Teacher educators cooperating professionally: New practices, tensions and student teachers' experiences

In the context of a large-scale initiative to improve science teaching in Danish primary and lower secondary schooling, teacher educators from the six Danish University Colleges are working to develop a culture of professional learning communities (PLC). The paper presents research from the first phase of this initiative examining the developmental and collaborative practices initiated by the science teacher educators and how the student teachers are positioned in the professional inquiry projects run by the PLCs. The research design is a sequential mixed methods design with a range of interviews with teacher educators in the first exploratory phase and concurrently informing a questionnaire developed for the next phase. Data about student teachers (n=163) is from a survey with questions and open reflections about their perceived outcomes. Findings related to problems and benefits of working in PLCs and to involving student teachers in the PLC activities will be presented. Especially the theme of second-order teaching in teacher education with a possibility for explicit modelling will be addressed, as well as the importance of giving student teachers ownership to projects within the PLC.