A Study of Teachers’ Professional Development through Lesson Study: A Focus on the Use of One Page Portfolio Assessment (OPPA)

OKUMURA Yoshimi (Hyogo University of Teacher Education)

Keywords: Teachers’ Professional Development, One Page Portfolio Assessment (OPPA),

Lesson Study, Self-Assessment

1. Introduction In recent years, Lesson Study has garnered international attention as an effective

professional development approach for teachers (Stigler, & Hiebert, 1999). Lesson Study was

introduced to the world as a method of teacher training that allows teachers to learn from each other

through mutual observation of teaching sessions and through conferences before, during, and/or

after such sessions. However, there are many types of Lesson Study in Japan and it is not always an

effective method. Consideration of this gave rise to the following research question: How can we

enhance teachers’ professional development while they participate in Lesson Study?

For Lesson Study to be effective, it is important that teachers reflect on their own teaching

based on their learning during the process. To aid in such reflection, this study proposed the use of

the One Page Portfolio Assessment (OPPA); teachers’ use of OPPA during Lesson Study was the

focus of the present research. OPPA was originally developed as a self-evaluation method for learners

who record desired and actual teaching outcomes on a One Page Portfolio (OPP) sheet before, during,

and after classes as a learning record (Hori, 2011). It was developed in 2002 by Professor Tetsuo Hori

in Japan. OPPA is currently being used for teachers’ professional development (Nakajima, Enomoto, & Ishida, 2019). Previous research has revealed that it is effective for both students and teachers.

However, little research has been conducted with regard to teachers’ use of the OPP sheet (Hori,

2011; Nakajima, Enomoto, & Ishida, 2019). The aim of this research is to improve the professional

development of a group of teachers by using OPP sheets in a series of Lesson Study sessions in a

Japanese public primary school.

2. One Page Portfolio Assessment (OPPA) Hori (2011) recommends the OPPA for students. He noted that “the OPPA usually involves

creation of an OPP sheet, which forms the basis for a teaching unit within the teaching plan” (53). On

a daily basis, students complete the OPP sheets after each lesson. The teacher then collects and

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assesses these learning records and writes comments accordingly. At the end of the unit, students

complete a final comprehensive self-assessment.

In the present study, teachers, not students, recorded their learning on the sheets after each

Lesson Study session. In attempt to enhance teachers’ professional development, the OPP sheets were

periodically checked and commented on by the present author, a researcher, and a lecturer in several

Lesson Study sessions.

According to Hori (2011), the OPP sheet originally comprised four sections: 1. Unit Title,

2. Essential Questions Before and After Learning, 3. Learning Record, and 4. Self- Evaluation after

Learning. The Unit Title is usually provided by the teacher, but occasionally invented by the learner.

The Essential Questions sections emphasize the teacher’s focal questions for the unit. Students are

required to answer these essential questions both before and after the learning. The Learning Record

section is completed during class. Students write what they think is most important about the lessons,

in the moment. In the Self-Evaluation after Learning section, students write their own thoughts,

opinions, and expressions, such as the significance or relevance of what they have learned.

Figure 1. Modified OPP sheet used for teachers in the present study

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05/02

2017 06/09

07/07 07/25

11/22 12/08

09/15 10/06

1. Title of teacher’s own learning

2-1. Essential Questions before Lesson Study

2-2. Essential Questions after Lesson Study

3-1. Learning Record

3-2. Learning Record

3-3. Learning Record

3-4. Learning Record

3-5. Learning Record

3-6. Learning Record

3-7. Learning Record

3-8. Learning Record

4. Self-Evaluation after all the Lesson Study

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We used the adapted OPP sheet shown in Figure 1. It was made by modifying an original

OPP sheet for use by teachers. Section 1 is for the title constructed by the teacher to describe his or

her own learning, after all Lesson Study sessions have been completed. Sections 2-1 and 2-2 are still

the Essential Questions Before and After Lesson Study sections. In the Before section, we included

the following instruction: “Please make 3 sentences using the phrase ‘performance assessment.’ In the After section, we asked to teachers to “Please make more than 3 sentences using the phrase

‘performance assessment.’” These questions were designed specifically to meet the themes of the Lesson Study, Performance Assessments and Backward Design (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005).

Backward design advocates planning units or curriculum using the following trio: (1) desired results

(goals), (2) acceptable evidence (assessment methods mostly including performance assessment) and

(3) learning experience and instruction (how learning and instruction proceed). All Lesson Study

sessions in the participating school were based on backward design and included performance

assessments. In the Essential Questions sections, 2-1 and 2-2, teachers were required to write about

their understanding of Performance Assessments in practical contexts. Teachers were asked to decide

upon each day’s theme and write it in the Learning Records section (3-1 to 3-8). In the self-Evaluation

after Lesson Study section, teachers wrote their thoughts, opinions, and expressions, such as the

significance or relevance of what they have learned.

