The relevance of preservice teachers’ declarative content knowledge and professional role identity for a lesson planning task close to professional demands

Abstract

Teachers’ knowledge seems to be important for student learning, however, it is a complex issue. Therefore recent studies have emphasized the importance of examining how teachers use their knowledge in teaching situations. Previous research has found that Geography preservice teachers responded to a text vignette, an instrument that simulates a teaching situation, predominantly with pedagogical thoughts, followed by pedagogical content thoughts but rarely with exclusively content thoughts. This study sheds light on such findings by examining preservice teachers’ content knowledge and professional role identity. Preservice teachers participated in a content knowledge test on the tropical rainforest topic and assessed their professional role identity on a well-established percent point index. The results from the previous study were then correlated with the declarative knowledge test and the professional role identity in this study. The findings indicated that preservice teachers possess limited content knowledge; however, they did not express it to the same extent when working on the vignette. Furthermore, the study revealed moderate correlations between the preservice teachers’ professional role identity and their responses to the vignette, evidence of the significant influence of professional role identity on teaching.

Keywords:

• Content knowledge
• declarative knowledge
• pedagogical content knowledge
• professional role identity
• vignette

Introduction

Recently, the discourse surrounding teachers’ knowledge has experienced a “major shift − a turn away from an intense focus on the knowledge needed for teaching to a focus on the use of that knowledge in practice” (Grossman, 2018, p. 3). Researchers advocate for investigations into how teachers perform, aligned with professional demands, rather than solely assessing teachers’ declarative theoretical knowledge (Blömeke, Gustafsson, & Shavelson, 2015; Grossman, Wilson, & Shulman, 1989; König, Bremerich-Vos, Buchholtz, & Glutsch, 2020; Neuweg, 2014). There is an increased emphasis on knowledge in relation to teaching situations, which has arisen from various reasons. Substantial portions of teachers’ competence appear to be strongly tied to specific contexts (Neuweg, 2014). Expert teachers demonstrate sensitivity to the contexts in which they operate. This is why it is interesting how teachers manage the “dialogue with the situation” (Verloop, Van Driel, & Meijer, 2001). Additionally, in studies on teacher effectiveness, their knowledge and skills are especially relevant, because actual performance in teaching situations can influence student learning outcomes (Martin, 2008). Moreover, there are concerns that teacher education programs may foster inert knowledge (Gruber, Mandl, & Renkl, 2000; Terhart, Czerwenka, Ehrich, Jordan, & Schmidt, 1994). Preservice teachers, teachers and other stakeholders criticized that their university learning lacks practical usefulness in schools (Arnold, 2010; Hemmer & Uphues, 2011), thereby failing to prepare them for the complexities of classroom teaching (Grossman, 2018). The process named as “transition” (Butt & Collins, 2013; Grossman et al., 1989), “translation” (Bednarz & Bednarz, 1995; Butt & Collins, 2013) or “recontextualization” (Puttick, 2015) of university knowledge to the knowledge required for classrooms seems challenging for preservice teachers (Butt & Collins, 2013), warranting greater attention.

Regarding geography teaching, teachers’ practice and professional demands encompass three activities: lesson planning, lesson enactment and lesson reflection. These constitute everyday tasks of geography teachers, wherein meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills can be observed (Harte & Reitano, 2015). To better understand teachers, research should thoroughly investigate these three key activities. In a previous study we focused on a situation closely related to lesson planning, particularly the critical evaluation of a lesson plan. Lesson planning is a complex and context dependent task, as professional knowledge must be adapted to address situation-specific factors (such as student characteristics) and content-specific factors (such as a particular geographical topic) before implementation (Butt, 2008; John, 2006; König et al., 2020; Mutton, Hagger, & Burn, 2011). The planning process involves the successful integration of context-specific and conceptual knowledge (De Jong & Ferguson-Hessler, 1996). Paper-pencil tests assess general planning aspects, and may fail to address the contextual nature and complexity teachers encounter (König et al., 2020). Despite its importance and prevalence in the school context (Butt, 2008), lesson planning has received little attention in terms of empirical research (König et al., 2020; Mutton et al., 2011). Many questions regarding lesson planning are still unexplored “[F]for example, it remains an open question, whether teachers presumably make use of their specific knowledge in the subject area … and relate it to the specific planning situation” (König et al., 2020, p. 802).

