This study explores how a group of pre-service teachers in the second year of a pre-service teachers masters program - the Postgraduate Master of Education (PME) - understood and practised collaborative learning (CL). Conducted over a six-year period (2015-2021), the study used semi-structured interviews (n=14) and surveys (n=100) to shed light on students' experience of collaborative learning in one 5 ECTS credits module (ED6341), taking account of their previous experience of CL, and their perceptions of CL as it emerged during the group work component of the module. The results indicate that the attitudes of students to CL were largely positive, despite the challenges they recognised. In particular, the study considered students' understanding of (1) the challenges of CL; (2) the benefits of CL; (3) the authority of faculty members.