Facilitation of trialogic spaces: reflections from Irish and Scottish online lesson studies

Digital innovations in teacher education have continued to evolve since the Coronavirus pandemic. As such, there has been recognition of the need to further examine the affordances and constraints of digitally mediated learning environments (Brown-Wilsher, 2021; White & Zimmerman, 2021). In response, this paper draws on the concept of trialogue (Hakkarainen, 2009), i.e. technology mediated dialogue, where digital tools are drawn on to make deliberate building and creation of knowledge accessible. Trialogue involves iterative communication and exchange of ideas in order to develop shared objects (Paavola & Hakkarainen, 2014), which can consist of artefacts, for example, lesson plans; and practices, such as pedagogical techniques. The paper focuses on two different Online Lesson Study projects facilitated by the authors, which took place in Scotland and Ireland. Insights gleaned from each project illustrating trialogue in action are shared, in order to illuminate the potential of trialogic space for enabling teachers’ collaborative learning.