What does Lesson Study or Learning Study look like in different contexts? This series brings together educators, researchers, and practitioners who have worked with Lesson Study and Learning Study across diverse institutions, settings, and conditions. Through open conversations about their experiences, challenges, adaptations, and learning, we will explore how these approaches can take shape in practice—and what we can learn from one another along the way. The goal is to support graduate students in thinking about ways they might continue working with Lesson Study/Learning Study after graduation throughout their future academic or non-academic careers.
Our first speaker: Tom McDougal from Lesson Study Alliance
Tom McDougal is the Executive Director of Lesson Study Alliance, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and supporting the effective use of Lesson Study, particularly in mathematics education. He has a background in mathematics education, having taught middle and high school mathematics and worked as an elementary mathematics specialist.
Lesson Study Alliance grew out of a group of Chicago teachers who began working with Takahashi and organizing the Chicago Lesson Study Conference in 2002. The organization was formally incorporated as a nonprofit in 2010. Its work includes supporting schools and teachers through Lesson Study, facilitating research lessons, providing professional development, organizing conferences and workshops, and making Lesson Study resources available to educators.
Date: October 21, 2026
Time: 1 to 2pm (Pacific Time)
Where: Zoom (We will send you the link by the end of September)
Interested in learning more about Tom McDougal and the work of the Lesson Study Alliance? Register here
Please read the bios of our amazing graduate students!
Master of Education (M.Ed.), University of Potsdam, Germany
Ph.D., Curriculum and Instruction, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
My research interest is on teacher learning and professional development, particularly through Lesson Study as a collaborative approach to improving science teaching and student learning. I am interested in understanding how Lesson Study supports teachers in recognizing and responding to students’ thinking, developing effective instructional practices, and fostering meaningful classroom discourse. More recently, my work has expanded to include Funds of Knowledge and culturally responsive teaching, exploring how teachers identify and build upon students’ cultural and community-based knowledge through collaborative professional learning. My research is situated primarily in elementary science education and focuses on promoting equitable and responsive teaching practices that support diverse learners.
Research areas: Science Education, Funds of Knowledge, Culturally Responsive Teaching
Ph.D. Candidate, Educational Leadership, Florida Atlantic University
I am interested in Lesson/Learning Study because it provides a structured way to examine how instructional decisions shape student learning. As a mathematics curriculum supervisor, I support teachers and leaders in strengthening instruction, improving student outcomes, and making learning more visible. Lesson/Learning Study connects to my work because it encourages collaboration, reflection, and intentional practice.
Research areas: Educational leadership, school improvement, principal self-efficacy, and the lived experiences of Black female principals leading urban, low-performing schools.
PhD Curriculum and Instruction, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
I am interested in Lesson Study because it provides a unique opportunity to closely examine students’ mathematical thinking and how teachers notice, interpret, and respond to that thinking. My research focuses on understanding how learners make sense of mathematical ideas through talk, gesture, representations, and interaction with others. Lesson Study offers a collaborative and systematic approach for studying these processes in classroom settings. What particularly draws me to Lesson Study is its emphasis on making student thinking visible and using that understanding to improve instruction. By collaboratively planning, implementing, and reflecting on lessons, teachers can develop a deeper understanding of how students reason about mathematics and how learning environments can better support that reasoning.
Research areas: Math Education, Technology-facilitated Learning
Ph.D. Candidate, Curriculum Studies, University of British Columbia, Canada).
My research interests include math classroom practice to improve opportunities to learn for students with different backgrounds. During my Ph.D. program, she is particularly interested in understanding how teachers participating in a Learning Study design lessons to develop numeracy skills in their students as well as how Variation Theory can support teachers in improving what they notice in their classroom. She hopes her research can better connect both micro (classroom/schools) and macro (policymakers) actors to design and implement more equitable curriculum policies.
Before her journey in Canada, she analyzed math classroom teaching practices to improve student learning opportunities in Latin America and worked with universities and policymakers to design better curricula and more equitable policies. She is also a former philosophy public high school teacher and math educator in an NGO in Brazil. She holds a master's in International Education Policy Analysis from Stanford University (USA) and another in Education from the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil). She also has a bachelor’s and Teacher Credential in Philosophy from the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil).
Research areas: Mathematics Education
Doctor of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University
Research areas: Lesson Study Mathematics Education
PhD in Education, University of Cambridge
My doctoral research is not a conventional Lesson Study project, but it is closely connected to the broader concerns of Lesson/Learning Study. I am interested in how teachers collaboratively design, observe, reflect on, and improve classroom practice in culturally situated educational contexts. My PhD examines the design of play-based pedagogy for supporting young children’s empathy development in Chinese kindergartens, using Design-Based Research, teacher collaboration, classroom observation, and iterative curriculum refinement. Through this work, I am particularly interested in how teacher professional learning can be connected with meaningful changes in classroom practice.
Research areas: Early childhood education; play-based pedagogy; empathy development; teacher professional learning; curriculum design; Chinese kindergartens.
Ph.D. Candidate in Mathematics Education, University of Florida
I am interested in Lesson Study because it creates opportunities for collaboration with community members. I also like how it connects research and classroom practice.
Research areas: Mathematics Education, Teacher Education, and Interdisciplinary Education
Doctoral Candidate, Curriculum Studies and Teacher Education, Stanford University
As a classroom teacher in Chicago, I experienced firsthand how lesson study transformed my practice. What captivated me was how observing students together with colleagues revealed insights I'd never see alone—patterns in thinking, misconceptions, and moments of understanding that completely shifted how I taught. Now I have the privilege of researching how teachers collaborate during lesson study cycles and translate those collective insights into lasting classroom practices.
Research areas: Professional learning and mathematics education.