Pre-service teachers’ reflections on teaching a physics lesson: How does Lesson Study and Content Representation affect pre-service teachers’ potential to start developing PCK during reflections on a physics lesson

Shulman states that deliberate reflections are needed in order for teachers to start developing their Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK). This is important, since a teacher who has a well-developed PCK, also has integrated knowledge of theory and practice. However, recent research has found that reflection, as used during mentoring in field practice, regularly is an obstacle to deliberate reflection. Thus, the theory-practice divide persists. This study addresses this problem by introducing Lesson Study and Content Representation as an intervention in teacher education field practice. The results of the intervention showed that the pre-service teachers reflected differently compared to the current state of practice. During the intervention, they focused more on ‘Goals for instruction’, ‘Pupils and their learning’, ‘Best representation of specific content’, and ‘Specific assessment’. These differences in reflection might lead to pre-service teachers developing a more inter-related understanding of these focus areas as opposed to what happens in the current state of practice. This, in turn, could affect the per-service teachers’ potential to start developing their PCK. Consequently, this might give teacher educators a new way of addressing the problem of the theory-practice divide. However, further studies are needed on the quality of these differences and whether or not the intervention influences the pre-service teachers’ practices in the future