Bridging theory and practice through dialogic collaborative inquiry and online discussion in teacher education

This chapter examines the design, implementation, and evaluation of the Education Inquiry course in a Postgraduate Diploma in Education programme, which aims to help pre-service teachers integrate theory and practice using dialogic collaborative inquiry and online discussion. We examine the challenges, particularly the everyday school learning divides and theory–practice gaps, exacerbated by new educational demands and the rise of generative AI, and argue for the necessity of developing inquiring teachers and learners. Grounded in social constructivist theories, this course emphasises supporting pre-service teachers’ co-construction of knowledge, reflective inquiry, and collaborative dialogue. Course design involves pre-service teachers observing and participating in school classroom life for reflective inquiry, supported by online Moodle discussions that tackle theory–practice dialectics. Various innovative elements include dialogic prompts from the Cambridge T-SEDA scheme and meta-reflection for Moodle discussions, enhanced with dashboards and generative AI for collaborative reflective inquiry. Using evidence-based research, we illustrate how dialogic collaborative inquiry and transformative assessment enable pre-service teachers to engage deeply with theory–practice connections, and we provide an inquiry design framework to inform future design and practice. Implications for developing collaboration, dialogue, and inquiry, enhanced with technology for teacher learning and professional education in the generative AI age, are discussed.