How pre-service teachers talk about observed lessons: Implications for teacher education

Abstract

The analyses of observed lessons are an important part of learning to teach. Pedagogically focused conversations are one way for pre-service teachers to do so. But how do pedagogically focused conversations enable pre-service teachers to make sense of observed teaching? Using a collective case-study approach, the study qualitatively explored the complexity of pedagogically focused conversations among differently qualified pre-service teachers during a focus-group interview. Complexity in participants’ conversations was operationalised using constellations from Legitimation Code Theory. I found that when participants had access to a shared conceptual language of practice, their pedagogically focused conversation could take observed practice apart and analyse its parts in terms of their suitability, what was lacking, and how it could be improved. A more complex conversation means that the pre-service teachers have a conceptual toolkit from which to draw to make sense of observed practice.