In a previous study (Scholten et al., 2022), we responded to this call by investigating if and how geography preservice teachers responded to a lesson plan centered on the tropical rainforest. Participants were asked to evaluate a peer’s fictitious lesson plan, with several deficiencies. This research instrument, known as a vignette, describes a specific realistic situation for the purpose of provoking responses (Skilling & Stylianides, 2020). Preservice teachers provided written feedback in an open response format, allowing us to understand their responses to the school-related task. They were prompted with the following statement: “Emilie asked for feedback. Evaluate Emilie’s lesson plan”. The preservice teachers were provided with the opportunity to generate up to 9 thoughts in response to the vignette. The data was subjected to qualitative text analysis (Kuckartz, 2019; Schreier, 2014). Drawing on Shulman’s (1986) seminal distinction of pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge, we categorized preservice teachers’ answers whether they responded with exclusively pedagogical thoughts, content thoughts or pedagogical content thoughts (see coding frame in Scholten et al., 2022). As described, each participant was able to formulate zero to nine thoughts in response to the vignette. On average, considering all responses provided, the following picture emerged: participants generated mainly MD = 4.5 (MD = median, while the minimum is 0 and the maximum is 9) exclusively pedagogical thoughts and MD = 1.8 pedagogical content thoughts. Only two participants generated one or two exclusively content thoughts at all. The geography preservice teachers predominantly answered with generic comments, which was surprising because, all participants had intentionally chosen geography as one of their future subjects in schools. They were commenting on a clearly identifiable geography lesson. Their bachelor’s degree had emphasized disciplinary courses, within which they learned content knowledge. These results were replicated in a parallel vignette study on German literature, in which preservice teachers, who aim to teach German as a subject, also surprisingly privileged exclusively pedagogical thoughts to thoughts related to the subject (Masanek & Doll, 2022). The discussion revealed “the failure to analyze the lesson plan from a content perspective may reflect the fact that the [preservice] teachers did not possess the necessary content knowledge” (Scholten et al., 2022, p. 7). This study tries to explain these findings using correlational analyses of the preservice teachers’ content knowledge needed to address the content deficits in the vignette. Additionally, authors have suggested that teachers’ professional practice is strongly influenced by their professional identity (Baumert & Kunter, 2013, Pajares, 1992). Therefore, we will examine the extent to which the results can be attributed to preservice teachers’ professional identity.

Before outlining the research project, we will first review existing literature on the relationship between teachers’ content knowledge and teaching practice, as well as teachers’ professional identity and teaching practice. Subsequently, we will formulate research questions, which will be investigated primarily through correlational analyses.

The relation of content knowledge and teaching practice

How teachers’ practice and knowledge exchange, interact and refine each other is only partially understood due to the fact that it is a highly complex process, that is difficult to investigate (Blömeke et al., 2015; Neuweg, 2011; Puttick, 2015; Verloop et al., 2001).

Teachers’ knowledge is often divided into different domains with one crucial domain being content knowledge. According to Shulman (1986), it comprises both substantive and syntactic knowledge structures. The former refers to the facts and concepts of a discipline, and the latter pertains to the ways and means by which knowledge is generated and established.

When focusing on teachers’ content knowledge it can be considered consensual that it is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for effective practice (Baumert & Kunter, 2006; Lipowsky, 2006; Neuweg, 2014). At least the part of content knowledge, taught in schools needs to be available to the teacher in a declarative form, as this content needs to be imparted by the teacher (Neuweg, 2014). Without a declarative content knowledge, teachers may struggle to adequately prepare, enact, and reflect on their lessons. Selected empirical studies, primarily focusing on mathematics and science education, support the notion that teachers’ content knowledge affects instruction in a variety of ways. Grossman (1995) contended that teachers’ content knowledge affects both what and how they teach. Grossman (1995) summarized on the basis of several empirical studies, that “teachers are likely to emphasize those areas in which they are more knowledgeable and avoid or de-emphasize the areas in which they have relatively less content knowledge” (p. 21). The depth of subject knowledge affects the level of challenge, the extent of problem orientation set to students, and teachers’ reliance on textbooks (Grossman et al., 1989). A study involving biology and physics teachers revealed how content knowledge influences the modification of textbook content, the ability to appropriately evaluate student contributions, and the incorporation of such contributions into the lesson (Hashweh, 1987). Findings from the mathematics study program “Cognitive Activation in the Classroom” (COACTIV) suggested that content knowledge is a prerequisite for acquiring pedagogical content knowledge (Baumert et al., 2006; Baumert & Kunter, 2006). Researchers suggested that teachers’ mathematical content knowledge, mediated through PCK or instructional design features, plays a vital role in students’ achievement. The breadth and depth of mathematics content knowledge afford teachers a diverse repertoire of explanations and representations in the classroom, elevating the cognitive demand of the lesson (Baumert & Kunter, 2006).

