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Teachers' diagnostic competences are essential with respect to student achievement, classroom assessment, and instructional quality. Important components of diagnostic competences are teachers' professional knowledge including content knowledge (CK), pedagogical knowledge (PK), and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), their diagnostic activities as a specification of situation-specific skills, and diagnostic accuracy. Accuracy is determined by comparing a teacher's observation of classroom incidents with subject-specific challenges to be identified from scripted instructional situations. To approximate diagnostic situations close to real-life, the assessment of science teachers' diagnostic competences requires a situated context that was provided through videotaped classroom situations in this study. We investigated the relationship between professional knowledge (PCK, CK, PK) of 186 pre-service biology teachers, their diagnostic activities, and diagnostic accuracy measured with the video-based assessment tool DiKoBi "Assess." Results of path analyses utilizing Rasch measures showed that both PCK and PK were statistically significantly related to pre-service teachers' diagnostic activities. Additionally, biology teachers' PCK was positively related to diagnostic accuracy. Considering higher effect sizes of PCK compared to PK, the findings support previous findings indicating the importance of PCK, thus demonstrating its importance in the context of subject-specific diagnosis as well.

Teacher education programmes need to provide opportunities that support the integration of theory with practice. To date, there is little research on how to help preservice teachers apply professional knowledge to an important aspect of practice: lesson planning. The present research developed an educational approach to lesson planning by drawing on research on professional vision and analysis of teaching. The approach shows what kinds of connections may be established between professional knowledge and lesson planning decisions. These connections require reasoning about possible learning effects of instruction according to principles of teaching and learning. To help preservice teachers make connections, a scaffolded progression was created using research on lesson planning, case methods and pedagogies of practice. This progression suggests providing preservice teachers with opportunities for the gradual application of professional knowledge to iterative cycles of lesson plan analysis and lesson planning. A tool for the implementation of this approach, the Lesson Analysis and Plan template, was designed through a research-practice partnership in a teacher preparation programme. Advice to future implementers of the template is discussed based on field experience.

Promoting teachers to lead classroom discourse effectively is a relevant topic for teacher professional development worldwide. This study compares the impacts of two teacher professional development programmes that aim to support teachers in their classroom discourse practices. In one programme, an adaptive and practitioner-led approach was applied, while in the other programme, a more specified and direct instructional approach was implemented. In a one-year intervention study, we investigated how both designs affected teacher knowledge about classroom discourse and teacher beliefs. Both programmes were filmed, and the implementation of their design features was video-analysed. The effects on teacher knowledge and beliefs were measured via self-reporting and a knowledge test. The results show no differences in teachers' knowledge acquisition over time. However, the adaptive-to-practice programme was significantly more successful in affecting teacher beliefs. The findings are discussed in light of further research and practical implications for teacher professional development.

We propose a conceptual framework which may guide research on fostering diagnostic competences in simulations in higher education. We first review and link research perspectives on the components and the development of diagnostic competences, taken from medical and teacher education. Applying conceptual knowledge in diagnostic activities is considered necessary for developing diagnostic competences in both fields. Simulations are considered promising in providing opportunities for knowledge application when real experience is overwhelming or not feasible for ethical, organizational or economic reasons. To help learners benefit from simulations, we then propose a systematic investigation of different types of instructional support in such simulations. We particularly focus on different forms of scaffolding during problem-solving and on the possibly complementary roles of the direct presentation of information in these kinds of environments. Two sets of possibly moderating factors, individual learning prerequisites (such as executive functions) or epistemic emotions and contextual factors (such as the nature of the diagnostic situation or the domain) are viewed as groups of potential moderators of the instructional effects. Finally, we outline an interdisciplinary research agenda concerning the instructional design of simulations for advancing diagnostic competences in medical and teacher education.

