The Impact of Teaching Lesson Study on Teachers' Professional Development and Critical Thinking

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of teaching lesson study on professional development and critical thinking of the teachers in in the city of Kavar. This semi-experimental research followed a pre-test / post-test control group design. The population consisted of all the teachers in Kavar, of whom 25 subjects were randomly selected as the sample and were placed in experimental (No=13) and control (No=12) groups. The data was collected by using the four standards of planning and designing, creating and maintaining a learning environment, measuring and communicating with others and evaluating teaching and learning among the nine standards of the American Kentucky Professional Development and California Rickets Critical Thinking questionnaires, the face and content validity of which were confirmed by the experts (i.e. university instructors and experts in charge of education office in the district). The data was analyzed by using descriptive statistics (e.g. minimum and maximum, mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (i.e. single-variable and multivariate covariance). The results showed that teaching lesson study had a significant effect on enhancing four components of professional development and two components of critical thinking (i.e. creativity and commitment).