How pre-service teachers observe teaching on video: Effects of viewers’ teaching subjects and the subject of the video

As critical component of teachers’ expertise, professional vision should be developed during teacher education. Professional vision draws on subject specific and generic knowledge, however, little is known about the knowledge interplay. This study systematically investigated pre-service teachers’ (n = 32 majoring in mathematics/science; n = 56 in social sciences/humanities) professional vision as elicited by videos of various subjects. Such a design allows studying the relevance of subject matter for professional vision. We found evidence for different professional visions among pre-service teachers majoring in different fields, indicating that—beyond knowledge acquisition—subject-specific socializations may result in distinct sets of shared beliefs and values.

► We studied subject matter impact for professional vision (pv) in pre-service teachers.
► We compared math/science and social science/humanities majors’ pv.
► Social sciences/humanities majors showed higher pv (even to math/science clips).
► We thus found different pvs among pre-service teachers from different subjects.
► We conclude that domain-specific socializations may result in distinct pvs.