Subject Specific Didactical Competence of VTE Teachers from the Perspective of Studies on Teacher Thinking

The subject specific didactical competence is the keyword in the vocational education reform and development in China. To identify its nature and structure, to find a way of its development attracts the most political and research interest. The study on teacher thinking (teachers’ cognition research) since 1980s have given a new perspective to the discussion on teachers competence and revealed its character and structure in many aspects. These findings have great impact on the teacher education and professional development but stay rather unnoticed in the VTE teacher education discussion in China. First, leading questions and the theoretical backgrounds which have driven the study on teacher thinking are briefly reviewed. Then, Leading empirical research on mathematics teacher COACTIVE and two research on VTE teachers in German are introduced. This leads to the conclusion that how important it is to reveal teachers practical knowledge for the description and development of VTE teachers subject specific competence, and that the knowledge about teachers knowledge about specific vocational domain as a highly valued black box is actually seldom studied in detail. Two studies in Shanghai on VTE teachers and teacher students with the goal to reveal the teachers thinking (teachers self-conception, their didactical thinking) are then reported. Possible content focus and methodological ideas are then discussed.