Purpose: To advance the learning of professional practices in teacher education and medical education, this conceptual paper aims to introduce the idea of representational scaffolding for digital simulations in higher education. Design/methodology/approach: This study outlines the ideas of core practices in two important fields of higher education, namely, teacher and medical education. To facilitate future professionals' learning of relevant practices, using digital simulations for the approximation of practice offers multiple options for selecting and adjusting representations of practice situations. Adjusting the demands of the learning task in simulations by selecting and modifying representations of practice to match relevant learner characteristics can be characterized as representational scaffolding. Building on research on problem-solving and scientific reasoning, this article identifies leverage points for employing representational scaffolding. Findings: The four suggested sets of representational scaffolds that target relevant features of practice situations in simulations are: informational complexity, typicality, required agency and situation dynamics. Representational scaffolds might be implemented in a strategy for approximating practice that involves the media design, sequencing and adaptation of representational scaffolding. Originality/value: The outlined conceptualization of representational scaffolding can systematize the design and adaptation of digital simulations in higher education and might contribute to the advancement of future professionals' learning to further engage in professional practices. This conceptual paper offers a necessary foundation and terminology for approaching related future research.

Assessing students on-the-fly is an important but challenging task for teachers. In initial teacher education, a call has been made to better prepare pre-service teachers for this complex task. Advances in technology allow this training to be done through authentic learning environments, such as video-based simulations. To understand the learning process in such simulations, it is necessary to determine how cognitive and motivational learner characteristics influence situative learning experiences, such as the perception of authenticity, cognitive load, and situational motivation, during the simulation and how they affect aspects of performance. In the present study, N = 150 pre-service teachers from German universities voluntarily participated in a validated online video-based simulation targeting on-the-fly student assessments. We identified three profiles of learner characteristics: one with above average knowledge, one with above average motivational-affective traits, and one with below average knowledge and motivational-affective traits. These profiles do not differ in the perception of the authenticity of the simulation. Furthermore, the results indicate that the profiled learners navigate differently through the simulation. The knowledgeable learners tended to outperform learners of the other two profiles by using more learning time for the assessment process, also resulting in higher judgment accuracy. The study highlights how learner characteristics and processes interact, which helps to better understand individual learning processes in simulations. Thus, the findings may be used as a basis for future simulation research with a focus on adaptive and individual support.

When analyzing classroom video, pre-service teachers can improve their professional vision, that is, their ability to notice important events in a classroom and to interpret them based on theoretical knowledge. However, learning with video is especially challenging for novice learners. Thus, video needs to be embedded into an instructional context to be effective. In an experimental study with 89 pre-service biology teachers, we investigated the effect of a short professional vision training and whether two design principles from multimedia learning research--namely segmenting and self-explanation prompts--could additionally increase training effects. In a one-hour training session on small-group tutoring strategies, participants watched practice video examples either as a whole or segmented. After each video or video segment, respectively, they received either open or focused self-explanation prompts to analyze the scene. We assessed participants' professional vision skills before and after training. Overall, participants' performance substantially increased from pretest to posttest. Moreover, during training, both segmented video examples and focused self-explanation prompts led to increased noticing of relevant strategies. This advantage during training, however, did not result in higher professional vision improvement in posttest scores compared to participants who worked in the less supported training phase conditions. We discuss possible explanations why additional support increased training performance but not learning gains and suggest an additional fading phase as a means to achieve persistent effects.

Professional knowledge is highlighted as an important prerequisite of both medical doctors and teachers. Based on recent conceptions of professional knowledge in these fields, knowledge can be differentiated within several aspects. However, these knowledge aspects are currently conceptualized differently across different domains and projects. Thus, this paper describes recent frameworks for professional knowledge in medical and educational sciences, which are then integrated into an interdisciplinary two-dimensional model of professional knowledge that can help to align terminology in both domains and compare research results. The models' two dimensions differentiate between cognitive types of knowledge and content-related knowledge facets and introduces a terminology for all emerging knowledge aspects. The models' applicability for medical and educational sciences is demonstrated in the context of diagnosis by describing prototypical diagnostic settings for medical doctors as well as for teachers, which illustrate how the framework can be applied and operationalized in these areas. Subsequently, the role of the different knowledge aspects for acting and the possibility of transfer between different content areas are discussed. In conclusion, a possible extension of the model along a "third dimension" that focuses on the effects of growing expertise on professional knowledge over time is proposed and issues for further research are outlined.

