This research sought to gather evidence of learning which would foster greater opportunities to discuss professional practice (Timperley & Alton-Lee, 2008) in the practicum experiences of pre-service teacher education courses in Australia and Sweden. The process evolved from a realization that professional conversations occurring post lesson observation between more than two colleagues (e.g. Mentor, Preservice Teacher, Teacher Educator or Peer) were richer and more nuanced in their feedback (Timperley, 2015). Further, the feedback provided in these triadic dialogues was utilized in an ongoing manner when a common observation tool (known as the T3) was used and provided to the preservice teachers as evidence. Crucially the T3 prompted the preservice teachers to attend to the evidence of learning (Hudson, 2014) in their classes and make their reasoning and choices in practice transparent (Kriewaldt & Turnidge, 2013) Relational Agency, as proposed by Anne Edwards (2010 & 2011) provides the framework for this study. Relational agency was developed as a way to describe how strong forms of agency might arise for, and in collaborations that involve working across boundaries between practices. However we are using it to inform understandings of relationships between people who are positioned differently in the same practices - The PST, Mentor and other teacher educators. The capacity for relational agency can be learnt and, because it involves working alongside others toward mutually agreed outcomes, it is relevant to the work of practitioners who may feel vulnerable when acting responsively and alone without the protection of established procedures. Our findings suggest that development or formalization of evidence informed triadic professional dialogues between pre-service, mentor teachers and others, can create a safe framework for the participants to work to interpret and expand the ‘object of activity’ - the lesson (or part of a lesson or pedagogic skill).

Edwards, A. (2010) Being an Expert Professional Practitioner: the relational turn in expertise Dordrecht: Springer. Edwards, A. (2011) Building common knowledge at the boundaries between Professional practices: Relational agency and relational expertise in systems of distributed expertise. International Journal of Educational Research 50 (33-39) Hudson, P. (2014). "Feedback consistencies and inconsistencies: eight mentors’ observations on one preservice teacher’s lesson." European Journal of Teacher Education 37: 63-73. Kriewaldt, J. and D. Turnidge (2013). "Conceptualising An Approach to Clinical Reasoning in the Education Profession." Australian Journal of Teacher Education 38(6 ). Timperley, H. 2015, Professional Conversations and Improvement-Focused Feedback: A Review of the Research Literature and the Impact on Practice and Student Outcomes, prepared for the Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership, AITSL, Melbourne. Timperley, H.S., & Alton-Lee, A. (2008). Reframing teacher professional learning: An alternative policy approach to strengthening valued outcomes for diverse learners. Review of Research in Education, 32(1), 328-369