Our EU-funded project LIFT (Lesson Study for Future Teachers) is set to transform how future educators are trained across Europe (https://liftproject.eu/). The project aims to systematically integrate the Lesson Study model into Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes in universities across the continent.
What is Lesson Study?
Lesson Study is a powerful, collaborative model of teacher professional development. Teachers work in small groups to plan a “research lesson”, observe students’ learning in real-time as this lesson is taught, and then hold deep, reflective discussions to improve teaching practice based directly on student responses.
Lesson Study in ITE
Since Lesson Study is considered to be highly effective for in-service teachers, the LIFT project focuses on embedding this model from the very start of a teacher’s journey. To achieve this, the project will develop a blueprint: a comprehensive guide with specific guidelines and tools. This guide will help university teacher educators establish and run successful Lesson Study cycles with pre-service teachers.
A Collaborative European Pilot
The blueprint will be tested and refined through a large-scale pilot in 14 ITE programmes across six European countries: Cyprus, Estonia, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Switzerland.
A key milestone will be a training event in Maynooth, Ireland, in March 2026. Here, teacher educators from all partner countries will convene for an intensive training led by the LIFT project team. They will be introduced to the blueprint and explore adaptable variants of Lesson Study for university contexts, preparing them to launch pilot programmes in their home institutions.
The University of Limassol (UoL) LIFT team, led by Dr Maria Vrikki, will lead the training in Maynooth, while colleagues will accompany the team as teacher educators. The ultimate goal is to evolve teacher education programmes, including our own at UoL, ensuring future graduates are not only skilled practitioners, but also reflective collaborators and contributors to educational research, ready to meet the complex challenges of modern classrooms.
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