The lesson study method is a community of prac¬tice approach to professional development designed to assist educators in increasing their content knowl¬edge and pedagogical skills. This study focused on how lesson study was implemented in a graduate teaching methods course for students who had career interests in education and extension with varying levels of former teaching experience. Students were grouped into edu¬cational teams and charged with applying the lesson study method to plan and teach an agricultural lesson to a select group of students. As a result of the lesson study method, students’ teaching self-efficacy scores increased substantially throughout the semester, for both experienced and novice teachers. However, the most growth was realized for novice teachers. It is rec¬ommended that the lesson study method be used with graduate teaching assistants as a professional develop¬ment tool to improve their teaching effectiveness.