In the last decades, the German discourse on reforming teacher education has revolved around two conflicting poles: the enhanced integration of academic research and a stronger foundation in teaching practice. As a consequence, various innovative models of cooperation between universities and other institutions have been established to combine the expansion of practical training with concepts of research-based learning (Fichten 2010). At the same time, this cooperation raises the question of the role of research in relation to practical training within teacher education from the viewpoint of the different involved institutions.

Against this backdrop, different research teams at the Goethe University Frankfurt collaborate in the project “Level” – which is part of a larger initiative for the improvement of teacher education funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) – to join the distinct phases and disciplines in teacher education. A central objective of this project is the collaborative development of a video-based learning platform to foster the professional vision of (pre-service) teachers (Sherin 2001; 2002; Sherin/van Es 2009). In this context, our research team that consists of scholars as well as practitioners of the didactic departments in the social sciences, geography, and history, addresses core principles of social science education like fostering autonomous and responsible judgment and participation (Arthur et al. 2008; Henkenborg 2012). With regard to these aims, our subject-specific conceptualization of a professional vision refers to approaches that consider the students’ pre-existing political orientations and concepts as a strong foundation for further political learning (Lange 2008).

In the context of the project, we examine specifically the potentials of specific action-oriented instructional methods by analyzing video recordings of simulation games in (German) civics courses. In the field of didactics of civic education, simulation games are not only considered as a very promising method to cultivate acts of autonomous and responsible judgment (Engartner et al. 2015), but also as an instrument to identify and reflect students’ political concepts. Analyzing video footage of these simulation games thus allows us to address two objectives: First, we identify distinct student perspectives on and concepts of politics. Second, we explore the possibilities of fostering students’ competencies of political judgment (Müller 2016) by discussing and reflecting these perspectives and concepts in the final debriefing phase of a simulation game.

In our study, we use sequences of classroom videos to create learning units within the video-based learning platform so as to foster the professional vision of (pre-service) civics teachers. Given the lack of predictability as a specific challenge of simulation games (Usherwood 2015), every learning unit starts with tasks of detailed reconstructions of the observed interaction in order to focus the (pre-service) teachers’ attention on observation-based analyses of learning opportunities and to minimize the influence of pre-fixed expectations. Based on these reconstructions, the following tasks lead to subject-specific analyses and reasoning which differentiates between distinct dimensions of political learning (Petrik 2017). Finally, we intend to develop a modus of reflection-on-action, which builds the fundament for the competency of reflection-in-action that will be needed in future practice (Schön 1983).

Doing so, we understand this practice of video-based casework, on the one hand, as an approach to link academic teacher education with concrete teaching practice. On the other hand, it also promotes a scientific-reflective habitus of (pre-service) teachers (Helsper 2003). Focusing on the latter, our paper reflects this development by presenting examples of corresponding learning units as well as by analyzing the experiences and results of their implementation in teacher education.

Developing a video-based learning platform in teacher education needs some methodological considerations as regards the interpretation of video data (Rauin/Herrle/Engartner 2016). Even though videographic documentation finds its limits in the self-reflective processes of integrating new experiences, we still argue that reconstructive interpretative work on video data can enable a better understanding of (political) learning in classroom interaction. Following the principles of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis (Breidenstein/Tyagunova 2012), we interpret role-taking during simulations and subsequent reflections in the phase of debriefing as acts of negotiating meaning on a given subject. Furthermore, we read them as processes of political learning (Jehle/Blessing 2014). Based on this kind of interpretative research, we aim to develop a learning platform which – by its very design – raises the awareness of (pre-service) teachers for these kinds of open learning processes and ensuing tasks of teaching. Since unpredictability is not only a characteristic of simulation games, but also a central element of pedagogical practice in general, the reflection of this aspect is an essential part of teacher education (Helsper 2003). In this context, we regard the learning platform as an instrument to facilitate video-based caseworks in order to foster the reflectivity of (pre-service) teachers in the sense of a professional vision. Against this backdrop, we introduce (pre-service) teachers to the basics of interpretative methods (Erickson 2006) so as to help them observe and analyse videotaped sequences of classroom interaction and to reflect on the multiperspectivity in situations of teaching and learning. While processing the learning units, the (pre-service) teachers also document constantly their observations and interpretations of the video sequence analysis in an ePortfolio, which is integrated in the platform. To evaluate their documentations, we developed a table format that allows us to differentiate between distinctive levels and degrees in the formation of a professional vision. This table classifies teachers’ responses within the learning units. In this way, we are able to assess if and how this approach of “learning through research” promotes a scientific-reflective habitus as a core principle of a professional vision.

With our paper, we introduce, first, examples of these video-based learning units to illustrate our conceptual approach to foster (pre-service) teachers’ professional vision and reflexivity with reference to central aims of political learning. Second, we describe the process of the implementation of these learning units in the different phases of teacher education, specifically in the first phase of academic teacher training. In addition, we use the (pre-service) teachers’ documentations in their ePortfolios during the whole run of the courses to evaluate the development process of their professional vision. Based on the presented results we intend a clarification of assumed correlations with regard to the promotion of a scientific-reflective habitus. In conclusion, we will discuss the potentials of these video-based learning units to interlink distinct structural objectives of the different phases of teacher education without obliterating the distinctive tasks of an academic reflection-on-action and reflection-in-action in the future teaching practice.

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