Conversely, it is plausible that a teacher possesses content knowledge but is unable to effectively use it in a teaching situation (Grossman et al., 1989; Neuweg, 2011). This knowledge is called “inert knowledge”: knowledge that is stored in memory but fails to be active when solving a problem in a teaching situation. Renkl, Mandl, and Gruber (1996) discussed as one explanation of inert knowledge cognitive metaprocesses that fail to facilitate knowledge application.

A study conducted by Harte and Reitano (2015) explored whether preservice geography teachers, on a geography course, could effectively integrate, consolidate, apply, and reflect on the acquired geographical knowledge in a real-world professional task. Results also indicated that preservice teachers encountered difficulties in applying knowledge and skills. Harte and Reitano (2015) emphasized the need for increased opportunities for preservice teachers to practice applying the knowledge and skills they gained during university courses.

The relation of professional identity and teaching practice

Teachers’ professional identity has become of increasing relevance in educational research in the last two decades, as it is considered to play a central role in teachers’ professional performance (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009). Professional teacher identity is conceptualized as a dynamic construct formed through, among other things, active engagement with professional experiences (Beijaard, Verloop, & Vermunt, 2000) and the acquisition of professional knowledge (Antonek, Mc Cormick, & Donato, 1997; Beijaard, Meijer, & Verloop, 2004).

In geography education research, the significance of a geography-specific identity, along with its associated beliefs and values, is central to teachers’ professional practice (Brooks, 2016; Mitchell, 2016; Seow, 2016; Seow, Irvine, Beevi, & Premathillake, 2020). Brooks (2016) stressed how the identity as a subject specialist, expressed by a subject story, exerts a powerful influence on professional practice across various dimensions. For example it guides teachers’ practice in answering questions such as “why teach this”? (Brooks, 2017, p. 46). Additionally, a strong subject-specific identity enables internal and external justifications, helps teachers decide when to resist or comply with external influences on their practice, such as policy or curriculum changes. Brooks maintains a robust identity as a subject specialist is crucial for long-term commitment to the profession. Teachers with a strong geographical identity frequently draw upon it, particularly when facing conflicts or tensions in their professional practice (Brooks, 2016). Similarly, Mitchell (2016) showed in an empirical study among teachers that they turn to their identity as geography teachers as a form of resistance to neoliberal pressures controlling their work. Consequently, geography educators advocate for the development of a strong geographic identity among preservice teachers, rather than solely adopting a pedagogic identity of a teacher (Brooks, 2017; Seow, 2016).

A current quantitative methodical approach to assessing teacher identity is reflected in recent studies which have investigated teachers’ professional role identity using a percent index to measure the importance of different roles (Beijaard et al., 2000; Bromme & Strässer, 1991; Brovelli, Kauertz, Rehm, & Wilhelm, 2011; Meyer, Doll, Jentsch, Confurius, & Kaiser, 2021; Meyer, Doll, & Kaiser, 2023). This approach distinguishes between three roles that teachers may adopt in their professional identity: (a) subject specialists perceive the implementation of their profession mainly from a subject-specific perspective, (b) didacticians emphasize the planning, implementation, and reflection of teaching and learning processes in the respective subject, and (c) pedagogues, who view their profession mainly in terms of supporting the individual, social, emotional, and moral development of learners. The categorization into these roles is supported by a study by Seow (2016), who investigated qualitatively four Singaporean preservice teachers of geography and revealed three types of identities (Geography Teacher, Geographer, Teacher) which largely correspond to the professional roles designated in the professional role identity approach.

To assess their professional role identity, prospective teachers were asked to allocate 100 points to the three roles according to their perceived importance for their professional self-image (Bromme & Strässer, 1991). This percentage point index serves as the operationalization of professional role identity in the present study. A consensus among these studies, using the percentage point index, is that teachers perceive their professional role identity as a composition of the three roles. Their professional role identity is typically not limited to one role only (Beijaard et al., 2000; Brovelli et al., 2011; Meyer et al., 2021). This aligns to the findings of Till (2020), who identified “fused identities” among primary school geography teachers. Their identities as geographers complemented and synthesized with their generic identity as teachers.

