The “Learning Avatar” (LA) is a three-year development and research project in which teacher students are set to explore the use of a digital avatar in their teaching of physical education (PE) and performing arts education (PAE). The LA tool itself is a digital 3D visualization app with the potential to create physical subject material in a 3D format, with features that allow for zooming, perspective shifting, and tempo adjustments. Consequently, it may support and expand the teacher's presence in PE and PAE in various innovative ways. However, the primary goal of the LA project is to promote student-active learning and enhance teacher students' Professional Digital Competence (PDC) through an experimental teaching both in a simulation laboratory and in their practicum.

Research indicates that developing PDC in educational settings involves complex, subject- and context-specific processes. These processes cannot be generalized or isolated from the overall process of teaching and learning (Sargent & Calderón, 2021; Aagaard et al., 2022). Therefore, the integration of technology into education must be developed internally and embedded within the specific contexts of teacher education practices (Brevik et al., 2019; Aagaard et al., 2022). Following this, the LA tool itself is not the focus of this study, it served as a catalyst for reflections on the use of digital technology in a movement-based subject and, hopefully, strengthen student teachers’ PDC. This study addresses the following research question:

•            How did student teachers during their practicum use a digital avatar, which they had helped develop, and how do they reflect on their experiences with it?"

To guide data analysis and examine the question we use the theory of practice architecture (TPA) that has been widely used to investigate and understand professional development, teaching practice, and student learning (Kemmis & Grootenboer, 2008; Kemmis et al., 2014; Mahon et al., 2017) and Grootenboer

Schatzki et al. (2001) observed a turn toward practice in educational research and showed how “practice theory” includes multiple and diverse understandings. Kemmis and Grootenboer (2008) developed TPA to capture the complexity of such practices as part of school development, learning processes, and teacher change. Drawing on the notion of site ontologies, Kemmis and Grootenboer (2008) added “relatings” to Schatzki’s “sayings” and “doings,” stating that practices are not formed solely by the participants within schools but are always influenced by existing, often external, structures or arrangements.

TPA identifies three different kinds of arrangements that constitute sites of practice: cultural-discursive, material-economic, and social-political arrangements (Kemmis et al., 2014; Mahon et al., 2017). Together these arrangements form the practice architectures of practices; they enable or constrain particular practices, in our case: the use of the LA tool. Teacher students and pupils engagement and development regarding LA practices, and the possible impact on teacher professional learning, are embedded in different kinds of arrangements in each individual practicum school. TPA represent a framework that can identify and document LA in meaning and comprehensibility through the “sayings” and “reflections”. The practices and learning processes through “doings,” and finally, the value and benefit for student teacher PCD and subject didactics in establishing connectedness and analyzing power structures through the “relatings.”

TPA “steers analysis towards what actually happens in a site, and the identification of local arrangements that make practices of a particular kind possible within that site, or that shape local (site-based) variations of a practice” (Mahon et al., 2017, p. 19). TPA thus allows us in practicum schools to identify and critically investigate empirical connections between student teacher learning, developed practices, and how to understand the use of LA in a broader educational context.

The participants were student teachers enrolled in one-year postgraduate teacher education programs specializing in PE and PAE, mainly directed towards teaching at secondary and upper secondary levels. The participants come from diverse backgrounds, including sports education, dance and stage performance, all movement-based subjects. In total 19 students specializing in PE and 14 students specializing PAE agreed to share their practicum reflection notes and their participation are based on informed consent and the study is approved by the Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research. The students were placed in practicum at different upper secondary schools (pupils 16–19 years old). Central to the learning experience during practicum, is learning from teaching `in situ´, under the supervision of a practicum teacher and in company with peers. During this period they were given a task to plan for integrating the LA tool into teaching and learning with at least one group of pupils, and describe and evaluate this in reflection notes. The method is document analysis and the qualitative research approach is inspired by direct content analysis (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). We first conducted a quantitative summative content analysis of how the teacher students did use the LA tool, then we proceeded with direct qualitative content analysis guided by the results from the summative analysis trying to identify the “sayings,” “doings,” and “relatings” that enable or hinder different practices, choices and reflections.

-There is great variation in what students chose to do and how they reflected, as well as in the extent to which they genuinely planned the LA to support learning. Most students express both positive and negative, but reasoned, opinions about the use of digital learning resources in the subject, demonstrating that the project has contributed to their PDC. -We can to some extent see a difference between subjects, with students from musical theater and theater backgrounds standing out by finding it more challenging to incorporate it into their teaching. -The analysis show that the integration of the LA in teaching is both influenced by and has influenced all three arrangements of the TPA. -The majority of the critical and negative reflections are directly related to the LA tool itself. They felt forced to use that specific tool in their teaching, while they had more confidence in other digital resources. Technical weaknesses of the LA are pointed out, as well as missing alignment to competence goals in the curriculum. Several students mention time as a factor, with some noting that using the LA frees up time for the teacher to support students in other ways. -The students can identify what hinders or promotes use of digital learning resources within the various arrangements when planning to use them in their own teaching. Their practices reveal their perceptions of the subject. In addition to shedding light on the challenges and limitations of using the LA as a digital learning resource, it has also stimulated new thoughts, ideas, and knowledge about the subject and future teaching pathways. -The ethics of using some digital learning resources is commented on by several students. Through the project, they seem to have become aware of and gained good insight into the ethics related to PDC.

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