Teacher candidate learning of action-oriented knowledge from triggering incidents in teaching practice

This study investigated student teachers’ (N = 82) learning of action-oriented knowledge (AOK), triggering incidents in teaching practice, and the relationships between these two. Student teacher’s action-oriented knowledge is understood as core capability for the practice of teaching, and learning of action-oriented knowledge needs to be facilitated during teacher education. Action-oriented knowledge integrates theoretical and practical aspects of teaching, and it needs to be investigated in the context of teaching practice in teacher education. The results showed that student teachers identified critical incidents related to didactical relation (57%), pedagogical relation (39%) and content relation (4%) meaningful for their learning. Within the relations, student teachers showed descriptive (43%), inferential (24%) and justified (33%) AOK in their reflections. The incidents related to pedagogical and didactical relation especially triggered descriptive and justified AOK. The results showed that teacher candidates AOK reflection started with evaluative descriptions of their teaching, and moved on to practical justifications. The study confirms that teacher candidates’ videos can extend their focus of teaching and afford more attention to student learning.