From pedagogy to tetragogy: reflective student experiences of game-based collaborative assessment in music teacher education

Teacher education often struggles to connect pedagogical concepts with classroom practice. This study explored undergraduate music education students’ reflections on a game-based collaborative assessment activity involving group question construction, peer discussion, and Kahoot-mediated assessment in a Malaysian teacher education context. Guided by reflective practice, reflexive thematic analysis was applied to 36 voluntary written reflections collected after one classroom session, with activity-based themes generated primarily from 34 reflections. Students described the activity as interactive and enjoyable, used timed responses for immediate self-checking, and valued opportunities for peer discussion. They also recognised Kahoot as supporting participation and classroom engagement. A less prominent but pedagogically significant theme revealed emerging awareness of assessment design through question construction. The findings suggest that game-based collaborative assessment can support reflection-on-action within teacher-facilitated pedagogical activities. However, the evidence represents immediate student reflections following a single session and does not establish sustained teacher development. Tetragogy is cautiously proposed as a sensitising concept for understanding how teacher facilitation, learner participation, peer collaboration, and digital mediation interact in creating reflective learning experiences.