The phenomenon of practice shock—the gap between theoretical training and the practical demands of classroom teaching—represents a major challenge for novice teachers worldwide (Grossman, 2008). Research indicates that beginning teachers often struggle to apply their pedagogical knowledge effectively, particularly in classroom management and instructional practice (Morton et al., 1997; Danner, 2014; Dicke et al., 2015). Within the European Union’s broader agenda to enhance teacher professionalism and support competence development (EC, 2013), addressing this challenge has become a key priority.

In Germany, this issue has prompted reforms in teacher education programmes, most notably the introduction of the practical semester across eleven federal states. This phase seeks to bridge theory and practice through extended school placements supported by university seminars and regional education authorities (LABG, 2009 §12). For many student teachers, it constitutes their first substantial engagement with real teaching contexts and serves as an initial confrontation with the realities of professional life. The practical semester is designed to foster competence development and a deeper understanding of teachers’ professional roles (Weyland & Wittmann, 2011).

Teacher competence development has been widely studied (Cramer, 2010; Kunter et al., 2011), with evidence suggesting a strong relationship between practical experience and professional growth. However, few studies have explicitly examined how such training relates to student teachers’ perceived competence development (Bodensohn & Schneider, 2008). Emotional experiences are also crucial within this process (Bach & Hagenauer, 2022). During school placements—often characterised by high performance pressure—achievement-related emotions strongly influence learning processes, identity formation (Timoštšuk & Ugaste, 2012) and competence acquisition (Marais, 2013). Positive emotions encourage openness to new methods and resilience when facing challenges, whereas negative emotions tend to reinforce established routines (Frenzel, 2014).

Previous research confirms that emotional experiences shape competence development from the very first teaching encounters onwards (Burić et al., 2020). Yet studies focusing on these dynamics within vocational teacher education remain limited.

This study investigates how vocational education and training (VET) student teachers evaluate their competencies before and after engaging in school-based activities during the practical semester. It further explores the emotional responses elicited by these experiences in order to assess whether the practical semester supports competence development and helps reduce practice shock.

To address the research aim, this study employed event-contingent diaries and surveys from 23 German vocational student teachers in the vocational field of business and management during their practical semester in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2023 and 2024. Among the participants, 11 (47.8%) were female, with gender data missing for two (8.7%). The majority were first-semester students (n = 20, 87.0%). Student teachers evaluated their perceived competence before and after engaging in school-based activities over one week and reported emotional experiences related to changes in perceived competence. During the study period, participants recorded 241 activities (M = 10.5, SD = 5.12) using the LearningTracker smartphone application (Nokelainen & Hartikainen, 2020). Those participating in 2023 logged 187 activities; those in 2024 logged 54. On average, participants reported 2.6 activities per day (SD = 1.46), with an average duration of 82.2 minutes (SD = 64.70). Before each activity, participants rated expected competence (“I feel competent enough to carry out this activity”; 0 = Totally disagree to 4 = Totally agree; PreComp) and selected one pre-activity emotion from a Control-Value Theory (Pekrun, 2006, e.g., enjoyment, hope, relaxation; anger, anxiety, boredom), which was coded into emotional valence (0 = negative, 1 = positive; PreEmotVal). After the activity, they rated perceived competence (“How did you cope with the activity?”; 0 = Very poor to 4 = Very good; PostComp) and selected one post-activity emotion from a corresponding list (coded as PostEmotVal).  Because activities were nested within student teachers, the main analyses used multilevel cumulative link mixed models for the ordinal outcome variable (PostComp). Predictors were Time (measurement index across activities), PreComp, PreEmotVal, and PostEmotVal, while controlling for age, gender, self-assessed prior academic performance, and a time-varying indicator of whether the activity involved teaching. Prior to modelling, missingness patterns were inspected; most observations were complete (88.0%), and no imputation was performed. An unconditional model yielded an adjusted ICC1 of 0.184, supporting a multilevel approach. Model assumptions were checked, and random slopes for time were tested but not retained based on likelihood ratio testing.

Three main findings of this study emphasise the critical roles of student teachers’ pre-activity competence perceptions and post-activity emotional experiences in shaping self-assessed competence during the practical semester. First, post-activity competence increased modestly over time, suggesting gradual adaptation across the placement. Second, pre-activity competence expectations strongly predicted post-activity competence at both within-student and between-student levels. Third, post-activity emotional valence was the strongest predictor: within students, reporting a positive emotion immediately after an activity was associated with much higher odds of reporting higher competence. Overall, pre-activity emotional valence showed weaker associations than post-activity valence, highlighting the timing of emotion measurement. The development of a practical semester could be addressed, for instance, through the accompanying elements before and during the practical semester, such as the practical preparation seminars, the regular accompanying seminars at the Centres for Practical Teacher Training (ZfsL), or study seminars and university courses during the practical semester. In addition, the curriculum should emphasise the importance of supporting student teachers’ self-regulation skills to support confidence during the practicum, as well as their understanding of emotions as part of teachers’ work, from the beginning of the training. The studies by König et al. (2019) also found a positive relationship between the development of student teachers' skills and the quality of support provided by school counsellors, which also highlights the importance of available individual support.

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