Having considered issues of teacher collaboration within the learning community, we now go back to near the beginning of the process of conducting a Learning Study. The teachers have chosen their topic and have now reached the stage of planning the lesson. (Refer back to the diagram of the Learning Study process provided above.)

The selected topic is evaporation and in this video clip the teachers are considering the pre-conceptions that their pupils are bringing to this topic, and how they can be addressed when designing the lesson plan.

When watching this video, notice the dynamics of the conversation and how each teacher is able to contribute their own thinking. You may notice that one participant is not a member of the teaching staff of the school. She is from the university sector. This contribution to the Learning Study can be very helpful, in providing additional insights. Nevertheless it is the teachers who know the pupils, and who are therefore in the best position to judge their pupils’ learning needs.

Also pay particular attention to the teachers' discussion of the difficulties their pupils are experiencing in understanding this topic. (They had discovered this by conducting a pre-test of pupils' understandings in which they had set some questions based on the pupils' everyday experiences of water disappearing, such as puddles on the playground after the rain and the blackboard drying after being washed.) The learning difficulties that this test seemed to indicate, included:

Notice how the teachers attempt to provide possible reasons for the pupils' misunderstandings, in the way that they are possibly thinking about the topic, and how the overall discussion feeds into the planning of the lesson.