Collaboration and observation: two teachers' tales of thinking about experience of lesson study practice in Western Switzerland

Purpose The effects of long-term implication in LS are not always easy to assess, because participants might not do many cycles or cannot be reached for information. This paper presents the reflections of LS participants and/or facilitators in a secondary school in Western Switzerland, where LS have been used since 2016. These are key moments of awareness about what is important in our context for a LS to be meaningful and fruitful in terms of learning about practice. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on teachers' own experience and their recounting. Two elements are being explored: collaboration within two LS groups, analysed using the Cooperation Tetrahedron (Thiébaud and Bichsel, 2015), and the importance of observation, analysed using Mason's theory of Noticing (Mason, 2021, 2002). Findings Analysis of collaboration shows that the importance of identities and experience in engagement in LS is often overlooked and should not: they can become obstacles to collaborative learning. Moreover, the role of facilitation is key in helping teachers overcome that. Observation is often overlooked: teachers dive into planning and forget the research part of observation. It is often a hasty last-minute fix, and should be focused on seriously to help yield better results for everybody's learning. Practical implications Authors recommend considering teachers' identities when accepting participants in a LS group, and to do that, carefully and mindfully prepare information sessions about what LS is and how it works in the context it is implemented in, going through the process with more emphasis on observation. Observation must be planned alongside the didactical part of the lesson, lest it should be void of sense and potential learning for the LS team. A LS should be a place of professional learning and enhancing the role of observation and collaborative learning are ways to enforce that. Originality/value Giving voice to teachers is original in itself. The first two authors are experienced teachers, who have taken part in many LS over years, and have also been trained as facilitators by the third author. All three authors have experiences and positionalities that make their insight unique. This is a unique perspective that deserves to be shared.