Impact of contextual factors on the development of professional competence in teacher education

Anna Hartl, Research associate TUM

Research interest

The research project of this dissertation comprises two journal articles and focuses on the impact of contextual factors in teacher education.

Study I investigates the role of emotional support for the academic success of teacher students. Study success is operationalized as follows: The latent construct intention to dropout is used as an indicator for the completion of studies. Cognitive abilities are represented by the BilWiss 2.0 test, which measures educational knowledge in a multidimensional way. Well-being as a further indicator of study success measures the latent construct emotional exhaustion, which is used as a scale for mapping mental characteristics and physical conditions are recorded by the psychosomatic checklist. Therefore longitudinal data from a German questionnaire survey will be analyzed by using latent change score models.

Study II will also focus on emotional support with the aim to investigate how emotional support develops over time and to find contextual indicators that favor a different course. It is planned to carry out the analyses using different groups of participants and to point out differences. The underlying longitudinal dataset includes six measuring points and receives participants from the beginning of the induction phase until seven years after the start of their career at school.

The aim of the planned dissertation is to demonstrate the complexity of the teacher education system with focus on the emotional support by peers and colleagues. The findings of this dissertation are above all relevant for practice in higher education. They can, for example, be included in the evaluation and the further development of the degree programs.

The results of both studies will be published in international journals.

Doctoral supervisor: Prof. Dr. Doris Holzberger

Mentor: Dr. Kristin Wolf