Reflection on practice is generally assumed as a key element of pre-service teacher training. On the one hand, a common aim of teacher training programs is to prepare student teachers in order to become reflective professionals, being able to understand teaching/learning situations, and to act accordingly. On the other hand, the reflection process itself has been considered as a suitable way to deal with some recurrent problems in teacher training, as the theory/practice divide (Harford & MacRuairc, 2008). However, reflection is a complex process, and research on reflection processes in pre-service teacher training shows that it is difficult to attain, even if it is intentionally guided or facilitated by some knowledgeable others (i.e. expert school teachers or university faculty) (Gelfuso & Dennis, 2014; Husu, Toom, & Patrikainen, 2008, Mena, Sanchez, & Tillema, 2011). So, more research is needed on how to facilitate, support and scaffold this reflection process.

Our study, of an exploratory nature, aims to contribute to a better understanding of how university tutors can assist and scaffold joint reflection processes on actual situations of teaching practice of a group of student teachers. For so doing, we will analyse joint discussions on actual situations of teaching practice among groups of 10-15 student teachers and their practicum university tutor. During their practicum, the students are placed in different schools four days a week, and meet with the university tutor one day a week, for a group tutoring session. A part of this session is devoted to the joint discussion on actual situations of teaching practice. These situations have been observed at schools and proposed to be discussed by the students themselves (Scherff & Singer, 2012). In order to be discussed, the situations have to be carefully described by the students as a narrative written text.

According to sociocultural approaches, which conceptualise learning and teaching as a process of co-construction of shared meanings, our analysis of how the tutors assist and scaffold joint reflection does not focus on isolated actions or contributions by the tutor, but on how the tutor and the students jointly construct productive reflection. Grounding on Dewey (1933, 1938), we use the term “productive reflection” to refer to the thinking process which allows that a situation which is initially undetermined, dissonant, and not understandable by the students becomes determined and understandable by them at the end of the process. Moreover, we assume that a key element of this process is being able to realise the dilemmatic nature of situations of teaching practice and to identify the tensions and contradictions between the different agencies involved in the situation (Clandinin, 1986; Clarà, in press; Dewey, 1933; Pareja Roblin & Margalef, 2011). So, we are interested in identifying different “forms” and patterns of joint reflection which are constructed and defined by the tutor and the students throughout the discussion. We expect that some of these forms will be more able to enhance productive reflection than others.

Within this context, the concrete research questions for our study are:

1) Which forms and patterns of joint reflection are co-constructed by the university tutors and the student teachers throughout the discussion of the considered situations of teaching practice?

2) How do those different forms and patterns of joint reflection contribute to productive reflection (i.e. turning an initially undetermined, dissonant situation to a determined, understandable one; realising the dilemmatic nature of situations of teaching practice; identifying the tensions and contradictions between the different agencies involved in the situation)?

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