Increasing research on teacher professional development (TPD) has found teachers' self-reflection to be key for improving teaching effectiveness. Although video methodology, as often used in TPD, provides crucial insight concerning situated learning, teachers are often reticent to participate in TPD protocols due to discomfort over being videotaped. This longitudinal study explored emotion-related behaviors by assessing the nonverbal expressions exhibited by teachers during a 1-year video-based TPD program highlighting salient contributors to productive classroom dialogue. Six teachers were observed regarding bodily motion, facial expression, and eye contact, with results obtained across four workshops coded according to five types of emotions. The emotions of shame, defensiveness, and distraction appeared more often than did laughter and surprise, with the negative emotions found to decrease over time. This study highlights the importance of longitudinally evaluating teachers' emotional expressions during video-based TPD activities and continued efforts to encourage teacher participation in these pedagogical training opportunities.

Goal clarity is an essential element of classroom dialogue and a component of effective instruction. Until now, teachers have been struggling to implement goal clarity in the classroom dialogue. In the present study, we investigated the classroom practice of teachers in a video-based intervention called the Dialogic Video Cycle (DVC) and compared it to the classroom practice of teachers in a traditional control group. We conducted video analysis (N = 20 lessons) of teaching practices at the beginning (pre-test) and at the end of the school year (post-test). Furthermore, we performed video analysis of intervention group teacher discussions during DVC meetings (N = 6 meetings). Comparative analysis between groups revealed changes in teaching practices towards better goal clarity for DVC teachers in comparison to the traditional control group. In-depth analysis of teacher discussions during DVC meetings showed that teachers continuously focused on goal clarity as the content of teacher professional development (TPD). They shared learning experiences and were actively involved in TPD learning activities. The study illustrates how components of effective TPD programs (content focus, social and active learning) translated into redefining and changing the teaching practice.

Student participation and cognitive and emotional engagement in learning activities play a key role in student academic achievement and are driven by student motivational characteristics such as academic self-concept. These relations have been well established with variable-centered analyses, but in this study, a person-centered analysis was applied to describe how the different aspects of student engagement are combined within individual students. Specifically, we investigated how the number of hand-raisings interacts with student cognitive and emotional engagement in various engagement patterns. Additionally, it was analyzed how these engagement patterns relate to academic self-concept as an antecedent and achievement as an outcome. In an empirical study, high school students (N = 397) from 20 eighth-grade classrooms were surveyed and videotaped during one mathematics school lesson. The design included a pre- and post-test, with the videotaping occurring in between. Five within-student engagement patterns were identified by latent profile analysis: disengaged, compliant, silent, engaged, and busy. Students with higher academic self-concept were more likely to show a pattern of moderate to high engagement. Compared with students with low engagement, students with higher engagement patterns gained systematically in end-of-year achievement. These findings illustrate the power of person-centered analyses to illuminate the complexity of student engagement. They imply the need for differentiation beyond disengaged and engaged students and bring along the recognition that being engaged can take on various forms, from compliant to busy.

The present study investigates teacher diagnostic skills when observing student engagement and inferring to underlying student characteristic profiles. Five student profiles as empirically determined in previous studies are selected: three incoherent (overestimating, uninterested, and underestimating) and two coherent (strong and struggling) profiles. Teacher professional vision and underlying assumptions about processes of noticing and reasoning about the chosen diagnostic situation serve as a conceptual basis. In the empirical study (N = 41 participants), it is investigated to what extent expert and novice teachers differ with regard to judgment accuracy of underlying student profiles, observed student cues used for judgment, and teacher gaze as perceptual indicator. The study task involved observing a video clip and diagnosing five marked students based on their underlying profiles. First, findings of the study suggest that expert teachers are more accurate in judging incoherent profiles compared to novices. Second, both novices as well as experts state valid behavioral cues when inferring from student engagement to underlying student profile. Third, experts spend more teacher gaze on student profiles which might need adaptive pedagogical action (struggling, underestimating, uninterested student). The study provides first evidence on teacher gaze during the professional task of diagnosing individual students in the process of teaching. Regarding the conceptual model of teacher professional vision teacher gaze can serve as an additional operationalization of the noticing component of teacher professional vision.

