Exploring Contradictions in Pre-Service Teachers’ Feedback About Inquiry-Based Collaborative Learning

ABSTRACT

Curriculum and professional standards mandate that digital technologies are used in schooling, and consequently, universities are required to prepare pre-service teachers for this in initial teacher education degrees. In response, one Australian university developed an inquiry-based collaborative approach, called creative inquiry. Feedback from end-of-semester evaluation surveys is positive; however, the written comments include diverse and apparently contradictory feedback. This paper uses thematic analysis to retrospectively identify the contradictions found in three years of feedback from a combined cohort of 1473 undergraduate pre-service teachers. The findings indicate, firstly, that the rationale for using digital technologies in schooling was inconsistent with some pre-service teachers’ prior experience and expectations for future practice. Secondly, creative inquiry was inconsistent with some pre-service teachers’ preferences for coursework. The findings are theorized using Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory, and identify potential implications for constructivist, student-centric approaches to initial teacher education about learning and teaching with digital technologies.

KEYWORDS:

• Pre-service teachers
• initial teacher education
• digital technologies
• ICT
• inquiry-based collaboration
• disorienting dilemmas
• thematic analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christopher N. Blundell

Christopher Newton Blundell, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer, School of Teacher Education and Leadership, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia. His current research interests include design-based professional learning, the challenges of integrating digital technologies in teacher practice, and the interaction between digital pedagogies and assessment.

Michelle Mukherjee

Michelle Mukherjee, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Learning and Science Education at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Her research interests are in effective technology integration into science education, visualisation in science, developing digital pedagogy in preservice teachers and new generation learning and teaching spaces.

Shaun Nykvist

Shaun Nykvist, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer, School of Teacher Education and Leadership, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia. His research expertise is focussed on innovative pedagogical approaches to engage diverse learners, the transformation of teaching and learning in schools and higher education, the challenges associated with digital technologies to support and enhance learning in all modes of learning, and wellbeing associated with the use of digital technologies.