The teaching profession is a knowledge-based profession. But the teacher’s professionality comprises not only theoretical knowledge (knowledge of the content to be taught; pedagogical, psychological, sociological etc. knowledge), but also practical knowledge (i.e. knowledge embedded in the concrete teaching interaction). This type of knowledge can be seen as “knowing how” which differs from “knowing that”. It is some kind of implicit (“tacit”) knowledge which can only be made explicit to a certain degree (M. Polanyi). This practical knowledge is not an abstract knowledge, but is always related to the specific traits of the situation and the options for (pedagogical) action called for by these specific traits. Practical knowledge implies therefore: (a) an accurate perception of the diversity and complexity of the situation; (b) an interpretation and a judgement with regard to the question which characteristics of the situation are relevant for pedagogical action – and which are not; (c) a knowledge about the options for pedagogical action in this specific situation. The research project to be presented at the conference addresses the question of the acquisition and development of practical pedagogical knowledge in the course of teacher education at the University College of Teacher Education Wien/Krems. To uncover and analyse the various dimensions of practical pedagogical knowledge we work with the instrument of vignette analysis. The basic considerations concerning the use of the vignettes, the details of the data collection and analysis as well as first results will be presented at the conference.

The qualitatively oriented research project consists of three main steps: the development of the vignettes (picture and text impulses), the data collection and the analysis of the data by means of empirical qualitative methods. The data concerning the situation-related perceiving, interpreting and action-reflecting capabilities of the students are gathered at the beginning and close to the end of their studies. They will be compared with one another and with data gained from expert teachers. As a first step the perceptive and interpretative skills of 274 students have been tested in autumn 2008. The analysis and interpretation of the data is done by the means of category related textual analysis (Mayring 2007) – both on a surface- and a deep-structure-level.

By comparing and analysing the results we aim to describe as differentiatedly as possible the difference between students and expert teachers as well as between junior and senior students: 1. in the perception and evaluation of pedagogical situations, 2. in the anticipation of possible options of action. Our goal is not just to state that there is such a difference but to localize the fields where these differences are most strikingly evident.