3. Method 3-1. The Use of OPPA in Lesson Study

The use of OPPA in Lesson Study was assessed at Honden Primary School, a public school

in Osaka, Japan, during the 2017 school year. The Lesson Study lasted from May 2 to November 22

and included a lecture and seven research lessons. All 25 Honden teachers used the OPP sheets shown

in figure 1; all 25 sheets were analyzed to determine what the teachers had learned. Specific details

were drawn from their self-evaluations (section 4) and then quantified to provide an overview of their

OPPA experience.. This study was approved by the school director.

3-2. The Questionnaire The Questionnaire was designed to reveal the effects of using OPP sheets in the Lesson

Study sessions. It included a combination of four-point scale questions and free form answer

questions. After the 2017 school year, teachers were asked to provide feedback on the OPPA

experience via the questionnaire (see Table 1). They were informed that completion of the

questionnaire was voluntary. In total, 12 questionnaires were returned and analyzed. In particular, I

studied whether OPPA was effective for deepening teachers’ learning, changing teachers’ ideas about

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the use of OPP sheets to evaluate children, and/or changing their ideas about evaluation in general.

The responses to the four-point scales were calculated to get a percentage, and the free form answers

were quantified and analyzed. In the analysis, meaningful parts were extracted from the free form

answers revealing 17 distinct responses, as discussed in section 4.1 below.

<Effective for deepening teachers’ learning>

I think the use of OPP sheets is effective for promoting understanding and deepening learning in

Lesson Study.

① Strongly agree ②Agree a little ③Disagree a little ④Strongly disagree

<Change in teachers’ ideas about evaluation>

My image about evaluation changed after working with the OPP sheet.

① Strongly agree ②Agree a little ③Disagree a little ④Strongly disagree

<Use of OPP sheets for children>

I would or have used OPP sheets for children in my classroom.

①Strongly agree ②Agree a little ③Disagree a little ④Strongly disagree

<Free form expression＞

If you have any impressions or comments, please write freely.

Table 1. Questions from the questionnaire [translated by the present author]

4．Analysis and Results 4-1. The Effectiveness of OPPA in Lesson Study The analysis revealed 17 responses indicating the understanding of the content of the

Lesson Study theme, including, for example, what performance assessments were. Overall, 11

responses indicated that teachers felt it important to design lessons backwards, and 13 responses

indicated that teachers wanted to continue using backward design (Table 2).

Since each teacher wrote sentences with multiple meanings, the total number of sentences

analyzed is larger than the number of teachers. Several teachers felt challenged by the learning

process; 4 found it hard to design lessons backwards and 3 faced difficulties in using the terminologies

of backward design. The OPP sheets will be important for them as records of these challenges. A

concrete example of an OPP sheet completed by a Honden teacher is available in Figure 2.

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Table 2. Teachers’ learning and challenges

Figure 2. Sample OPP sheet completed by a Honden teacher

In Essential Questions section 2-1, the teacher who wrote the sample constructed three

sentences using the phrase “performance assessment,” as follows: “Performance Assessment is the

evaluation of something children make,” “Performance Assessment is something children enjoy and

work on,” and “Performance Assessment is implemented at the end of a learning unit.” After

participating in all Lesson Study sessions during the 2017 school year, he drafted three new sentences

What teachers learned

・Understood contents of the Lesson Study theme, for example, performance

assessment

・Felt it important to design lessons backward

・Wanted to continue using backward design

68% (17/25)

44% (11/25)

52% (13/25)

Challenges

・Difficulties designing lessons backwards

・Difficulties using terminologies of backward design

16% (4/25)

12% (3/25)

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using the phrase “performance assessment” for Essential Questions section 2-2 as follows: “We can evaluate children’s learning by Performance Assessment,” “Enduring Understanding and

Performance Assessment are a set,” and “‘Performance Assessment is key to designing learning units

backwards.” From these sentences we can see that he initially believed Performance Assessment was

a fun activity for students. His later sentences revealed that he understood Performance Assessment

was a tool for teachers to evaluate whether children were able to reach enduring understandings of

lesson content. Finally, after completing his reflections, he titled his sheets “history of research (through lesson study) this year.” This is an example of one teacher. However, most other teachers’ OPP sheets also demonstrated a deeper understanding.

In addition, he wrote the following self-evaluation after the Lesson Study:

Performance Assessment is not intended for children to just do or make something. Now

I understand that Performance Assessment is intended for teachers to evaluate which kinds

of competencies children acquire. Along with that, we need to think about rubrics, essential

questions, and enduring understanding, all of which are relevant to Performance

assessment. I feel that we learned a lot in a year.

It can be said this teacher understood both performance assessment and the concept of

Backward Design in practical contexts.

4-2. The Questionnaire The results of questionnaires are shown in Table 3. An analysis of the questionnaires

revealed that 83.3% of teachers felt the OPP sheet was effective in improving their understanding of

the theme. Most of them wrote that the OPP sheet made their learning visible and aided them in

reflecting on their own teaching. For example, one teacher wrote, “I could reflect on the day’s learning

and see what I learned and what I didn’t get. I could see what a deep understanding I had developed

during this school year.” However, two teachers gave negative answers and also wrote that they did

not really understand the theme. Their degree of understanding of the theme may have influenced

their answers.

