Peer Learning through Pedagogical Observation in Driving Teacher Education in Norway

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to examine what driving teacher students think they learn from the learning activity pedagogical observation and what factors concerning this activity they think are important for their learning outcome. At a driving school connected to a university, driving teacher students give driving lessons to student drivers with a peer driving teacher student—a pedagogical observer—in the back seat. Focus group interviews involving eight driving teacher students were conducted to explore what they think they learn through pedagogical observation, and the data was analysed using thematic analysis. The focus group interviews revealed that driving teacher students think they (1) strengthen their driving teacher role, (2) strengthen their peer guidance role, (3) increase their subject knowledge (4) and learn to interact with student drivers. For this learning outcome to occur, driving teacher students point to these factors: 1) the need for a focused plan; 2) establishing a definite agreement; 3) having a committed attitude; 4) providing constructive feedback; and 5) possessing appropriate knowledge. This study contributes to the sparse research on cooperation among driving teacher students in the practical field at the university level. It shows that the learning activity of pedagogical observation enables driving teacher students to learn from each other during driving lessons as a two-way reciprocal learning activity.