Concerning the proportion of the three roles, results are mixed. An earlier study by Beijaard et al. (2000) found that mathematics and science teachers, as novice teachers, emphasized the role of subject matter specialist but over the course of their careers, two-thirds of the participants shifted towards a stronger emphasis on didactical and pedagogical specialist. Conversely, a more recent study by Brovelli et al. (2011) indicated that even at the beginning of their careers, prospective science teachers did not predominantly see themselves as subject specialists. For preservice teachers in their study, all three aspects were already equally pronounced. This is supported by Meyer et al. (2021) who examined the professional role identity of science and math preservice teachers. Preservice teachers in the master phase assigned on average the highest importance to the role of pedagogue (M = 38.0%), followed by the role of didacticians (M = 34.5%) and subject specialist was ranked last (M = 28.0%).

Research questions

This paper outlines to what extent preservice teachers’ response to the vignette on lesson planning is impacted by their declarative content knowledge and professional role identity. Drawing from the theoretical foundation, the importance of content knowledge in effective subject teaching is acknowledged. The first two research questions address declarative content knowledge:

• Question 1: To what extent do geography preservice teachers possess declarative content knowledge of the inner tropics?

• Question 2: To what extent does geography preservice teachers’ declarative content knowledge explain their results on a lesson planning vignette?

• Theoretical considerations and empirical studies emphasize the significance of teachers’ subject-specific identity as a valuable resource for their instructional practice. Although there is a lack of empirical studies on how geography preservice teachers’ identity manifest in their practices. This leads to the questions three and four:

• Question 3: How can geography preservice teachers’ professional role identity be characterized concerning the three professional roles?

• Question 4: To what extent does preservice teachers’ professional role identity explain their responses to the lesson planning vignette?

Apart from investigating the separate associations between content knowledge and professional identity with preservice teachers’ responses to the vignette, question 5 explores the combined explanatory power of these two variables on the generation of pedagogical content thoughts.

• Question 5: To what extent do preservice teachers’ declarative content knowledge of the inner tropics and their professional role identity together explain their results on a lesson planning vignette?

Research methods and design

The sample comprised n = 56 preservice teachers enrolled in a master’s degree program in education at a German university. Participants were attending various preservice teacher education programs (see Table 1), majoring in high school teaching (53.6%), elementary school teaching (19.6%) and teaching in two other types of school (26.8%). Table 1 presents the general descriptive statistics of the sample (Scholten et al., 2022).

Table 1. Overview of the sample (source: Scholten et al., 2022).

Characteristic
Age: median (min, max)	26 (22, 40)
Gender	Female = 38 (67.9 %); Male = 18 (32.1 %)
High school diploma grade: median (min, max)*	2.2 (1.3, 3.2)
Teaching certificate	Primary school: n = 11 (19.6%)
	High school: n = 30 (53.6%)
	*Other: n = 15 (26.8%)
Master program semester: median (min, max)	1 (1, 7)

Note: A high school diploma is the requisite entrance qualification for university studies, ranging from 1 (highest grade/outstanding achievement to 4 (low pass).

*Other = vocational school or special needs school

In German teacher education, preservice teachers typically select two disciplines to specialize in as future teaching subjects, all participants chose geography as one of these. Prior to taking part in the study, participants finished their bachelor degree. In this particular German university, preservice teachers need to achieve 170 ECTS credits (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) during their bachelor’s studies. For the high school teacher study program, the credits earned during bachelor are distributed as follows: 7% go into subject didactics (e.g. geography education), while the study of pedagogy receives 12%. The largest part of the program, more than two thirds (76%) is dedicated to the study of the disciplines (e.g. geography). The missing 5% is reserved for the practica. For the elementary school teacher study program, the distribution is slightly different. They need to achieve more credits in subject didactics (21%) and pedagogy (21%). Nevertheless, the study of the disciplines is still the dominating factor as 53% of the credits go into them. Overall, one can see a strong disciplinary orientation in the bachelor phase, which is typical for the German teacher education system. During their bachelor’s program all participants attended a lecture and a seminar in which the different biomes of the earth were covered based on Schultz (2016). Even in the master program the study of the disciplines receives significantly more credits than pedagogy or subject didactics. During their master’s studies, preservice teachers participate in a year-long practicum in schools. This intensive practicum involves preservice teachers spending 50% of their time in schools, while the remaining time is dedicated to accompanying university courses. Preservice teachers are expected to prepare, teach and reflect on selected lessons guided by fully qualified teachers. In this respect the previous vignette study mimicked an authentic situation for the preservice teachers. During the practicum lesson planning and evaluation of peers’ lesson plans were an essential part of their activities in school. In addition to the vignette designed to assess preservice teachers’ knowledge close to professional demands (for detailed information of the vignette and its construction see Scholten et al., 2022; Table 2), two additional instruments were administered sequentially.

