The more, the better? The influence of learning opportunities in physics teacher training programs

Abstract

Learning opportunities in teacher training programs are crucial for the development of pre-service teachers’ content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). However, German teacher training programs (TTP) differ in their structure, particularly in their amount and content of learning opportunities. The present study characterizes different TTP and analyzes their influence on pre-service physics teachers’ CK and PCK. Therefore, curricula of 20 German TTP were compared and the amount and content of their learning opportunities during the first three years of enrollment were examined. Findings show that the amount of physics-specific learning opportunities is five times greater than the amount of learning opportunities related to physics education. Furthermore, four clusters can be identified which can be interpreted as TTP with more/less learning opportunities for physics and physics education. Clusters with more learning opportunities for physics have a positive influence on pre-service teachers’ CK. For clusters with less learning opportunities for physics education pre-service teachers rely more on their CK for their PCK.