Stay on topic: Topical (mis)alignment between lesson study research activities and its relationship with teachers’ perceived learning

Lesson study (LS) is a collaborative inquiry-oriented approach to teachers’ professional development. Teachers choose a research topic based on a problem they have observed in their students’ learning. During LS, teachers should ideally stay with their research topic to build on it further during all research activities, a process we refer to as ‘topical alignment’. However, in reality, teachers tend to drift away from their research topic. We posit that teams that adhere to their research topic experience more meaningful and profound learning. We explore how novice LS teams topically aligned their research activities and how (mis)alignment could relate to perceived teacher learning. The findings of a cross-case analysis of five audiotaped LS cycles, as well as questionnaire data on teacher learning (n = 17), show that topically aligning research activities is challenging for teams. This study provides concrete practical implications, including a checklist to help LS teams ensure they are maintaining topical alignment.