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This study primarily analysed the interview data, but the exposure of the authors to
the broader study expedited the process of thematic and selective coding.
Findings
Boundary objects and brokers are common objects that serve to bring two different
activity systems together. Boundary objects and brokers are important objects of
analysis for professional experience, such as this case study, where the preservice
teachers’ learning involves the interaction between the activity systems of the school
and university. This chapter reports on the two elements which were important for
the preservice teachers’ learning on professional experience in our case study:
teaching methods as a boundary object and university mentors as brokers.
Teaching Methods as Boundary Objects
As argued earlier in this chapter, boundary objects are often technologies, although
they can be drawings, sets of rules, research projects or documents. In this case
study, we argue that teaching methods learnt at university act as a boundary object
for preservice teachers on professional experience. The term teaching methods is
used deliberately here in recognition that preservice teachers learn teaching strate-
gies (or methods as we call them), in their curriculum units at university that they
attempt to apply on professional experience. Herein is the manifestation of the
theory- practice gap.
The teaching methods learned by the preservice teachers at the university were
mediating artefacts that acted as boundary crossing objects between the university
and school activity system. Their induction into the school activity system was
made easier when they were able to translate some of their methods into classroom
practice. The translation ranged from direct transference of strategies and lessons
learned at university to a critically reflexive adaption of theories and methods into
their practice.
On their first professional experience, these preservice teachers saw the worth of
basic teaching strategies such as lesson introductions and questioning techniques
that they had learnt on-campus. Both introductions and questioning are evident in
the following excerpt from an interview with a preservice teacher:
Yeah, in terms of the introduction they always say ‘Ask them questions, get them to think
about the last lesson, don’t just let them sit there and feed them information, get them
involved’. I think that was the main thing about today in maths that was good, they were all
involved.T. Loughland and H.T.M. Nguyen