Establishing a community of practice (CoP) to support pre-service science teachers’ pedagogical development

Professional experience is at the heart of all courses in the Faculty of Education, Monash University and plays a significant role in the development of all preservice teachers. In an effort to better support the development of high quality science teachers a partnership has been formed between Faculty of Education and a Secondary School that connects professional experience and university experiences in more significant ways. The focus of this paper is the development of pedagogical knowledge, leading to pedagogical content knowledge, for pre-service science teachers, through the establishment of a community of practice based around this university – school partnership. In this paper, we will outline the partnership, elaborate on the aspects of our community of practice, and consider the influence of this community on the development of pedagogical knowledge (PK) for pre-service science teachers. Data was collected from pre-service science teachers during their experience at the school, immediately after their experience at the school and at the end of the university year, through written feedback and focus group interviews. Data was also collected from the secondary school science teacher and the university science teacher educators involved. The data was analysed to highlight the value of the partnership for pre-service teacher learning as well as the value of the partnership for all members of the community of practice.