Collaborative Learning in Teacher Education: Insights from Pre-service Teachers

Researchers in education have acknowledged the value of collaborative environments for fostering learning and development in classroom settings. This study investigates pre-service teachers’ perceptions of collaborative learning (CL) and independent learning (IL) in terms of knowledge types, collaborative duration, group composition, leaders, evaluation, and reflection through a semi-structured questionnaire. The participants are 472 pre-service teachers (PSTs) majoring in mathematics education from different universities in China. The findings reveal that PSTs generally prefer to combine CL and IL depending on context, favor moderate collaborative durations and small group sizes, value designated leadership roles, support peer evaluation, and regard regular reflection as essential for effective collaboration. The results provide insights for university instructors in organizing effective and engaging CL for PSTs’ education. Their practice may inform PSTs of the optimized ways of conducting CL, which can benefit their future career. The study contributes to existing knowledge by adding a new cultural context to the literature on PSTs’ perception of effective CL strategies.