There is a growing interest in pre-service teacher education programs on how to maximise the learning benefits of professional experience. This study attempts to discover how action research can be used as a vehicle to bridge the divide between theory and practice and to support pre-service teachers in the development of authentic professional knowledge. In this paper, we share the experiences of four pre-service teachers who undertook an action research study whilst on a ten-week professional experience placement in an Australian High School. The findings of the study indicate that pre-service teachers see the benefit of being able to conduct an authentic study not only in terms of developing research skills, but also in order to reflect upon their strengths and areas of development in their own teaching. We argue that with a growing attentiveness to raising accountability across the sector, this approach prepares pre-service teachers for the Teacher Performance Assessment and the classroom.