This study investigates to which extend collegial team coaching promotes and support the development of general pedagogical knowledge during the teacher education program. General pedagogical knowledge is the basic professional knowledge used by teachers for dealing professionally with diverse pedagogical tasks and requirements in the classroom (Shulman, 1987; Darling-Hammond, 2000).  The current understanding of GPK is influenced mainly by standardised quantitative studies like COACTIV or TEDS-M (König and Blömeke, 2010; Voss et al., 2011), which present different dimensions and constructs of GPK (Kunter et al., 2013; Voss et al., 2015). Kunter et al. (2013) and Voss et al. (2015) drew up an expanded definition and formulated four different areas of GPK: (1) learning (motivation, emotional and psychology knowledge, heterogeneity, development psychology knowledge); (2) the class as a complex social structure (management, communication, social conflicts); (3) methods for teaching and learning (evaluation and diagnostic); and (4) design of learning environments (spatial, material, media design). Studies demonstrate the significance of this particular form of knowledge, and attest to the influences related to the quality of teaching, sustainable learning, and student performance (Guerriero, 2017). This requires preservice teachers to develop their GPK and to build up during teacher education programs basic knowledge. The exchange and cooperation between colleagues can be argued as a positive influencing factor for the further development of general pedagogical knowledge (Dittrich, 2020). Hence, the focus in teacher education should be more in networking and collaboration between teachers.

The method of collegial team coaching (Schley, 2010) is an opportunity to further develop general pedagogical knowledge and central action alternatives in the team. The method of collegial team coaching is part of the social science theories as well as the reference theories from Riemann – Schley (Schley, 2010).  Systemic thinking is relevant for observe situations and become aware of their construction and their co-constructions in synergetic connections (Watzlawick, 2003). For this, as a first important step is the presentation of a situation, which is followed by questions of understanding in the plenary. Afterwards it needs a resonance space for the coaches for generating key ideas and topics. Based on this two steps, an idea and solution workshop where possibilities are discussed take place. At the end a feedback and a reflection process is necessary (Schley, 2010).

With the help of the collegial team coaching the people take a detached stance to the own acting and thinking. With the help of the group process they meet the situations in a complex way, and have to opportunity to develop new concepts. An important point is the time. It is necessary to adhere the structure and the time that at the end a solution can be presented (Schley, 2010).

The study is based on a qualitative research project with 54 preservice teachers. The teachers all are part of the bachelor program from different subjects. During a seminar the students learn the theory of the collegial team coaching and using the method. With the help of the collegial team coaching special situations were reflected from their own experiences during their practical trainings in school. Hence, students can take a detached stance to their own acting and thinking and have the possibility to develop their concepts together with other students. With the help of a qualitative written survey they should reconstruct their experiences and learning effects related to the development of their general pedagogical knowledge at the end of the semester. The analysis is based on the structured content analysis based on Kuckartz and Mayring (Kuckartz, 2018). Two basic forms of content-structuring and evaluative content analysis were used. In a first step, the written findings were structured by the deductive categories based on the conceptualization of general pedagogical knowledge (Dittrich, 2020). In a next step the evaluative content analysis aimed to assess, classify an evaluate the content (Kuckartz, 2018)

The results present that students increase their general pedagogical knowledge through the method of collegial team coaching. Sharing ideas and experiences help students to activate their cognitive competences and at least using their knowledge in practice. One crucial part is the common reflection. An important influencing factor is their self-assessment. The students show that they have acquired many competences with the help of their reflection competences. Cooperation with colleagues is also specifically addressed. It is motivated and interesting to share ideas and generate new concepts together. At least, the students point out knowledge in the context of the system. This finding can be argued, that the focus wasn’t on system relevant topics neither the curriculum. As an added value, the distance perspective of others is a crucial effect for professional development of the preservice teachers. The students point out, that with the method of the collegial team coaching they were working more intense with the different topics and situations. A supporting factor for professional developing is argued from the students a longer practical training in school. This contribution points out the importance of innovative methods in teacher education programs to develop the professional learning of preservice teachers.

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