Table 2. Selected examples of the correspondence between the items in the content knowledge test and the inaccuracies integrated in the vignette.

Content within the vignette	Corresponding items in the content knowledge test
The lesson plan claims to cover all important features of the biome tropical rainforest. However, on the worksheet any information on the climate of the tropical rainforest is neglected.	Item 5: Name the main component/geofactor to determine the biomes. Justify your decision:
	Name:
	Justification:
	Item 11: Name three additional typical features of the climate in the tropical rainforest.
	Feature 1: high precipitation rate (2000–4000 mm)
	Feature 2:
	Feature 3:
	Feature 4:
Definition and characteristics of a Podzol soil is presented on the worksheet as a typical soil of the tropical rainforest.	Item 6 : Name the characteristic soil of the tropical rainforest
	Name:
	Item 7: Describe two characteristic features of this soil.
	Feature 1:
	Feature 2:
Text on the worksheet claims that citrus fruits are one of the most important products grown on plantations in the tropical rainforest.	Item 9: Please tick the two commodities that are not typical plantation products in the tropical rainforest () bananas () citrus fruits () almonds () rubber () cacao () soy () coffee

Instrument II: content knowledge test

After commenting on the vignette, preservice teachers received a content knowledge test. The test comprised a total of 13 items (see selected examples in Table 2), consisting of 5 multiple choice items and 8 open response items. These items were based on the content covered in an established introductory course book on biomes used in the disciplinary course of the university (Schultz, 2016). The content knowledge test covered substantive and syntactic content knowledge on the inner tropics. Notably, the content knowledge test items corresponded to the insufficient information provided in the vignette (see Table 2).

When testing the internal consistency of the test by calculating Cronbach’s α, one item had to be deleted because of the low discriminatory power, leaving 12 test items. A maximum of 16 points could be achieved. For some items it was possible to achieve two or more points. For the multiple-choice items correct answers were only scored, if the participants did not choose incorrect alternatives as well. The test score was calculated by adding up the results.

Instrument III: professional role identity

To explore preservice teachers’ professional role identity the percentage point index by Bromme and Strässer (1991) was applied. As described in the theory section this instrument was used in previous studies in other disciplines (Beijaard et al., 2000; Brovelli et al., 2011; Meyer, Doll, Jentsch, Confurius, & Kaiser, 2021; Meyer, Doll, & Kaiser, 2023). Participants were asked to allocate a total of 100 points among three roles: geographer, pedagogue or subject didactic. For the analysis the self-assigned points for each role were used. Even though the instrument reduces professional identity to three roles and thus does not allow for a comprehensive analysis of professional identity, it enables making general statements about identification with the three roles in a streamlined procedure and facilitates surveying a larger number of preservice teachers.

Correlational and regression analysis

The study tested positive correlations between variables. Statistically this means that we computed Pearson product-moment correlations and calculate one-sided significance tests with SPSS 28.0. The effect size conventions of Cohen (1992) were adopted, which attribute a small effect size with r = .10, a medium effect size with r = .30 and a large effect size with r = .50. For the effect size of R², the squared multiple correlation, computed in multiple regression analysis, Cohen (1992) has developed the index f² = R²/(1-R²) as index of effect size. The conventions he suggests assume that f² = .02 indicates a small, f² = .15 a moderate and f² = .35 a large effect size.

Results

The results are presented sequentially along the research questions. The tables provide comprehensive and detailed results, while the text highlights the essential findings.

Extent of preservice teachers’ declarative content knowledge on the inner tropics

Given that the participants rarely used exclusively disciplinary thoughts nor many pedagogical content thoughts when providing open responses to the vignette (Scholten et al., 2022) the first question addressed whether preservice teachers’ possessed the corresponding declarative content knowledge. The knowledge test revealed that preservice teachers achieved a mean score of M = 47.6% (SE = 3.0) (see Table 3). The test results demonstrate a heterogeneity of knowledge. Some preservice teachers demonstrated a refined understanding of the inner tropics and answered all items correctly, while others struggled and could not answer one test item correctly.

Table 3. Correlations between the knowledge test and generated thoughts in the vignette (n = 56).

