Research and development tasks in teacher education: Institutional framing and student experiences

Abstract

Research and development tasks have been proposed as a learning solution in teacher education, where dynamic subject-matter knowledge and professional practices, and increasingly complex teaching environments generate emerging challenges for teacher education institutions and students. While there is an awareness that research is a complex practice, students are, however, expected to handle research activities as a natural part of the curriculum. This empirical study examined how teacher education students worked on research and development tasks linked to their school internships. The findings show that research and development tasks, viewed from an institutional perspective, bring together knowledge, activities, and experiences that allow students to construct their own repertoire of knowledgeable and teaching practices. But they also generate challenges, related to time management, to finding a balance between the needs of the teaching practice and the expectations of the teacher education programme, or to integrating different types of knowledge. The study raises awareness of how these tasks can be used to expose students to the realities of the teaching practice but also of the need for guidance and support required when such tasks are a part of the curriculum.