Abstract
As knowledge derived from scientific theory can be helpful for teachers to reflect on their everyday teaching, universities have the challenging task of teaching this knowledge in such a way that pre-service teachers are able to apply it to their later teaching. Case-based learning has emerged as a promising method to foster pre-service teachers’ scientific knowledge application throughout university teacher education. However, surprisingly, empirical evidence for its effectiveness as compared to more traditional instructional interventions in teacher education is still inconclusive, partly being due to constraints concerning the employed comparison groups. The present quasi-experimental study (conducted in the field of classroom management) investigated the effect of studying exactly the same theoretical content with and without text-based cases on scientific knowledge application (as measured by a vignette test) in a sample of 101 pre-service teachers. Although the study found a small advantage for the case-based learning group, it demonstrated that scientific knowledge application may also be effectively fostered in a more traditional instructional course. The findings and their implications are discussed against the background of cognitive theories on inert knowledge and how to prevent it in teacher education.
Highlights
Applying knowledge from scientific theories to their own teaching practice can be useful for teachers to improve their classroom instruction (Mostert, 2007; Zottmann et al, 2013)
The present study found that case-based learning was slightly more effective in fostering pre-service teachers’ productive knowledge application than a similar intervention without cases (RQ1)
The present study used case-based learning as a method to prevent inert knowledge and help bridge the research-practice gap, a prevalent problem in formal teacher education (e.g. Allen, 2009)
Summary
Applying knowledge from scientific theories to their own teaching practice can be useful for teachers to improve their classroom instruction (Mostert, 2007; Zottmann et al, 2013). Teachers often struggle to systematically apply these theories to their practice (Augsdörfer & Casper, 2018). This phenomenon has been described as the theory–practice gap (Blomberg et al, 2013; Blömeke et al, 2008), with empirical studies underlining its significance (Allen, 2009; Siebert, 2005). One possible explanation for this lack of knowledge application is that university courses may not be optimally designed (e.g. in terms of instructional design/methods) to convey relevant scientific theories in such a way that (preservice) teachers are able to use them later on in their work (Blomberg et al, 2013). The phenomenon of inert knowledge is well known and has been observed across many instructional settings (Renkl et al, 1996)
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