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Lesson study (Lewis, 2009) and learning study (Marton, 2015) are qualitative progressive research approaches which differently link individual’s knowledge development with individual’s personal development in the education context. In developmental research, theory and practice develops and is manifested as improved intentional practice in the research lesson (Van den Akker, 1999). Developmental educational research is symbolizing a kind of epistemic culture and an epistemic practice (Knorr Cetina, 1999; Schatzki et al., 2001). Research approaches are taken as intentional practices with certain aims and certain ways of making knowledge. Knorr Cetina (2001) claims that epistemic practices are organized unfolding objects of knowledge, such as the object of learning in learning study (Marton, 2015). Following that line of reasoning, learning study is metaphorically a “knowledge machinery” (Knorr Cetina’s expression), including its object of learning with the critical aspects which unfolds and then bridging the theory and practice gap (Carlgren, 2020). Further, learning study can generate new knowledge applicable beyond the local setting (Carlgren, 2020; Kullberg et al., 2020). From a pragmatic philosophical perspective, the research process is a development of a means–ends relationship (Carlgren, 2020). In order to accomplish an end, some means must be developed. Means are means to some ends because their consequences are parts of the ends; “when we take ends without regards to means we degenerate into mere sentimentalism” (Dewey, 1957, p. 73).

Research, as a concept and as name, has usually a minimal definition according to Stenhouse (1981, pp. 103-104) as “systematic self-critical inquiry,” with the addition “made public.” However, Dewey and Bentley (1945, p. 226) argue, in discussing concepts and how we name concepts, for instance, “knowledge,” that there are conditions/criteria that must be satisfied in order to regard the name relevant with determinable status. Such conditions are based on observations; tentative, postulational and hypothetical; and promote further observation. It is suggested that it is only “through prolonged factual inquiry […] the word ‘knowledge’ [can] be given determinable status” (Dewey and Bentley, 1945, p. 226):

The above conditions amount to saying that the names we need have to do with knowings and knowns in and by means of continuous operations and test, in work in which any knowing or known establishes itself or fails to establish itself solely through continued search and research, and never on the grounds of any alleged outside “foundation”, “premise”, “axiom” or ipse dixit assertion.”

(Dewey and Bentley, 1945, pp. 226-227)

“What makes lesson study a form of high quality educational action research?” (Elliott, 2020, p. 3). In order to assess lesson study as a form of high-quality practice-based action research, Elliott (2020) formulates a number of criteria, demands or conditions. As an action research project, it must take a practical problem experienced by teachers as a focus and a point of departure. During the solving process of the problem, teachers’ professional knowledge has to be visible, shared and tested in the project group among colleagues in a democratic conversational process of practical reasoning (phronesis).

(Elliott, 2007, p. 231):

Within this deliberative and self-reflexive process of practical reasoning means [teaching strategies] ends [aims] become objects of mutual reflection. Teachers not only call into question their teaching strategies (means) but also their aims (ends) to which their strategies are directed. They modify each by reflecting on the other.

(Elliott, 2020, p. 5)

Further, educational action research must also rely on certain virtues such as integrity, honesty, curiosity and open-mindedness among teacher in collaborative work (Elliott, 2020).

Carlgren (2020) focuses on the methodology of learning study as paedeutic research; referring to research as for teachers and not on teachers and as research into problems and challenges faced by teachers in their professional practice:

It may appear that learning study, with its strong focus on specific objects of learning, is extremely instrumental and difficult to reconcile with the concept of Bildung.

(Carlgren, 2020, p. 10)

The process of Bildung alludes to a perspective on content and processes of education through teaching as a core of the teachers’ profession. As mentioned, the object of learning is not a static concept for teachers and learners in the teaching process:

Depending on the knowing of the knowers it [object of learning] appears in certain ways that may be extended and become part of their individual Bildung processes. The focus on knowings connects the world of knowledge to the knower’s personal development.

(Carlgren, 2020, p. 10)

Ousseini (2020) takes the lesson study approach as the learning object for a group of four preservice English First Language (EFL) teachers in an initial EFL teacher education program. Participants receive instruction to read two publications on lesson study and to reflect collaboratively on their separate readings as a group on a WhatsApp platform. Later, together they take part in a face-to-face discussion, where questions built on their previous session were introduced to them. Analysis of data indicates that participants have jointly reflected on factors that could affect application and the process of lesson study in the EFL classrooms. Findings, presented by the author, suggest that teacher educators use collaborative strategies in EFL training programs in order to make student teachers aware of methodological aspects and implications of the lesson study process as an alternative to the existing transmission models of teaching.

Biza and Nardi (2020) investigate how 12 mathematics student teachers reflected on experienced critical classrooms incidents (Flanagan, 1954) after their first block of school placement. The student teachers produced 12 scripts for a group and a plenary discussion. The researchers analyzed the scripts of critical incidents from the perspective of social constructionism (Berger and Luckmann, 1966). Data were categorized according to a pre-formulated category system consisting of four characteristics: consistency, specificity, reification of pedagogical discourse and reification of mathematical discourse. The student teachers’ scripts formed the base for the analysis of what they, as mathematics student teachers experienced in highly specific classrooms situations as critical incidents. Student teachers were actively discussing and reflecting on their experiences. The authors analyzed, categorized and summarized students’ experiences of critical incidents in classrooms in the paper.

Whitney (2020) introduces a meta-study of lesson studies in the USA with the aim to examine what way and to what extent lesson study results are disseminated outside local context. Findings suggest that out of 45 journal articles about 27 percent of results of the lesson studies, as practiced in K-12 mathematics classrooms, were disseminated to other schools and other teachers.

In establishing a research environment for teacher-driven research, Andrée and Eriksson (2020) take a descriptive approach and use the framework of cultural–historical activity theory (Engeström, 1987, 2016) in order to outline the nature and reasons for teacher-driven research in the space between school and university. Even though, Lewis (2009, p. 95) argues that development of “a professional knowledge base for teaching may be an even more complicated endeavor than generally recognized, since it entails development of the knowers as well as the knowledge, and development of communities of practice, as well as individual teachers.”