“Kounai-ken” is a system which school-based in-service teacher training system in Japan.  This system is very common among Japanese schools, and the national survey indicates that more than 90% of the public elementary schools are challenging it (National Institute for Educational Policy Research, 2010).  There are various styles of kounai-ken, but it usually means a discussion style based on actual teaching.  In this style, teachers create a well-thought lesson plan collaboratively, and then, they discuss based on concrete practice observed after the actual teaching.

  The term "lesson study" is sometimes used as same meaning of kounai-ken.  However, we distinguish them.  In Japan, school teachers have been developing their teaching ability, knowledge, teaching skills through lesson study, which means they are working as a researcher/reflective practitioner.  From that perspective, lesson study means the daily individual learning process, and most Japanese teachers do it every day.  On the other hand, for Japanese teachers, kounai-ken provides learning opportunities and learning sites.  In kounai-ken, they learn by sharing their practice and by exchanging their ideas collaboratively with their peers.

  Kounai-ken is conducted with yearly or more long planning in most schools, and it is also a long-term team project of school improvement.  In other words, it is the effort which solves the school problem and seeks to school improvement through researching concrete lessons.  In fact, Kounai-ken have an effect on not only professional development but also collegiality or school culture.  It provides a common framework among staffs, and each teacher can obtain new vision or beliefs beyond the individual framework, and then, it is considered to have an effect on the personal professional development.  Kounai-ken requires to be captured for at least a year because it has a feature that completes in both individual teacher’s professional development and carrying out the team project.

  However, Stigler and Hieberts'(1999) explanation about "kounai-ken (kounaikenshuu)" was emphasizing the cycle of "lesson study".  Therefore, since the publication of “The Teaching Gap”, the studies about lesson study becomes mainstream, and there are little empirical studies which focused on the features of Japanese kounai-ken.   Recently, the studies about lesson study tend to be connected with PLC or CoP, however, kounai-ken includes these functions originally.  We have to re-examine these functions from a kounai-ken perspective.

  Additionally, it is said that the contents of dialogue or shared conceptions between teachers in the discussion is not directly related to the individual learning (Akita, 2008).  We can find their learning only after adopting the something learnt in to their own practice by their own understanding.   And therefore, they have to objectify their own teaching.  It means that kounai-ken helps their individual lesson study.  To make a change in teachers' daily practice, we need to deal with the issue of how they learn from kounai-ken.

  In this paper, we focus on the learning of younger teachers at the kounai-ken and discuss how kounai-ken bring about changes to their daily practice directly or indirectly.

Akita, K. (2008). Jyugyoukentoukaidanwa to kyoushi no gakushu. In: Akita, K. and Lewis, C.(Eds.) (2008). Jyugyou no kenkyuu kyoushi no gakushuu: lesson study heno izanai, Tokyo: Akashi, pp.114-131. National Institute for Educational Policy Research (2010). Kounaikenkyuu no genjyou to kadai ni kannsuru bunnseki. In: Japan educational press. (eds.)(18/10/2010). Shuukan kyouiku shiryou No.1136, pp.35-45. Stigler, J. W. & Hiebert, J. (1999). The Teaching Gap: Best Ideas from the World’s Teachers for Improving Education in the Classroom. New York: The Free Press. A Division of Simon & Schuster Inc.