The guided lesson and unit exploration model for lesson study: not just one more thing

Purpose We discuss the guided lesson and unit exploration (GLUE) Model, in which we've adapted local curriculum-based professional learning (CBPL) structures to the purposes of lesson study (LS). Our goal was to enact LS through adapting resources already devoted to pre-existing school CBPL structures. Design/methodology/approach We utilized educational criticism to disclose the connoisseurship we developed through our grassroots attempt to successively approximate the enactment of LS, using Kager et al. (2023) as a reflective framework. Findings By connecting disparate CBPL structures together into an LS macro-cycle, we sought a fixed place for LS within our school organization. We balanced the guidance of CBPL instructional coaching with the collaborative inquiry of LS by utilizing a micro–macro structure. Research limitations/implications Our reflections contribute to connoisseurship, not generalizable knowledge. While exact replication of the process we describe is implausible, our reflections may offer food for thought, edifying the work of others in their own unique school contexts. Practical implications We explore how we were able to move towards (and how we diverged from) Takahashi and McDougal's (2016) collaborative lesson research model as we adapted pre-existing professional learning structures to the collaborative study of our lessons in the context of a professional learning community (PLC). We also explore how circular organization (Romme and van Witteloostuijn, 1999) contributed to our practice of LS. Originality/value We show how LS can be a flexible, adaptable vehicle for enacting CBPL within a PLC structure as we learned from various models of LS such as Takahashi and McDougal (2016) and Maeda and Maeda (2024).