The rapidly changing educational landscape, characterized by superdiverse classrooms and rapid technological advancements, has underscored the imperative for teachers to attain adequate digital competences. Regarding this, the European DigCompEdu framework serves as an example of these growing digital competency demands. However, preparing student-teachers for technology integration is a complex endeavor, as students should learn that integrating technology in practice goes beyond the mere addition of a tool into an existing teaching activity, but requires making informed decisions about technology based on sound pedagogical reasoning (PR). However, little is known about students’ adoption of PR during their technology integration efforts. During this symposium, we wish to present a study focused on exploring the technology-related PR that student-teachers adopt when collaboratively designing ICT-rich learning materials. A 10-week Teacher-Design-Team intervention was implemented at a Flemish teacher training institute during the academic year of 2021-2022. The intervention consisted of 7 sessions of 3-4 hours each (an introductory lesson, 5 design sessions, and a microteaching). Grouped in design teams of 3/4 students (N = 23), students designed ICT-rich curriculum solutions for authentic pedagogical problems experienced by an in-service mathematics teacher (context: secondary school). Throughout the sessions, design teams explored and determined which tools to use, brainstormed solutions, designed and developed materials, and tested, evaluated, and revised their materials. A qualitative case study approach was employed to analyze the design talk of three design teams. In total, 56,5 hours of audio data were transcribed and analyzed. With the design talk of the TDT as the unit of analysis, this study applied three phases of coding: (a) identifying the design activity in which a technology-related design discussion (TRDD) emerged (analysis, design, develop, implement or evaluation); (b) discerning what type of reasoning was at the basis of a TRDD (pedagogical, practical, or external); and (c) coding the level of inquiry present in the TRDDs (no-depth; sharing ideas; collaborative). At ECER, we aim to showcase how and when students engaged in PR. Overall, findings indicate that students engage in PR, but that the extent and depth of students’ PR in TRDDs (1) varies between design sessions and activities and (2) is often short-circuited by decision-making based on pragmatic or external reasons. The findings and implications of this study will inform (teacher) educators and researchers about the importance of PR in the context of technology integration.

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