Representation of teachers' experiences of the opportunities and challenges of the lesson research process (case study: elementary school teachers of Bajestan)

The aim of this study was to investigate the lived experiences of primary school teachers in Bajestan city from opportunities and challenges of the lesson research process.

This research tries to analyze teachers' perceptions on lesson study with a qualitative method and phenomenological type. The study population in this study was the primary school teachers of Bajestan city. Through using purposive sampling method, teachers with a good record of practice in lesson study and successful experience were selected. Eleven participants were shortlisted following theoretical data saturation. The data collection method in this study was a semi-structured interview. The researcher entered the interview with a pre-defined question but was not limited to the same question and asked other questions if needed. The interviews were listened to several times and the text was transcribed word by word. Claizey method was used to analyze the data.

After analyzing the data, the data was divided into two main categories of opportunities and challenges, which can indicate that the participants' experiences of the subject of the study are in the form of these two main categories. From the teachers' point of view, the opportunities created by the study were: developing divergent thinking skills, achieving the set educational goals, professional empowerment, sharing powers and experiences, institutionalizing the spirit of problem solving and research, improving the teaching process as well as improving the process of students' academic achievement. In another part of the findings related to the challenges of study, teachers believed that the challenges were: knowledge and information in the field of study, company motivation, lack of proper appreciation, executive limitations and difficulty of coordinating group work.

In general, according to the findings of this study, Lesson study affects the performance of teachers. Lesson study increases teachers 'study, promotes teachers' learning, and improves teaching, making education more efficient. Teachers also get acquainted with new teaching methods through study, and by examining existing teaching methods, they find its weaknesses in their teaching.