This form of professional development is no longer restricted to Japan:
mathematics Lesson Study groups have been forming in the United States for
over ten years and now number more than eight hundred. In the United
Kingdom there has been growing interest in, and government support for,
Lesson Study as a powerful form of professional development (see, for example,
Department for Children, Schools and Families, 2008). Lesson Study has also
been introduced in South-East Asian countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia
(see, for example, White & Lim, 2008), as well as South America, South Africa
(Ono & Ferreira, 2010), and Australia (for example, Hollingsworth & Oliver,
2005). China too has a long history of improving teaching and learning through
school-based professional learning communities named Teacher Research
Groups (see, for example, Yang, 2009).