Hospitationspraktika als Lerngelegenheit? Zum Beitrag von Praktika zur Veränderung berufsbezogener Selbstkonzepte und der Berufswahlsicherheit bei Lehramtsstudierenden

The present study examines the effectiveness of initial teacher training on the development of professional self-concept and certainty of career choices of teacher students in Germany. The focus of the study is on the one hand whether these teacher trainings affect the career orientation as intended in their curriculum investigated exemplarily by the development of self-concept and certainty of career choices and on the other hand predict the intended learning tasks the development of both.

In order to answer the first question, two groups of students were compared. One group completed the initial teacher training; the second group did not complete this training during this period of their teacher training. The study examined whether the groups differ in terms of their self-concept and certainty of career choice before and after the internship. Furthermore, the development of self-concept and certainty of career choices were examined through the tasks of the teacher training under the condition of quality of support and personality traits on the basis of the group with completed training. Longitudinal data with three measurement points were obtained of a sample of 296 students undergoing teacher training resp. 527 teacher students without conducting a teacher training in nine universities.

Group comparisons show that the self-concept and certainty of career choice do not differ before but after the teacher training between both groups. Further analyses of the development during teacher training reveal effects of the intended learning tasks on self-concept and mentoring as well as negative influences of neuroticism as a trait of students’ personality. In summary, results show that the learning opportunities of initial teacher trainings provide a contribution to the professional development of teacher students.