The Development of Elementary School Teachers’ Collaborative Practice in a Lesson Study

ABSTRACT This paper addresses the process of development of professional collaboration in a lesson study that involved six elementary school teachers of Brazilian state public schools of schools at Rio Grande do Sul, concerning the ‘metro’ as length measure at grade 4. The participants worked collaboratively planning a lesson about this topic. The methodology is qualitative and interpretative, with data collected by audio records of the planning sessions for the pesson and field notes, conversations and interviews carried out with participating teachers. The results show that the professional collaboration that developed during the lesson study was facilitated by the dynamics of the different steps and, especially, by the relation among participants and teacher educators. Collaboration emerged from activities such as planning, and increased with classroom teaching, observation and reflection, especially given the encouragement and strengthening of the group insofar as teachers felt confident, encouraged and welcomed in the group.