In this article, the authors argue that teacher education programs should equip future teachers with skills for engaging in productive collaboration focused on improving instruction. Because little is known about pre-service teachers' beginning conceptions of collaboration and the ways in which collaboration skills can be developed, the authors conducted a study to investigate these issues. Their findings can be summarized as follows: (1) Pre-service teachers' initial conceptions of collaboration do not necessarily match with the kind of collaboration expected of them in professional development settings such as lesson study or professional learning communities; (2) With support, pre-service teachers can learn to collaborate and find collaboration useful; and (3) Collaboration in fieldwork settings can further develop collaboration skills. Although study findings suggest that providing pre-service teachers with opportunities to engage in collaborative analysis of teaching across