Exploring Contradictions in Pre-Service Teachers’ Feedback About Inquiry-Based Collaborative Learning

ABSTRACT Curriculum and professional standards mandate that digital technologies are used in schooling, and consequently, universities are required to prepare pre-service teachers for this in initial teacher education degrees. In response, one Australian university developed an inquiry-based collaborative approach, called creative inquiry. Feedback from end-of-semester evaluation surveys is positive; however, the written comments include diverse and apparently contradictory feedback. This paper uses thematic analysis to retrospectively identify the contradictions found in three years of feedback from a combined cohort of 1473 undergraduate pre-service teachers. The findings indicate, firstly, that the rationale for using digital technologies in schooling was inconsistent with some pre-service teachers’ prior experience and expectations for future practice. Secondly, creative inquiry was inconsistent with some pre-service teachers’ preferences for coursework. The findings are theorized using Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory, and identify potential implications for constructivist, student-centric approaches to initial teacher education about learning and teaching with digital technologies.