The purpose of this paper is to report on a small-scale research undertaken to examine the preservice English as foreign language (EFL) teachers’ collaborative understanding of lesson study. It constitutes the first of two empirical steps undertaken for integrating lesson study in initial EFL teacher education. The paper takes to the belief that preservice teachers’ understanding is a key factor that determines success or failure of lesson study projects and should therefore be investigated.,There were four preservice teachers who volunteered to participate in the study. Data were collected based on two procedures. Participants read the works of Lewis and Tsuchida (1999) and Dudley (2014) and were asked to collaboratively reflect about their readings on a WhatsApp platform. They were afterwards brought to a face-to-face discussion guided by questions mostly built from their previous reflections on the WhatsApp platform.,Participants have demonstrated a joint understanding which was essentially achieved due to the collaborative procedures. Likewise, participants have collaboratively reflected on the factors that could affect the process of lesson study and its application to EFL classrooms in Niger. These factors have been related to the issues in research methodology and the contextual learning culture.,The findings from this study draw attention to the need for teacher educators to use interactive and collaborative strategies while instructing preservice teachers about lesson study. The paper also offers insights about contextual factors which require preliminary and immediate actions before implementing lesson study in Niger.

中文翻译：

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职前EFL教师对课堂学习的协作理解

本文的目的是报告一项小规模研究，该研究旨在检验职前英语作为外语 (EFL) 教师对课程学习的协作理解。它构成了将课程学习融入初始 EFL 教师教育的两个经验步骤中的第一个。论文认为，职前教师的理解是决定课堂研究项目成败的关键因素，因此应该进行调查。有四名职前教师自愿参与研究。基于两个程序收集数据。参与者阅读 Lewis and Tsuchida (1999) 和 Dudley (2014) 的作品，并被要求在 WhatsApp 平台上共同反思他们的阅读。随后，他们被带到了面对面的讨论中，问题主要是根据他们之前在 WhatsApp 平台上的思考而建立的。参与者已经表现出一种共同的理解，这基本上是由于协作程序而实现的。同样，参与者共同思考了可能影响课程学习过程及其在尼日尔 EFL 课堂​​中应用的因素。这些因素与研究方法和情境学习文化中的问题有关。,本研究的结果提请注意教师教育者在指导职前教师进行课程学习时使用互动和协作策略的必要性。