Variable	Knowledge test	Content thoughts	Pedagogical content thoughts
Content thoughts	.21	–	–
	(.057)
Pedagogical content thoughts	.58	.08	–
	(< .001)	(.283)
Pedagogical thoughts	−0.26	−0.26	−0.39
	(.031)	(.027)	(.001)

Correlations between declarative content knowledge and results on the vignette

The second research question aimed to investigate the extent to which participants’ declarative content knowledge explains their performance on the lesson planning vignette. Table 3 presents the correlations between the test score, the numbers of generated thoughts and the correlations between the three categories of generated thoughts. There is a significant positive correlation between the amount of declarative knowledge and the number of pedagogical content thoughts provided in response to the vignette r = .58 (p < .001). According to Cohen (1992) this correlation can be considered large. Additionally, the negative correlation between declarative knowledge and the number of (exclusively) pedagogical thoughts also becomes significant at r = −0.26 (p = .031). A larger amount of content knowledge appears to be associated with the generation of fewer exclusively pedagogical thoughts. Pedagogical thoughts demonstrate significant negative correlations with both pedagogical content thoughts (r = −0.39, p = .001) and content thoughts (r = −0.26, p = .027).

Preservice teachers’ professional role identity

Table 4 presents the results for the percentage point index of the professional role identity. Geography preservice teachers assign the highest importance to the role of the pedagogue with M = 43.3% (SE = 2.7), the role of geography didactician with M = 31.9% (SE = 1.7) follows in second place and the role of geographer with M = 24.8% (SE = 2.1) follows in third place. The role of pedagogue exhibits a highly negative correlation with the other two roles (r = −0.77, p < .001, and r = −0.62, p < .001).

Table 4. Means, standard errors und correlations for the percentage point index of professional role identity (n = 56).

Professional role	Min	Max	Mean	SE	r Subject specialist	r Didactitian
Subject specialist/geographer	0	70	24,8	2,1	–	–
Didactician	0	70	31,9	1,7	−0.02	–
					(p = .45)
Pedagogue	0	100	43,3	2,7	−0.77	−0.62
					(p < .001)	(p < .001)

Correlations between professional role identity and results on the vignette

Table 5 presents the correlations of the professional roles with the numbers of pedagogical thoughts and pedagogical content thoughts. Preservice teachers who defined themselves more strongly as geographers exhibited a higher degree of engagement with pedagogical content thoughts in their responses to the vignette. The professional role identity as a geographer demonstrate a significant positive correlation r = .34 (p = .005) with the number of pedagogical content thoughts used in the vignette. Similarly, the professional identity as a geography didactician also correlates significantly with r = .26 (p =. 029) with the number of pedagogical content thoughts generated, when working with the vignette. A stronger self-definition as a didactician corresponded to a greater emphasis on pedagogical content thoughts in preservice teachers’ vignette responses.

Table 5. Correlations between participants self-assigned professional role identity and their knowledge in use (n = 56).

Professional role	Pedagogical content thoughts	Pedagogical thoughts
Subject specialist	.34 (p = .005)	−0.49 (p = .001)
Didactician	.26 (p = .029)	.02 (p = .440)
Pedagogue	−0.43 (p = .001)	.37 (p = .003)

Furthermore, preservice teachers who identify themselves more prominently as pedagogues demonstrated increased use of pedagogical thoughts in their commentary on the vignette. The professional role identity as a pedagogue correlates significantly with the number of pedagogical thoughts generated at r = .37 (p = .003). The magnitude of these three correlations can be considered moderate according to Cohen (1992).

In addition, the following two negative correlations occurred: Professional role identity as a geographer correlates significantly negative with r = −0.49 (p < .001) with the number of pedagogical thoughts generated, and professional role identity as a pedagogue correlates negatively with r = −0.43 (p < .001) with the number of pedagogical content thoughts generated.

A linear regression model for the pedagogical content thoughts

Table 6 presents the results of the multiple linear regression analysis explaining the variance in subject-specific pedagogical thinking. The variables included in the analysis are the knowledge test score, subject specialist, didactician, and the high school diploma grade, which was used as a control variable. Its expected negative beta coefficient, a small grade in a high school diploma in Germany indicates a good performance, was not significant (Beta = − .135, p = .108). The multiple correlation is significant at R = .671 (F(4,51) = 10.42, p < .001). The coefficient of determination R² = .450 with f² = .82 indicates a large effect size according to Cohen (1992).

Table 6. Results of the linear regression analysis explaining the number of generated subject-specific pedagogical thoughts (n = 56).

