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of activity, through the production of tangible evidence, and so has provided a focus
for mutual sense-making between preservice and experienced teachers. In several
cases, this mutual sense-making led to mutual learning as each party engaged in
evidence-informed collaborative reflection during post-lesson conversations. We
suggest that this benefits the development of quality teaching practice for the preser-
vice teacher through growth in reflective practice.
Implications
This chapter has described how evidence-informed dialogues were especially pro-
ductive for preservice teachers and signal an innovation for initial teacher educa-
tion. Our findings suggest that we should build on the non-judgemental innovation
we have designed to implement further enrichment of preservice teachers’ reflective
practice using three-way observations and dialogues. This will allow the preservice
teacher to probe evidence from a range of perspectives.
Acknowledgement This project was supported by the Department of Education and Training,
Victoria, Australia, as one of the 12 projects supported by the Teaching Academies for Professional
Practice (TAPP) in 2015–2017. This Victorian state-funded initiative aims to improve initial
teacher education across a broad geographical cluster. The authors wish to acknowledge the fund-
ing provided through the TAPP (North-East Melbourne cluster).
Ethics In accordance with the University of Melbourne’s guidelines for human ethics, all partici-
pants were informed that their participation in the research was voluntary and that they could
withdraw without penalty at any time. Participants were also assured that their private data would
be guarded securely and that their identity would remain anonymous. Participants were made
aware of the research aims through plain language statements and gave their signed consent to have
their data contribute to the study.
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