Lesson Study in initial teacher learning : key to the pedagogic black box

[First paragraph] Since the early 1990s, initial teacher education (ITE) in England has been largely school-based and characterised by school-university partnerships. Over the course of a one-year post-graduate programme, student-teachers typically spend 24 of 36 weeks in schools, the remainder based in the partner university. At the end of the training year, national surveys regularly report high levels of satisfaction that increase each year (Teaching Agency, 2012). Nevertheless, as in other countries, ITE is challenged because ‘what is taught in education classes is disconnected from teachers’ work in the classroom’ (Kotelawala, 2012: 67). Consequently, there is constant demand for change with successive Secretaries of State taking steps to shift responsibility for ITE to schools.