	B	Beta	p	r	spart-r	spart-r²
Knowledge test	3.85	0.522	<.001	.581	.506	.256
Subject specialist	0.02	0.255	.011	.343	.247	.061
Didactician	0.02	0.184	.045	.255	.179	.032
High school diploma grade	−0.47	−0.135	.108	−0.086	−0.130	.017
Sum						.366

Note. B – unstandardized regression weight, Beta – standardized regression weight, p – probability of t-test, r – bivariate correlation, spart-r – semipartial correlation, spart-r² – squared semipartial correlation

The beta weight for the knowledge test is Beta = .522 (p < .001), for the subject specialist it is Beta = .255 (p = .011), and for the didactician it is Beta = .184 (p = .045). The last column in Table 6 shows the squared semipartial correlation between the number of pedagogical content thoughts and each respective variable. It indicates the unique variance each individual variable explains in addition to the variance explained by the other variables in the model. The knowledge test score explains the largest portion of unique variance with 25.6%, followed by the role of subject specialist with 6.1%, and the role of didactician with 3.2%. The specific portions of variance sum up to a total variance of 36.6% (last row in Table 6). The difference between the squared multiple correlation and the cumulated unique variances, ΔR² = .450 − .366 = .084, represents the portion of variance in subject-specific pedagogical thoughts that is jointly explained by the four variables in the model. This means that the unique variance components play a much larger role in accounting for the variance of the pedagogical content thoughts than the joint variance does.

Discussion

The focus of this paper is on investigating the relationship between preservice teachers’ responses to a task that simulates professional demands (commenting on a lesson plan on the tropical rainforest) and their declarative content knowledge on the inner tropics, as well as their professional role identity. The discussion is organized according to the two sources of influence on lesson planning studied: declarative content knowledge and professional role identity. Subsequently, we acknowledge limitations of the study and provide recommendations for teaching and research in this field.

Influence of declarative content knowledge

A key finding of the study is that although preservice teachers possessed content knowledge on the inner tropics they did not express any exclusively content thought when confronted with the deficient lesson plan on the tropical rainforest. Admittedly, the content knowledge is limited, but it can be expressed when asked in a declarative way, however it is neglected in an application situation. This result indicates that the application of content knowledge in teaching situations is a complex process and cannot be simply explained by a linear relationship. Similar findings have been suggested by Verloop et al. (2001), they argued that effectively reworking subject knowledge for teaching requires active efforts from teachers to construct, integrate, and transform their knowledge. While this insight is not entirely novel, it fills a gap in the empirical indicators for geography education, especially at the level of lesson planning.

Another interesting finding from this study is that content knowledge is strongly associated with pedagogical content thoughts (r = .58) generated in response to the vignette. This finding corresponds to a similar vignette study on lesson planning undertaken in German education, in which a strong positive correlation between content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge thoughts (r = .55) was also observed (Masanek & Doll, 2022). Furthermore, this outcome corresponds to the results obtained from the COACTIV study, which demonstrated a connection between mathematics teachers’ content knowledge and their use of pedagogical content knowledge. It is plausible to propose that content knowledge serves as a fundamental prerequisite for the acquisition of pedagogical content knowledge, as suggested by previous research (Baumert et al., 2006; Baumert & Kunter, 2006). Following these findings, it seems that it is useful to support and foster content knowledge because it seems to manifest itself during teaching situation in the form of pedagogical content thoughts. This underlines the importance of sound content knowledge because it appears to enhance teachers’ capabilities in the classroom. The fact that the preservice teachers were able to answer “only” less than half of the items correctly on the knowledge test is concerning in this context. Especially since much of the content knowledge we tested (see Table 2) is not academic specialized knowledge but rather part of the knowledge necessary to understand the connections between the ecofactors within the inner tropics, it largely corresponds to the knowledge to be conveyed to students.

Influence of professional role identity

In this study we employed a percentage point index to assess the professional role identity distinguishing the roles of a subject specialist, a didaction and a pedagogue. Concerning geography preservice teachers’ role identity our results align with previous research (Brovelli et al., 2011; Meyer, Doll, Jentsch, Confurius, & Kaiser, 2021; Meyer, Doll, & Kaiser, 2023; Till, 2020) demonstrating that teachers’ professional identity is an integration/fusion of several roles. Preservice geography teachers at the beginning of the master’s program will assign the highest importance to the role of pedagogue, followed by the role of didactic geographer, and lastly the role of geographer. Compared with Meyer et al. (2021) who investigated mathematics and science preservice teachers’ professional identity our study revealed an even stronger emphasis on pedagogue role with an average of M = 43.3% (Table 5) allocated to this role. In the theory part, we outlined the benefits of a strong subject-specific identity (Brooks, 2016). Preservice teachers attribute the highest importance to the role of a pedagogue, however, given that the roles of “geography didactician” and “geographer” combined to constitute 56.7% of the percentage point index (see Table 4), indicating the presence of a subject-specific identity among participants.

