a free online webinar focussed on analysing a research lesson from a Collaborative Lesson Research cycle held in collaboration with Devon Education Services. There were 35 attendees. This webinar provided an opportunity for teachers and leaders to explore a collaborative lesson research cycle, based on a new video-recorded research lesson. The lesson focused on the research theme Pupils making their mathematical thinking visible and teachers shaping lessons around the mathematical thinking emerging from the pupils and had a mathematical focus of ‘understanding the array’ as a representation of multiplication. The lesson video, its accompanying lesson proposal, the mathematical task for the lesson, and children’s solutions were available online for viewing and examination before the webinar. The webinar highlighted some of the learning arising from the Y2 lesson study cycle in relation to both the research theme and the mathematics focus, with implications for teaching and learning mathematics across and beyond the primary years. Members of an invited panel of CLR members and experts, Mike Askew, Sarah Leakey, Stefanie Burke, Jackie Mann, Laurie Jacques, and Ruth Trundley, shared and discussed observations and there were opportunities for comments and questions from participants. 7. Visit to IMPULS (Tokyo Gakugei University) and Tsukuba University attached Elementary School in Japan by Chair of Trustees and other CLR members from the University of Nottingham, June 2024 Geoff Wake, Chair of Trustees of CLR and Professor of Mathematics education at the University of Nottingham introduced CLR members to his contacts in Japan at Tokyo Gakugei University and Tsukuba University attached Elementary School during a visit (10th - 14th June). The visit was funded by the University of Nottingham and focused on an introduction to lesson study.. This was of benefit to CLR in building capacity in lesson study expertise within the CLR community. ## **II. Organisational development** During this period the main focus of activity in terms of organisational development has been with the Strategy Group. The work of the Development Group has diminished to the extent that Trustees in the next period will consider a reorganisation of the structuring of CLR to streamline the work of the strategy and development groups. **Strategy Group** (SG) our executive advisory group comprises 5 Trustees with up to 10 additional members. The strategy group met on a handful of occasions during the year to assist with . ## **III. Financial review (financial year ends 31[st ] August)** ## **Sept 1[st] 2023 - August 31[st] 2024** ## **Balance September 1[st] 2023 £9430.43** **Balance August 31[st ] 2024 £8517.97** ## **Income for the period September 1[st ] 2023 – August 31[st ] 2024** **Total £6326.64** ## **Expenditure for the period September 1[st ] 2023 – August 31[st ] 2024** **TOTAL £7239.10** ## **IV. Structure, governance and management** Charitable Incorporated Organisation: Charity Registration Number 1183454 Governing document: constitution effective dated 16 May 2019 ## **Trustees:** Professor Geoffrey Wake, Chair Sarah Seleznyov, Secretary Dr. Ruth Trundley, Treasurer Prof Mike Askew, Trustee Laurie Jacques, Comms Sarah Leakey ## **Strategy Group Members in period 1[st ] September 2023 – 31[st ] August 2024: all Trustees plus** - Dr. Julie Alderton, University of Cambridge - Dr. Rosa Archer, Manchester University - Bob Sawyer, Independent Advisor - Matt Woodford, Nottingham Trent University ## **Approved by order of the board of trustees on 10 June 2025 and signed on its behalf by:** Trustee 1 Geoffrey Wake Trustee 2 Laurie Jacques