Teacher Core Practises for Engaging Learning for All (TEACOP) - English

TEACOP: Teacher Core Practises for Engaging Learning for All is a development- and research-based project running from April 1, 2025 to December, 2027. The project is funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark from which the project received nearly 2,5 mio. DKK. It is led by Associate Professor Stefan Ting Graf. The project is administered by Applied Research in Pedagogy and Society at UCL and collaborates with researchers from VIA University College, University College Absalon, and Aarhus University.

The project has two main objectives:

• Firstly, to provide new insights into how teacher core practices within and across three main subjects (Mathematics, Danish, and Science) are particularly beneficial when teachers, teacher educators, and student teachers aim to develop engaging teaching for all students in diverse classrooms.
• Secondly, to identify, redefine, and conceptualize relevant teacher core practices and thereby contribute to the development of a more practice- and research-based teacher education by identifying the advantages and disadvantages of video-based investigation of teacher core practices in campus teaching with a focus on approximation.

Hence, the project investigates two interrelated research questions:

1. How can particularly important teacher core practices within and across subjects and in diverse classrooms enhance engaging learning for all, and how can they be conceptualized?
2. How can video-based campus teaching focusing on teacher core practices contribute to a more practice- and research-based teacher education?

The two RQ’s will be addressed through three work packages (WP):

WP1: Experienced teachers’ perspectives on teacher core practices

Investigates how experienced teachers observe, reason about, and use particularly important teacher core practices within and across subjects in various classroom contexts through video-recorded teaching, video clubs, and teacher interviews.

WP2: Teacher core practices in teacher education

Examines how video-based campus teaching can support student teachers’ acquisition of teacher core practices through observation of campus teaching and video-supported interviews with teacher educators and selected student teachers.

WP3: A shared language for teacher core practices

Investigates how conversations about teacher core practices based on the experiences of teachers, teacher educators, and researchers can contribute to the development of a shared language around teacher core practices.

Advisory board

To support the project’s contribution to both international and national research on teacher core practices, an international advisory board is affiliated with the project. The group consists of leading researchers in the field:

• Prof. Pam Grossman, University of Pennsylvania, USA (founder of the core practice approach)
• Prof. Em. Urban Fraefel, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (teaching with a focus on TCP lower secondary level)
• Assoc. Prof. Inga Staal Jenset, University of Oslo, Norway (noticing and TCP, video studies)
• Prof. Nikolaj Elf, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark (teaching quality and school research)