General description                                                                                                                                                              

The overall research ^question of our project is about the phase of education teachers developing their pedagogical professionalism. Teacher education takes place in three different phases. First, students have to learn theoretical knowledge in their studies at the university which is followed by a phase of practical application in their internship at a school. Learning at work can also be regarded as an additional phase of teacher education. So the third phase involves the everyday work life of teacher and informal learning activities at the workplace.

The project consists of three different studies. First cross-sectional questionnaire survey will be conducted in order to explore the status quo of teachers` pedagogical professionalism. Following up studies are planned in order to collect data about pedagogical professionalism of teachers in the first and second phase of their education. Comparing teachers of different phases of education is another aim of our research project.

The study described here focuses on informal learning activities of teachers at the workplace. Therefore the goals addressed in our study are (1) to find out if pedagogical professionalism can be enhanced through reflection and (2) which characterizations of the learning environment are most important.

Theoretical framework

Teachers are professionals if they (1) work in educational institutions, (2) are able to reflect about goals and contents of their work, (3) have specific knowledge about teaching and (4) are able to use didactical methods (Mulder, Messmann & Gruber, 2009). Teacher knowledge includes a) content knowledge, b) pedagogical content knowledge and c) general pedagogical knowledge (Shulman, 1987). Existing research focuses on teacher knowledge including content knowledge und pedagogical content knowledge (e.g. Baumert & Kunter, 2006). Less is known about general pedagogical knowledge. In our study pedagogical professionalism is defined as general pedagogical knowledge and therefore includes instruction, assessment and performance evaluation as well as acting professional in the context of school.

Thus, pedagogical professionalism of teachers includes more than being an instructor. Teachers have to take on new roles (e.g. Attwell, 1997; Cochran-Smith, 2005). Based on a literature review we define five roles: (1) instructor, (2) developer, (3) coach, (4) researcher and (5) lifelong learner (Sauer, in progress).

The construct of reflection has become important for continuing education of practitioners, such as teachers (Boud & Walker, 1998). According to Kolbs´ (1984) experiential learning theory, learning is a continuous process grounded in experience. Kolb argues that persons cannot learn from experiences only. Experiences have to be reflected to achieve learning. Therefore, teachers need to reflect on their work. Reflection in work contexts can be defined as deliberate thinking about tasks in order to improve task performance. Schön (1983) distinguishes reflection-on-action and reflection-in-action as two types of work related reflection. Reflection-on-action takes place after decisions and actions are made. Reflection-in-action occurs in the course of events. Hence, reflection requires considerable experience. Schön (1983) describes reflection as generic professional disposition. In conclusion, a reflective professional is able to (1) think consciously about an action as it is taking place, (2) make sense of what is happening and at last (3) shape successive practical steps using multiple viewpoints as appropriate (Hatton & Smith, 1995). Hence, reflection is important for the development of teacher professionalism.

Instructional approaches for example cognitive apprenticeship differentiate six different steps: modeling, coaching, scaffolding, articulation, reflection and exploration. The learning environment is characterized by its increasing complexity that embedded learning in activity (Collins, Brown & Newman, 1989). Characteristics of complex learning environments like increasing complexity can be an enabling factor for the development of teachers´ pedagogical professionalism.

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