The modification of subjective theories with Viennese teacher trainees: results from a two-year study between the first and the fourth semester of study

Following Shulman and Bromme a lot of attention was paid in the 1990s to the “hidden knowledge in teaching practice” – above all in the scientific disciplines. The investigation under discussion, carried out at the State College of Education Vienna (now the University of Education Vienna), is to be seen as an attempt to identify possible modifications of subjective theories with teacher trainees in the course of study for future lower secondary teachers over a period of four semesters of study. Teachers’ subjective theories are understood in such a way that their thinking can be considered an implicit theory which is relatively stable, structured, and in. uences their behaviour; teacher trainees, however, may reveal different findings. The main results of the analysis are: modifications of the perception of the students’ own role (from students to teachers) in connection with self-related cognitions and self-efficacy, the perception of the child, that is the perception of the child in his/her role as a pupil; teaching issues in connection with the student’s own role as a teacher as well as the pressure to act in critical situations, and their increasing realization of the teacher’s job of bringing up children as well as a shift in the view of the schools’ mission from mere cognitive learning to social learning.