(a) Project Details

Project Title: "Teacher Professional Vision: Toward Theoretical, Methodological, and Educational Synergy"

Term: 01 Jan 2023 to 31 Dec 2026 (4 years)

Funding: European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction

Project Team:

• Andreas Gegenfurtner, University of Augsburg (chair)
• Kai S. Cortina, University of Michigan
• Markku Hannula, University of Helsinki
• Nora McIntyre, University of Southampton
• Nicola Meschede, University of Münster
• Tina Seidel, Technical University of Munich
• Miriam G. Sherin, Northwestern University
• Rebekka Stahnke, IPN Kiel
• Kathleen Stürmer, University of Tübingen
• Ruben Vanderlinde, Ghent University
• Elizabeth A. van Es, University of California at Irvine

(b) Project Description

This E-CER is entitled "Teacher Professional Vision: Toward Theoretical, Methodological, and Educational Synergy". Teacher professional vision refers to how teachers perceive and interpret classroom situations and how they use these perceptions for teaching. Different research traditions and empirical approaches are used to conceptualize and study the processes and components of teacher professional vision. The E-CER aims to bring together these different rich perspectives to develop a comprehensive account for conceptualizing, analyzing, and promoting teacher professional vision. 

The E-CER has three goals. The first goal is to work toward theoretical synergy. We will aim to develop a meta-theory that integrates prominent theory frameworks and also draws from related models on professional vision and visual expertise from domains outside the teaching profession. This meta-theory will offer definitions of key components and include not only sociocognitive processes, but also outcomes, reflecting the consequences of professional vision for student learning and equity.

The second goal is to work towards methodological synergy. We will collectively create new research contexts and test novel data collection approaches to explore teacher professional vision. Considering research contexts, we aim at bridging the divide between research in action (when teachers teach in real classrooms) and on action (when teachers watch videos of themselves or other teachers’ teaching) through sequential data procedures; these new contexts also include virtual and simulated classroom realities. Considering novel method approaches, we aim at exploring new ways to get access to teachers’ and students’ mutual visual attention and their classroom correlates and consequences. 

The third goal of this E-CER is to work toward educational synergy. We will develop a set of curriculum and syllabus material aimed at promoting the professional vision in two contexts: (a) teacher education, focusing on pre-service teachers in higher education, and (b) teacher professional development, focusing on the training of in-service teachers at school.