Developing core knowledge through workgroup conversation : a bachelor study of teacher design teams

Teacher collaboration is mentioned in many school improvement programs. This teacher collaboration would, according to Horn, Garner, Kane and Brasel (2017) change teachers’ professional learning. The way how is different in literature. Some would argue that collaboration could lead to richer learning opportunities (Horn et al., 2017) while others go through discourse looking for the depth of inquiry to pinpoint the kind of reasoning in these collaborative conversations (Boschman et al., 2015). Others, finally try to understand teacher teams with a framework by measuring core knowledge in the form of pedagogical content knowledge (Shulman, 1986; Binkhorst Handelzalts, Poortman et al., 2015). Although teacher collaboration is being used as a way to improve school programs, it can be difficult to pinpoint what process features make for effective teacher collaboration, what richness of opportunities to learn arise in teacher team conversation and how core knowledge for teaching teachers utilize during these conversations arise. This bachelor study sets out to understand the aspects of core knowledge in teacher conversations, while also taking into consideration that other process features influence the effectiveness of a teacher team and therefor teacher conversation. Finally, the study sets out to understand the opportunities to learn in teacher conversation