Introduction: Theoretical background, aims, and research questions

Teachers continuously interpret complex classroom situations while making instructional decisions. These perceptual processes are conceptualised as professional vision (PV) and regarded as a key component of professional competence. PV includes noticing pedagogically relevant events and reasoning about them using professional knowledge. At the same time, high-quality teaching depends on professional action—the observable practices through which teachers diagnose, address, and support pupils’ learning. Although both constructs are widely studied, research often examines them separately, leaving unclear how teachers’ interpretations relate to their enacted practices.

This study addresses that gap in Technology and Design education, focusing on how teachers engage with pupils’ conceptions. These conceptions shape how learners understand technological phenomena and are crucial for adaptive instruction. The study introduces two complementary video-based instruments: one assessing PV through instructional vignettes, and another analysing professional action through structured observation of teachers’ classroom videos. Importantly, the instruments are not yet empirically linked at the individual teacher level. Instead, this contribution presents first findings from both strands and explores the potential of triangulating them in future analyses. The research questions are: (1) How do teachers perceive and interpret pupils’ conceptions in video scenarios? (2) How are these conceptions addressed in classroom practice? and (3) What insights emerge when considering both perspectives side by side?

Methods:

The study follows a cross-sectional design with two samples. Professional vision was measured using video vignettes depicting scripted robotics lessons that made pupils’ conceptions visible. A total of 121 Austrian Technology and Design teachers participated, including certified teachers, out-of-field teachers, and career changers. Participants described events, interpreted pupils’ thinking, evaluated situations, and proposed alternative strategies. Responses were scored against an expert reference using a three-level scheme.

Professional action was analysed using classroom video recordings from an initial subsample of nine teachers. These cases do not yet allow direct statistical linking with the PV scores. Lessons were coded with a structured observation manual focusing on cognitive activation and constructive support in relation to pupils’ conceptions. Indicators captured whether teachers elicited prior knowledge, explored reasoning, insisted on explanations, provided concept-related feedback, and revisited learning processes.

Results and Discussion:

The vignette-based assessment indicates a moderate overall level of professional vision with substantial variability. Teachers differed in noticing relevant aspects of pupils’ thinking, interpreting conceptual issues, and generating instructional alternatives. No statistically significant differences emerged between teacher groups based on qualification pathways.

Classroom video analyses showed that explicit and sustained engagement with pupils’ conceptions was relatively rare. Supportive practices, such as maintaining a positive error culture, were more common, whereas systematic elicitation and instructional use of pupils’ ideas occurred only selectively. Because these findings are based on a small exploratory subsample (N = 9), they are interpreted descriptively and mainly illustrate how the observation framework captures concept-related instructional practices.

Considering both strands highlights the value of methodological triangulation. Rather than claiming direct correspondences between individual teachers’ professional vision and classroom practice, the study shows how combining standardised vignette data with authentic classroom observations opens new analytical perspectives. Differences between what teachers recognise in structured scenarios and what becomes visible in their teaching underline the complexity of professional competence and the need for future designs that connect interpretive and action-related dimensions more systematically.

Educational Significance of the Research:

The study demonstrates the potential of integrating assessments of professional vision with analyses of professional action to gain a more comprehensive understanding of teacher competence. For teacher education and professional development in Technology and Design, the findings suggest that fostering diagnostic awareness alone is insufficient; teachers also need support in translating insights into instructional strategies that build on pupils’ conceptions.

Video-based learning environments linking the analysis of classroom situations with reflection on one’s own teaching appear promising. By making discrepancies between what teachers see and do visible, such approaches can stimulate reflection and targeted professional growth. More broadly, the research contributes methodological tools and a triangulated perspective to the study of teacher professionalisation in conceptually demanding subjects.

In Austria, a shortage of qualified teachers in STEAM subjects – science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics – significantly affects creative subjects such as art and design as well as technology and design (Schnider & Braunsteiner, 2024). To close this gap, open teaching positions are increasingly being filled by out-of-field and career-changing teachers. However, they face particular challenges: in addition to acquiring new subject knowledge, these teachers often do not possess in-depth knowledge of learning strategies and subject-specific didactic knowledge (Prince & O'Conner, 2018). Furthermore, skills in managing digital media and topics are required, in which teachers – regardless of their level of qualification – often demonstrate uncertainties (Härtel et al., 2018; Grünwald & Goreth, 2023). Students, however, are experienced in the routine, everyday use of digital media, especially image-based social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram (Feierabend et al., 2025; Wedel et al., 2025), which are an integral part of their daily lives. Post-digital images – those in which digital and analogue levels are inextricably intertwined – have a central role here, forming a dynamic field of negotiation in which students not only move but also actively shape the landscape (Grünwald, 2017). Using post-digital images in art education offers new didactic potential, as students already bring basic visual and media-related skills to the classroom, thus allowing teaching and learning processes to be restructured collaboratively. Due to the strong everyday relevance of these image phenomena, both students and teachers are familiar with them. This can be a valuable resource, especially for alternatively qualified teachers – particularly in the early stages of their teaching career, when they are confronted with varied challenges (Prince & O'Conner, 2018; Baeten & Meeus, 2016).

