Educational expertise: the concept of ‘mind frames’ as an integrative model for professionalisation in teaching

Professionalisation in teaching has been the topic of extensive research in recent years, following in general two different approaches: the ‘competence-based approach’ and the ‘critical reflection approach’. With large-scale comparative studies such as PISA, TIMMS and PIRLS at the beginning of the 21st century, the former approach came to dominate the field and—especially in Germany—a specific model of professionalisation advanced to the status of a paradigm. However, this model does not seem unproblematic when one considers its roots. In this article I begin by inquiring into the concept and methodology behind the status quo in order to reveal its limitations. As a means of developing this concept further, I then introduce a model of educational expertise that takes as its theoretical foundation the didactic triangle, which has a rigid systematic structure for critical and reflective thinking about teaching and is backed up by empirical findings. At the core of this model of educational expertise are mind frames, a concept established by John Hattie. They may be seen as a theoretically founded and systematically structured interaction between competencies and attitudes backed up by empirical findings. Thus, they stand for an integrative model for professionalisation in teaching. Finally, I use this model to provide an outlook on university teacher education.