Unraveling the Complexity of Student Teachers’ Learning in and From the Workplace

Source: Journal of Teacher Education, 66(4), September/October 2015, p. 334-348

The present study reports on how student teachers’ workplace experiences were transformed into learning experiences.

In total, 26 stories from 10 student teachers were collected by means of digital logs and in-depth interviews and unraveled using a new technique of reconstructing stories into webs. In these webs, the factors that played a role in student teachers’ learning processes, the relationships between these factors, and the chains of student teachers’ activities and experiences in their learning processes were visualized.

The results show that student teachers’ learning from experiences is a process involving many interrelated personal and social aspects, including past and present experiences gained in multiple situations and contexts over time. Four chains of activities and experiences could be distinguished in their learning processes. The findings indicate that reconstructing stories into webs is a promising technique for unraveling the complexity of learning from workplace experiences.