Regarding the relationship between self-reported professional role identity and the answers to the vignette moderate correlations were found in each case. These results indicate a significant connection between preservice teachers’ professional identity and their teaching practices at the fine-grained level of everyday geography teaching. It is innovative in our study that we could empirically illustrate these correlations at the minute level of lesson planning, which is highly relevant for teachers and eventually consequential for students.

The results of the regression model (Table 6) indicate that declarative knowledge accounts for the largest portion of variance in the generated pedagogical content thoughts, explaining 25.6% of the variance. On the other hand, the role identity of the geographer explains an additional 6.1%, and the role of the geography didactician explains 3.2%. This is an expected result, primarily because the test items developed to measure content knowledge were specifically related to the content in the vignette, while the professional role identity was operationalized as a general self-description of the current professional identity. Based on these explained variance percentages, the imparting of geographical knowledge in teacher education, coupled with strengthening a professional identity that emphasizes both the subject-specific and didactic roles, is particularly important to enable preservice teachers to effectively apply acquired geographical knowledge in their teaching practice.

Limitations

As the study was confined to a limited number of participants from a single university, the results should be considered indicative, and further empirical work is necessary to substantiate these findings. The selection of the inner tropics/tropical rainforest content was based on several valid reasons, including its coverage in the preservice teachers’ curriculum and its international significance in geography teaching in schools. However, to strengthen the empirical foundation, other content areas could also be explored.

It is important to acknowledge certain limitations concerning the vignette, which was administered to generate insights concerning preservice teachers’ competence close to professional demands. These are discussed in authors (2022).

Regarding the instrument for assessing professional role identity, certainly, the percentage point index used in this study does not cover the breadth, depth, or the development of the professional identity of geography teachers. There is a discourse that exclusively dedicates itself to the professional identity of geography teachers, providing a more comprehensive description of their identity (Alexandre, 2016; Brooks, 2016; Puttick, 2016; Seow, 2016; Seow et al., 2020). In the context of our study, we limited the study to the professional role identity as an explanatory variable. For this purpose the instrument yielded insightful findings and was suitable for explaining the results of the vignette. Within the professional role identity it would be beneficial to include preservice teachers’ second subject as well. Understanding whether preservice teachers identify more strongly with geography, their second subject, or pedagogy would provide valuable insights in the context of this research.

Furthermore, this study did not investigate declarative pedagogical knowledge or declarative pedagogical content knowledge. In future research, it would be interesting to include such knowledge tests if sufficient testing time is available. This could provide a more comprehensive understanding of preservice teachers’ overall knowledge and teaching practices.

Recommendations

Our findings offer significant implications for teacher professionalization and geography education research. Firstly, they support the appeal of geography educators Harte and Reitano (2015) “to provide more opportunities for preservice teachers to practice applying the knowledge and skills they have gained” (p. 233) during university. Preservice teachers cannot automatically link their content knowledge to teaching situations. Teacher education in Germany should put additional emphasis on linking and contextualizing content knowledge to professional demands of teaching. This suggestion challenges the traditional assumption in the German teacher education system, which implies that declarative content knowledge is first learned in universities and only later used in schools (Neuweg, 2011).

Secondly, our findings motivate research on teacher professionalization to ask not only for teachers’ declarative content knowledge but also to considered additionally, test formats, such as text and video vignettes, which reflect more closely professional demands teachers face. Results of teachers’ declarative content knowledge tests are of limited relevance for student learning, if teachers cannot use this knowledge when teaching (Gruber et al., 2000; Neuweg, 2011, 2014).

The results concerning the professional role identity and its relation to teaching practice underlines the paramount importance of the factor professional identity. The findings lend empirical weight to geography educators’ call for nurturing subject-specific identity development during university education, as it evidently influences preservice teachers’ teaching practices. In our experience, implementing geographical field trips at the very beginning of initial teacher training proves particularly effective for this purpose. Because on the one hand field trips provide the opportunity to gain declarative knowledge. As research has shown (Antonek et al., 1997; Beijaard et al., 2004) and the positive correlations in our study between declarative content knowledge and the self-identification as geographer and geography didactician again demonstrate, the acquisition of knowledge and the development of a professional identity are positively related. Additional field trips offer the opportunity to actively engage in professional experience and strengthen group cohesion, which highly probable contribute to a geographical role identity.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.