ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Teacher Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1657597
This article is part of the Research TopicUse(fullness) of educational sciences in teacher education – what it is and what it is for?View all articles
How do pre-service teachers integrate knowledge when reflecting on a pedagogical situation? An analysis of concept maps in teacher education
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Education, Bergische Universitat Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany
- 2DIPF Leibniz-Institut fur Bildungsforschung und Bildungsinformation, Frankfurt, Germany
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The use of professional knowledge (from different areas; content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, pedagogical-psychological knowledge) – that is, scientific evidence in the broader sense – can help teachers to act professionally in complex pedagogical situations. An important part of the professional use of evidence is the integration of various components of knowledge. Existing research evaluates knowledge integration dichotomously or refers to multiple document research, although we assume that the structures are more complex and should be taken into account when promoting knowledge integration of prospective teachers. Concept maps – that represent mental structures – enable a detailed assessment of structures of integrated knowledge. The aim of this study is to work out differentiated structures of knowledge integration. In a field setting, 33 master's students (primary science education) designed concept maps to analyze a given pedagogical situation. The maps were coded structurally and thematically. Additionally, graph theoretical measures were applied. Results show three types of knowledge integration that we call Interrelation, Side-by-Side Integration and Merging. We discuss these types in terms of theoretical implications and possible benefits for teacher education. A differentiated analysis of structures of knowledge integration can be used to create individualized learning opportunities.
Keywords: Teacher professional knowledge, knowledge integration, Concept maps, Mental Models, Evidence-based teaching, Teacher Education
Received: 01 Jul 2025; Accepted: 22 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Molitor, Schellenbach-Zell and Hartmann. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Anna-Lena Molitor, School of Education, Bergische Universitat Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany
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