Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 353 Third International Conference on Sustainable Innovation 2019 – Humanity, Education and Social Sciences (IcoSIHESS 2019) Introducing Lesson Study to Improve Student Learning in the Classroom Eko Purwanti Endro Dwi Hatmanto English Language Education Department English Language Education Department Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta Yogyakarta, Indonesia Yogyakarta, Indonesia [email protected] [email protected] Abstract—The 2013 National Education Curriculum survey result in 2015, Indonesia ranked 67 in reading, 66 in requires students to be the center of teaching and learning Math, and 65 in Science of the total 72 countries [24]. This process in the classroom. Having Student Centered Learning program was conducted by the Organization for Economic (SCL) as the teaching approach, the implementation of the Co-operation and Development (OECD) in which 15-year- curriculum implies that students should be involved actively old school pupils' scholastic performance on mathematics, during the transfer of the knowledge in the classroom. In science, and reading were measured [25]. This evaluation is addition, students’ engagement during the learning process is conducted every three years in order to provide comparable paramount, and the teachers are supposed to be the students’ data among the member countries to improve their education facilitators of learning. However, the phenomenon in which policies and outcomes. Based on this result, it can be Student-Centered Learning gained less attention which affects concluded that the quality education in Indonesia is still far students less interests in attending the lesson are commonly found in many Indonesian schools, including in an Islamic left behind compared to other countries. secondary school. This situation finally affects their learning in In an attempt to improve the quality of national education, the classroom, and consequently they cannot get the most benefit the Indonesian government has stipulated the Teacher and of their study. In this wake, this paper investigates student Lecturer Law No. 14/2015 in which teachers and lecturers are learning in the classroom using collaborative teacher regarded as professionals and they are entitled to have professional development called lesson study. Underpinned by additional incentives with certain conditions. Beside qualitative research design, the study employed ten secondary additional rewards from the government, the Teacher and teachers who collaboratively conducted ‘research lessons’ in which a model teacher delivered the lesson in the classroom and Lecturer Law No. 14/2015 requires teachers and lecturers to other colleagues observed the student learning. The data be professional by maintaining their competencies in terms of obtained from teacher observation and student evaluation pedagogy, professional, personal, and social competencies. revealed positive indicators of student learning during the However, such ideal conditions cannot be fully fulfilled teaching and learning process. Thus, despite lesson study is because of several obstacles caused by teachers, schools, or regarded as an initial professional learning activity for the students at the school. teachers, it is worth to maintain its sustainability in this Islamic In terms of teachers, many teachers in Indonesia are secondary school. regarded as less qualified in teaching [3] and this situation has Keywords—lesson study, student learning, research lesson, resulted in less effective teaching and learning process in the teacher professional classroom [2]. In addition, some teachers are found to teach subject other than their expertise. It is very common to find a I. INTRODUCTION teacher teaches a subject which is not in the area of his or her expertise. In fact, around 17, 2% teachers teach subject other Teachers become one of the important aspects in the than their expertise [2]. Furthermore, with the 2013 National success of education and play a very important role at schools. Education Curriculum (later K13) needed to be implemented As the spearhead of education, teachers are responsible for the in 2018, teachers’ workload is increasing because the K13 effective teaching and learning process in the classroom in curriculum demands the teacher to focus the teaching and order to produce excellent graduates. Having such important learning process on students. This approach is called Students roles in education; however, teachers in Indonesia in the past Centered Learning (SCL) and the teacher is demanded to were not regarded as professionals, and therefore; they serve as a facilitator rather than merely a knowledge received only a small amount of remuneration from the transferrer. In practice, the ideal situation becomes challenges government [1]. This condition was often blamed for teachers for teachers. Such less ideal situation was also found in an being incompetence in their job [2]; [3]. According to Human Islamic secondary school in Yogyakarta. Index Development (HDI), teachers’ quality in Indonesia is regarded not good enough to make changes in teaching areas. Based on my experience when observing pre-service Statistical data of HDI showed that 60% elementary school teacher internship several times at the aforementioned school, teachers, 40% junior high school teachers, 43% senior high there were several problems that had to be resolved so that the school teachers, and 34% vocational schoolteachers were teaching and learning process could be more effective. These regarded incompetent to teach [2]. As a consequence, student problems comprise 1) students are less interested in attending learning outcome was also regarded still poor. Based on the the lesson during the teaching and learning process, 2) PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) students’ participation in the classroom is low, 3) SCL Copyright © 2019, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). 36 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 353 approach gains less attention in the classroom. These lesson study are conducted in a learning cycle. Once a cycle conditions have affected in student low level of learning. is completed, another cycle can be started. This way, lesson study is regarded as an effective model of teacher professional In responding to such issues, several efforts are needed to development because of several features attached to it, such be conducted by the teachers in the school. Of several choices as 1) it can be conducted through a series of cycles, 2) it is of activities, lesson study is considered appropriate to be based on teachers’ classroom, and 3) it is conducted applied as a professional learning development for teachers at collaboratively [11].The activities conducted in research the school. Lesson study is a Japanese teacher professional lessons have become a teaching habit in Japanese classrooms development model in which a group of teachers which prove to increase not only teachers’ capacity but also collaboratively design lesson plans, deliver the lesson plans teaching quality, and therefore no school in Japan is found in the real classrooms, and conduct reflections on the teaching without research lessons [12]. Through lesson study, the and learning process [4]. Based on several previous studies classroom becomes the teachers’ laboratory for continuous [5]; [6]; [7], lesson study is regarded effective in improving improvement of teaching and learning. student learning in the classroom [6]. Even though lesson study as a model of teacher professional development has In more simple words, lesson study is defined as learning been implemented by secondary school teachers in various a learning activity [13]. Lesson study in Indonesia was started regions in Indonesia since early 2000s, including in by initiating IMSTEP (Indonesian Mathematics and Science Yogyakarta, the success of lesson study in improving the Teacher Education Project) in 1998 conducted by three teaching and learning process among teachers in this Islamic Institutes of Teacher Training and Education (IKIP) located secondary school has not been implemented yet. In fact, most in Bandung, Yogyakarta, and Malang in collaboration with of the teachers in this school had no idea about lesson study. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The Thus, while other studies usually explored lesson study IMSTEP project was regarded successful in improving implementation in which the participants were familiar and Mathematics and Science Education [13]. Since then, lesson already involved in lesson study activities, this research study has been implemented by many schools in different focused on the school in which all of the teachers had no parts of Indonesia. knowledge about lesson study. Therefore, this study may The premise behind lesson study is simple: if you want to bridge the gap. This study thus aimed to reveal research improve teaching, the most effective way to do so is in the questions such as 1) How is lesson study implemented in the classroom? 2) How does lesson study support student context of classroom lesson [14]. It has spread all over the world, moving far from its origin of country, Japan. Lesson learning, and 3) what are students’ responses toward lesson study? In order to answer these questions, a thorough study in Indonesia is implemented