Teachers’ professional development is an important goal during all phases of teacher education. As an ongoing process, professional development continues to be of importance after teachers first enter their profession throughout their career. According to the COACTIV Model (Kunter et al., 2013a), professional competence of teachers consists of professional knowledge, self-regulation, motivational orientations, beliefs and values. Developing these professional competences has a positive impact on remaining in the teaching profession, career development, teachers’ well-being and teaching quality (Kunter et al., 2013b, Klusmann & Waschke, 2018).

The question of how to best support teachers’ professionalization has resulted in a variety of support offers and research activities, focusing on different aspects of teachers’ professional competence. Next to on-site guided training programs and different forms of face-to-face mentoring and coaching, support offers based on online-tools have been on the rise. However, the use of such tools in teacher training raises general questions about challenges and opportunities for users regarding effectiveness. There are also more specific questions depending on the competence aspects to be promoted and the type of support (e.g. coaching, self-assessment).

This symposium aims to enhance our understanding of how online-tools can support teachers’ professionalization processes. To this end, three programmes from Switzerland, Austria and Germany that use online-tools for teachers’ continuous professional development across a variety of professional competences are presented and scrutinized.

The first presentation highlights the use of online-coaching to promote the implementation of a standardized self-regulation training program that “advanced” beginning teachers have gone through in their everyday working life. Self-regulation is an important professional competence for teachers, linked to job satisfaction, professional commitment and retention (Schaarschmidt & Kieschke, 2007). The study aims to analyse to what extent the method of online-coaching is suitable to support the transfer of teachers’ self-set goals in dealing with professional challenges. Group interviews with coaches about the coaching process in general and specifically for goal pursuit and implementation are analysed. The findings of this study contribute to the knowledge on how to best support training transfer.   

In the second talk, an online-tool for teachers’ continuous professional development of classroom leadership is presented. The online-tool enables teachers to compare self-assessed classroom leadership to their students’ feedback. Thus, parts of a prototypical cycle of professional development by students’ feedback (Fraser, 1998) are made available online. The talk highlights advantages and possibilities of using an online-tool for this process. Furthermore, underlying measurement assumptions will be scrutinized.

The third paper focusses on comparing the effectiveness of a web-based format with a class-based format in fostering counselling competence in early teacher education. A randomized intervention study with N = 143 was conducted, data was collected at two measurement points. The reported analyses focus on students’ reports on the quality of the course, their perceived competence gain, and their gain in particular counselling competences. The results indicate that web-based formats are equally effective as class-based formats. Implication for teacher education at universities and in schools will be discussed.

Fraser, B.J. (1998). Science Learning Environments: Assessment, Effects and Determinants. In B.J. Fraser & K.G. Tobin (Eds.), The international handbook of science education (pp. 527–564). Dordrecht: Kluwer. Klusmann, U., & Waschke, N. (2018). Gesundheit und Wohlbefinden im Lehrerberuf. Göttingen: Hogrefe. Kunter, M., Kleickmann, T., Klusmann, U., & Richter, D. (2013a). The development of teachers' professional competence. In M. Kunter, J. Baumert, W. Blum, U. Klusmann, S. Krauss & M. Neubrand (Eds.), Cognitive activation in the mathematics classroom and professional competence of teachers. Results from the COACTIV project (pp. 63-78). New York, NY: Springer. Kunter, M., Klusmann, U., Baumert, J., Richter, D., Voss, T., & Hachfeld, A. (2013b). Professional Competence of Teachers: Effects on Instructional Quality and Student Development. Journal of Educational Psychology, 105(3), 805-820. doi: 10.1037/a0032583 Schaarschmidt, U., & Kieschke, U. (2007). Beanspruchungsmuster im Lehrerberuf. In M. Rothland (Hrsg.), Belastung und Beanspruchung im Lehrerberuf: Modelle, Befunde, Interventionen (S. 81-98). Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.