Yoshida’s doctoral dissertation (Yoshida, 1999; for a
description of the study in English, see Fernandez & Yoshida, 2004). Unlike many
Western initiatives, richly funded and mandated, Lesson Study in Japan is
neither funded nor mandatory. Essentially school-based and organised by
teachers themselves, it pervades primary school education – and to a lesser
extent secondary school education – across the country, with teachers
researching their own practice in school-based communities of inquiry.