Lesson study: Assessing pre-service teacher's performance of teaching chemistry

This paper will report on an effort to integrate the simulated-teaching Lesson Study approach in the chemistry teaching method course offered to the third year students in a science teacher education program. The integrated Lesson Study has promised to be an effective teacher development strategy focusing on developing the appropriate skills of teaching and continuous improvement of student performance in the classroom. A total of 44 pre-service teachers enrolled in the course were involved in the project. They were divided into eight groups based on their major and minorscience subjects. Each group of pre-service teachers conducted three cycles of Lesson Study for one topic of form four orform five chemistry syllabus. The improvement of simulated-teaching Lesson Study performance was measured at each cycle by using the instrument “Lesson Study Teacher Performance Assessment Form” (LSTPAF) that consisted of two parts: the performance of teacher candidate and participating students; gives the to talled measurement three times (three cycle) by the teacher educator and peer group member. In this study, Rasch Model is used to analyse data on teaching performance of teaching chemistry for each of Lesson Study cycle of each group of teachers selected. The assessment conducted during the teaching observation is perceived as a valuable experience thus enable them to evaluate and revise the lesson in detail especially the teaching of teacher candidate and participating students throughout the Lesson Study process in chemistry subject for secondary syllabus.