Encouraging and being encouraged: Development of an epistemic community and teacher professional growth in a Singapore classroom

•Cultivating an epistemic community in classroom facilitates teacher development.•A teacher's learning constantly takes place by interacting with students.•Students' changes encourage the teacher's pursuit of new strategies.•Two additional interactions of the interconnected model emerged in this case study.•Two new interactions describe the role of the research team's support.

This paper discusses a case study of a teacher's effort in a Singapore secondary school to develop an epistemic community in the classroom, in collaboration with university researchers. There is a growing interest in the types of professional development that make direct connections to teachers' everyday teaching. Researchers found that efforts made within the school context are much more effective for teachers' professional growth. We illustrate the process of the teacher's developing and enacting strategies in classroom practices using the Interconnected Model of Teacher Professional Growth, and suggest that individual teachers could develop their expertise together with students.