This article summarizes several studies on teachers' professional vision and the use of eye tracking technology to understand their visual attention in the classroom. The studies explore different aspects of professional vision, including noticing and reasoning, gaze behavior, instructional guidance, and the role of training. The findings emphasize the importance of integrating multiple data sources, such as eye tracking, to gain a comprehensive understanding of professional vision. The studies also highlight the need for training and support to enhance teachers' visual focus and interpretation of classroom events. [Extracted from the article]

Simulation-based learning offers a wide range of opportunities to practice complex skills in higher education and to implement different types of scaffolding to facilitate effective learning. This meta-analysis includes 145 empirical studies and investigates the effectiveness of different scaffolding types and technology in simulation-based learning environments to facilitate complex skills. The simulations had a large positive overall effect: g = 0.85, SE = 0.08; CIs [0.69, 1.02]. Technology use and scaffolding had positive effects on learning. Learners with high prior knowledge benefited more from reflection phases; learners with low prior knowledge learned better when supported by examples. Findings were robust across different higher education domains (e.g., medical and teacher education, management). We conclude that (1) simulations are among the most effective means to facilitate learning of complex skills across domains and (2) different scaffolding types can facilitate simulation-based learning during different phases of the development of knowledge and skills.

Facilitating diagnostic competences is an important objective of higher education for many professions. This meta-analysis of 35 empirical studies builds on a conceptual framework and investigates the role of problem-solving, scaffolding, and context to foster diagnostic competences in learners with lower and higher professional knowledge bases. A moderator analysis investigates which type of scaffolding is effective for different levels of learners' knowledge bases, as well as the role of the diagnostic context. Instructional support has a moderate positive effect (g = 0.39; CI [0.22; 0.56]; p = 0.001). Diagnostic competences are facilitated effectively through problem-solving independent of the learners' knowledge base. Scaffolding types providing high levels of guidance are more effective for less advanced learners, whereas scaffolding types relying on high levels of self-regulation are more effective for advanced learners. [This article was co-written with the DFG Research group COSIMA.]

In the present meta-analysis, we examine how secondary school characteristics -- such as schools' academic press, school climate, material resources, personnel resources, classroom climate, instructional practices, out-of-school activities, and socioeconomic status (SES) composition -- provide opportunities for students to engage in science and maths, and how these matter with regard to students' cognitive and motivational-affective outcomes. The meta-analysis includes 71 (international) articles from large-scale studies with a total of 3,960,281 students, 260,390 schools, and 285 effect sizes that were transformed to correlation coefficients. Multilevel meta-analyses were performed. Results identified a number of school variables that can be regarded as relevant for making a difference in student outcomes and at the same time be influenced by education. These refer to school variables such schools' academic press, classroom climate, instructional practices, and out-of-school activities. Moreover, SES composition was significantly related to student outcomes. Material and personnel resources as well as school climate yielded a close to zero effect. No differences were found between cognitive and motivational-affective outcome variables or between science and maths. The results point to the most promising school characteristics for promoting students' outcomes and emphasise schools' potential for students' engagement in science and maths.

A key challenge for teachers is the evaluation of teaching and learning situations in the classroom. Video-based instruments are considered as effective tools for measuring teachers' skills for evaluating classroom situations. This article reports the development and validation of a video-based assessment tool for measuring biology teachers' professional vision. Analyses of interviews using think-aloud protocols with in-service biology teachers showed that they perceived the staged videos in the video-based assessment tool as authentic. Furthermore, they identified biology-specific dimensions of instructional quality in the videos, and used aspects of professional vision while reasoning about the identified situations. Thus, results indicate the suitability of the video-based assessment tool for capturing professional vision with the potential to be used in further interventions within teacher education programs.

Teaching effectiveness has often been described from a variable-centered perspective according to instructional, organizational, and emotional teaching characteristics and their prediction of students' outcomes. Adopting a person-centered approach, the present study analyzed how multiple variables of teaching quality co-occur simultaneously within teachers and how these teaching profiles are related to students' development in achievement and enjoyment. Data from 3483 secondary students and their 155 mathematics teachers were analyzed at two measurement points. A latent profile analysis identified high-, medium-, and low-quality teaching profiles. Multilevel analyses revealed that the high-quality profile--as compared to the medium-quality profile--was positively related to achievement gains, whereas no significant difference was found for students' development in enjoyment. The findings reveal quantitative instead of qualitative teaching profiles and challenge the implicit assumption the higher the better. In particular, effective teachers may not need to display the highest levels in all teaching aspects. Instead, different thresholds for teaching effectiveness may apply for students' achievement gains and emotional development, respectively.