This research project is embedded in the BMBWF-funded project “Professionalization in STEAM Career Changers (ProQ-STEAM),” which is dedicated to the professionalisation of career changers who are entering the teaching profession; the study is intended to develop evidence-based recommendations for practice and education policy. The aim that underscores this research project is to investigate how art teachers and students use their visual literacy to manage post-digital images. Consequently, an interface will be developed that enables well-founded and collaborative communication between students and teachers in art education. Additionally, differences in the professional knowledge of teachers with different qualification levels – out-of-field, career-changing, and qualified subject teachers – regarding post-digital images will be analysed, focussing on subject-specific and didactic knowledge to clarify the extent to which this topic is beneficial to alternatively qualified teachers.

This leads to two central research questions:

1. How do teachers and students manage post-digital images in terms of visual literacy to create an interface for knowledge transfer in art education?

2. To what extent can differences in professional knowledge regarding post-digital images be identified between out-of-field, career-changing, and qualified subject teachers?

The central research questions were examined in an exploratory cross-sectional study by using an anonymous online questionnaire. The study followed a mixed-methods approach, with the questionnaire integrating both quantitative and qualitative questions. The sample comprised secondary school students (N = 360) from Grades 8 and 9 at general secondary schools and middle schools in Tyrol as well as qualified subject, out-of-field, and career-changing teachers (N = 40) who teach art and design in Tyrol.

The everyday presence of post-digital images in young people's daily lives and the hegemonic influences that can accompany these image phenomena demonstrate that their integration into the school context and especially into art education is essential. Accordingly, this research project outlines recommendations based on the observable interfaces in the way students as well as teachers manage post-digital images and derives didactic implications for art education. Among other things, this can lead to collaborative teaching and learning situations, professional development, and strengthened interdisciplinary understanding. Furthermore, engaging with these images can produce new ideas for promoting creative research, visionary design skills, and a reflective understanding of post-digital structures.

Introduction

Out-of-field (OOF) teaching, the practice where teachers are assigned to teach subjects without formal qualifications, is a globally discussed issue (Porsch, 2016). Research has shown that OOF teaching influences the teachers’ knowledge (Du Plessis, 2020; Hobbs, 2012) or the instructional practices (Napier et al., 2020). However, lesson planning, the practice that precedes classroom instruction, has received little attention. At the same time, lesson planning is considered a core competence of teachers, which is regarded as a subject-specific and learnable skill that is central for teacher professionalization (Carlson et al., 2019; Schröder et al., 2020).

This study aims to tackle this research gap and investigates how OOF physics teachers plan their lessons, what challenges they face in the process and how OOF teachers could be best supported as part of their professional development (PD). In detail, the study was guided by the following research questions:

RQ1: How do out-of-field teachers describe their approach to and experiences with lesson planning in physics?

RQ2: What types of support can be derived to assist out-of-field teachers as part of their professional development, based on how they describe and perceive lesson planning in physics?

As theoretical framework the Model of Educational Reconstruction was chosen, as it conceptualizes lesson planning as an iterative interplay between three components: (1) clarifying science content, (2) considering learners’ perspectives (particularly students’ conceptions) and (3) designing teaching and learning environments (Duit et al., 2012). The MER is a common planning framework in Austrian preservice physics teacher education, making it a productive lens for exploring what planning looks like when such subject-specific learning opportunities are limited or absent in OOF contexts.

Methods

A qualitative design was implemented, using semi-structured interviews (Galletta, 2013) with five Austrian OOF physics teachers. The interviews were conducted individually online and lasted between 60 and 105 minutes. The interview guide was based on the MER and consisted of three sections. First, participants were asked to describe their professional background and their pathways to OOF physics teaching. The second part comprised questions concerning lesson planning. Teachers reflected on their lesson planning practices and challenging situations, as well as how they face those challenges. Lastly, the participants described their experiences with PD, while also highlighting what kind of support, both formal and informal, they wished for as part of their PD.

The interviews were then transcribed and analyzed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis as outlined by Braun and Clarke (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2021), to generate common patterns of meaning, so-called themes. In the analysis process, the MER served as an analytic lens through deductive coding, while inductive coding enabled the refinement of themes grounded in the participants’ experiences.

Results and Discussion

Overall, the analysis yielded five themes: Themes T1-T3 describe how OOF physics teachers plan lessons and themes T4-T5 illustrate what support they appreciate and wish for.

In detail, T1 describes that teachers experience limited physics content knowledge as a manageable challenge. Nevertheless, content clarification dominates planning time and creates persistent challenges in elementarization. Secondly, T2 comprises the integration of learners’ perspectives which are addressed implicitly during lesson planning. Although interests and prior knowledge are acknowledged in lesson planning, considering students’ conceptions as an important part of preparation is described as impractical by participants. T3 describes that their lesson structuring and the design of learning environments rely largely on adapting pre-existing materials and transferring general pedagogical routines from other subjects. T4 emphasizes the importance of informal networks as a key resource for ideas and materials for lesson planning while also expressing a strong demand for digital resources for content clarification tailored to school-level physics. T5 showcases the high interest in targeted professional development that combines science content with classroom-ready teaching approaches. However, participation in PD programs is constrained by time, availability and perceived relevance.

Educational Significance of the Research

This study makes lesson planning visible as a central, yet underexamined, practice in OOF physics teaching. By applying the MER as an analytical lens, it is possible to identify where the challenges of lesson planning for OOF physics teachers lie and to gain insights into support possibilities within professional development. The findings inform not only research but also professional development concerning evidence-based further support options for OOF physics teachers.