In addition, 83.3% of the teachers felt that the OPP sheets changed their ideas about

evaluation. Some wrote that they had not previously experienced self-evaluation, or evaluation of

their own understandings, and found it interesting and important. However, two teachers gave

negative answers for this item. One of them wrote that he or she did not have any idea or concept of

evaluation at all. The questionnaire results indicate that most teachers do not have enough experience

with self-evaluation. I believe the teachers’ use of OPP sheets was meaningful; by experiencing the

effectiveness of self-evaluation, they are more likely to encourage their students to practice it as well.

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On the other hand, only 45.5% of the teachers answered that they wanted to use the OPP

sheet for children in their own classes. Teachers who gave negative answers did not have concrete

ideas of how they could use the sheets for children. Some also thought the OPP sheets were too

difficult for the children to fill out. However, there were also several teachers who already used OPP

sheets for their children. They wrote that each child was able to see and understand what he or she

could or did learn in a unit and get a better feel for his or her own development. This demonstrates

that even if teachers realize that OPP sheets have positive effects, they may not be able adapt the

sheets as self-assessment tools for children, especially without proper training and support.

<Effective for deepening teachers’ learning >

Do you think the use of the OPP sheet is effective for promoting

understanding and deepening your learning in Lesson Study?

Positive 83.3%(10 /12)

<Change of teachers’ ideas about evaluation>

Did you change your ideas about evaluation after working with the OPP

sheet?

Positive 83.3%(10 /12)

<Use of OPP sheets for children>

Do you or would you use OPP sheets for children in your classroom?

Positive 45.5%(5/11)

Table 3. Responses to the questions in questionnaire

5. Conclusion Ultimately, the present study demonstrated that OPP sheets, when used in conjunction with

Lesson Study, are effective reflection tools which teachers can use to enhance their professional

development. Teachers in the study were able to reflect on what they learned or felt during Lesson

Study sessions. A few teachers experienced challenges during the learning process. The OPP self-

reflection sheets provide teachers with important records of these challenges. OPPA could make it

possible to overcome the difficulty of recording accumulated learning and realizing self-development

through Lesson Study. However, despite using the OPP sheets themselves, and understanding the

value of self-reflection, teachers were unsure about requiring the students in their own classes to use

the OPP sheets. It is possible they were uncertain about the benefits of such a requirement.

This study was limited in that it focused on a single school during a single school year.

Additionally, only about half of the teachers responded to the optional questionnaire. Studies in

different schools, with different teachers, and more participants need to be conducted. Research on

how to increase response rates to questionnaires and other optional materials could also be helpful.

Studies on how to encourage self-reflection and self-assessment in children, and how to train teachers

to use OPPA for their students are required before teachers will or should implement such tools in

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their classrooms.

References Hori, T., “The Concept and Effectiveness of Teaching Practices Using OPPA”, Educational Studies

in Japan International Yearbook, No. 6, 2011, pp.47-67.

Hori, T., Kyoiku Hyoka no Honshitsu wo tou: Ichimai Portfolio Hyoka (Pursue the essense of educational evaluation: One Page Portfolio Assessment), Toyokan, 2013.

Nakajima, M., Enomoto, M., & Ishida, K., Effect of formative assessment for learning and teaching

in lesson study: OPPA in elementary school, poster session, Amsterdam, WALS (World

Association of Lesson Studies), 2019.

Stigler, J.W., & Hiebert, J., The Teaching Gap: Best Ideas from the World’s Teachers for Improving Education in the Classroom, New York: Free Press, 1999.

Tanaka K., Nishioka, K., & Ishii, T., Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment in Japan: Beyond

Lesson Study, London: Routledge, 2016.

Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J., Understanding by Design (Expanded 2nd Edition), Alexandria, VA:

ASCD, 2005.

Abstract

How can we enhance teachers’ professional development through Lesson Study? The aim of this research is to improve the professional development of teachers by using One Page Portfolio

(OPP) sheets in a series of Lesson Study sessions. The study was conducted in a public primary

school in Japan in 2017. All the teachers in the school used OPP sheets; 25 OPP sheets and 15

questionnaires were analyzed. In the analysis, meaningful parts were extracted from the description

of the OPP sheets and the number of parts were counted. The questionnaire consisted of a

combination of four-point scales and free descriptions. The responses to the four-point scales were

counted to get a percentage while the descriptions were analyzed in the same way as the OPP

sheets. The results show that the use of effective tools such as OPP sheets can enhance teachers’ professional development during Lesson Study. Teachers can reflect on what they have learned or

felt during Lesson Study sessions using the sheet. However, despite having used the OPP sheets

themselves, the teachers were unsure about requiring the students in their classes to use the OPP

sheets. It is possible they were uncertain about the benefits of this move. Reasons for their

uncertainty have yet to be fully explored, though it is likely that teachers will need training and

guidance before implementing such self-reflection tools in their classrooms.

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