Abstract UNESCO’s Global Action Programme promotes the transformation of learning and training environments and capacity development programmes. The Japanese Lesson Study Approach (LSA) is a type of teacher professional development used in higher education teacher training. Four South African researchers share their learning of the learner-centred LSA presented by a team of Japanese pre-service teachers as part of their professional development. This article contributes to the discourse on how teacher training in higher education can be augmented using the collaborative and reflective LSA for pre-service teacher professional development with elements of the participatory action learning and action research approach. In this case study, the researchers used the qualitative Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol instrument and together thematically analysed the data that were open coded to find common themes. The findings confirm that meticulous collaborative lesson planning and post-lesson reflection forums are important in the LSA to improve lesson content and presentation. The article recommends the use of the LSA as a participatory approach using action learning to support teacher professional development in higher education. Pertinent questions emerged for lecturers to use during lesson reflection forums for quality education.