When Classrooms Open, School Learn: CELLS Collaboratively
Advances Learning Leadership for Sustainable Improvement

BANDUNG, Indonesia — The Center for Excellence of Lesson and Learning Studies (CELLS), Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, brought together Malaysian primary and secondary school leaders and lecturers in a cross-border professional learning programme held from 26 July to 2 August 2026.

Entitled “Lesson Study for Sustainable School Improvement: Leadership Workshop for Principals and Headmasters”, the programme formed part of the Executive Professional Microcredential in Leading Lesson Study for Professional Learning Community and Sustainable School Improvement.

The programme was jointly organised by CELLS UPI, the Indonesia Association of Lesson Study (ALSI), the Malaysia Association of Lesson Study (MYALS), and Global Training Organizer (GTO) Malaysia.

Moving Beyond Classroom Observation

The programme began with a critical proposition: Lesson Study is more than observing a teacher deliver a lesson. Its central concern is understanding how students learn, where they encounter difficulties, and how evidence from the classroom can guide the next instructional decision.

Participants therefore examined the leadership conditions required to make Lesson Study sustainable. These included establishing a core team, providing time for collaborative planning, maintaining professional safety during reflection, and connecting Lesson Study with the school’s Professional Learning Community (PLC).

A school-based display of PAK-21 PLC strategies captured this direction through five interconnected elements: reflective dialogue, de-privatisation of practice, a collective focus on student learning, collaboration, and shared norms and values. Lesson Study was positioned within this framework as a means of opening classroom practice to collective inquiry and improvement.

Learning Across Classrooms and Systems

Rather than relying solely on seminar presentations, participants engaged directly with educational practice through open-class observations and post-lesson reflections in Sumedang, Cimahi, and Bandung.

During these sessions, participants were asked to focus primarily on evidence of student learning rather than simply evaluating teacher performance. Teachers, observers, school leaders, and facilitators then examined students’ responses, interactions, assignments, and learning difficulties in evidence-based reflection sessions.

The programme also included an analysis of Malaysian classroom videos. Participants compared the observed practices with the realities of schools in Sabah, identifying what may be transferable, what requires adaptation, and what should not be adopted without considering the local context.

This comparative approach treated professional learning as a process of disciplined inquiry—not the uncritical transfer of a model from one school or country to another.

Turning Workshop Learning into School Action

The academic programme culminated in the design of a one-month school-based microcredential project. Each participant prepared a feasible implementation plan that identified the school-learning issue to be addressed, the people involved, the implementation timeline, and the minimum evidence to be collected.

Draft projects were presented in small groups for feedback from peers and facilitators. This ensured that participants left Bandung not only with new concepts, but also with an actionable design for initiating or strengthening Lesson Study within their own institutional contexts.

The next stage began after participants returned to Malaysia, where the one-month follow-up project was intended to help collaborative planning, classroom observation, evidence-based reflection, and follow-up improvement become part of normal school practice rather than remain one-off workshop activities.

Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals

The programme aligned most directly with Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education. Its attention to student-learning evidence supported the ambition of Target 4.1 for effective learning outcomes, while its international professional-learning dimension was particularly relevant to Target 4.c on strengthening teacher capacity through international cooperation.

The collaboration among CELLS UPI, ALSI, MYALS, GTO Malaysia, participating schools, and Malaysian education leaders also reflected SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals, particularly Target 17.16, which calls for multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilise and share knowledge and expertise.

Through this programme, CELLS reinforced a vital message: sustainable school improvement does not begin with another temporary programme. It begins when school leaders create the conditions for educators to study student learning together, challenge existing practice, and continuously improve it.

The completed programme combined leadership development, classroom-based inquiry, cross-border professional learning, school action planning, and cultural immersion across a final total of 44 instructional periods (JP).