in cooperation with the supervisors. First they mapped and systematized the whole
material and then they formed new groups to choose specific questions to look into
more closely. There was a clear distinction between the initial mapping of the
material and the subsequent investigation based on research questions: While there
was some interplay between the teaching and learning designs in the preparatory
phase, such interplay grew more intense during the phase of analysis. Early in the
process of the analysis one of the university teachers (H) on one occasion took an
observatory role and watched her colleague (K) working on the material together
with the students. H described in the interview how the cooperation initiated a
change in participant roles:
H: I was sitting there [...] and it became very clear to me that K did a fantastic jobfirst
asking simple questions that the students were able tofind answers to and which K knew
the answers to herself [...] but after maybefive-ten minutes the conversation had arrived at
a point where neither K nor the students or anyone else in the room had the answer. And in
this way something developed [...] which made the ownership of the project, of the
knowledge of the empirical data..., that it turned into something much more shared than
we have seen in other situations. [...] It turned more into a sort of explorative or inves-
tigative perspective.This apparently seamless interplay between teaching and learning designs suggests
a form of transformative agency where the learning process transcends the tradi-
tional academic divisions of labour between university teachers and students. For
some of the student groups this transformation was extended into a subsequent
presentation phase as these students presented their project at a national Norwegian
teacher education conference together with their university teachers. The project
was also partly addressed in the exam task of a home exam where the students
wrote about classroom conversations. In this way, we see how the transformation of
the knowledge materialized in ways that were partly accustomed to traditional
practice and partly transcended such practice by actively engaging student teachers
in research-oriented activities.
According to the university teachers, the outcome of the introduction to R&D
contributed to the students’understanding of both classroom practices and research
practices. Although the results of the students’analyses showed that the internship
supervisors had not a very precise understanding of the goals of the classroom
conversation, thefindings contributed to the students’awareness and sharpened
their focus on how to develop classroom conversations that are really focused on
subject topics. In addition the project gave the studentsfirst-hand experience with
how developmental work depends on an attitude of inquiry as well as an attitude
towards transforming their practices in light of insights gained form
research-oriented activities.
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