How knowledge is turned into professional practice

What skills must trainee teachers possess in order to conduct themselves professionally in the classroom – and how can these be practised in a targeted manner whilst still at university? The Professional School of Education (PSE) at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg addressed these questions on 13 October 2026. The event marked the start of the university’s engagement with the Bavarian Master Plan for Teacher Training. Prof. Dr Frank Fischer from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich provided the academic impetus with his lecture ‘Simulation-based learning at university – findings and implications for the design of core practices of teaching’.

Insights into the Master Plan for Teacher Training

To begin with, PSE board member Prof. Dr Christoph Ratz outlined the key points of the Master Plan, which was presented in September. Among other things, it envisages a greater role for subject-specific didactics, closer integration of academic training and school placements, and the mandatory inclusion of cross-cutting themes such as inclusion, democracy education and media education. Particular emphasis is placed on so-called ‘core practices’ – key activities of professional teaching practice that are to be systematically addressed in teacher training.

Prof. Dr Hans-Stefan Siller welcomed Frank Fischer on behalf of the PSE Executive Board and emphasised that the further development of teacher training requires more than just new organisational guidelines: “It will be crucial to design these not only in an organisational sense, but also in a way that is scientifically sound and didactically convincing.”

Frank Fischer, a recognised expert in this field, was the guest speaker. The Professor of Empirical Pedagogy and Educational Psychology at LMU Munich conducts research into, amongst other things, digital and collaborative learning, scientific thinking and argumentation, and professional assessment. As a member of the advisory board of the Würzburg PSE, he has close ties to the University of Würzburg; he also served as an external adviser to the Bavarian expert commission on the further development of teacher training.

Professional practice requires more than just theoretical knowledge

In his lecture, Fischer focused on a key challenge: which professional practices of teachers can be identified, examined and specifically fostered whilst they are still studying? As empirical research into ‘core practices’ remains limited to date, he drew on findings from simulation-based learning. The analogy with medical training illustrated the underlying principle: complex professional practice requires not only theoretical knowledge, but also opportunities to tackle and reflect on key requirements in suitable learning environments.

The lecture thus opened up a discussion that is as topical as it is fundamental: How can subject-specific research, subject didactics, educational sciences and school practice work together even more closely? And how can scientific evidence be transformed into a convincing concept for the training of future teachers? The launch at JMU demonstrated just how much potential lies in this collaboration – and sparked curiosity about the next steps in shaping a sustainable teacher education programme.

With the recently published Master Plan for Teacher Training in Bavaria, the responsible ministries (the Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs and the Ministry of Science) explicitly call for the implementation of ‘core practices’. A corresponding letter from the ministries was sent to the presiding bodies of Bavaria’s universities and, at our university, was forwarded by the President to the faculties responsible for teacher training. The PSE will support this process constructively; however, the specific details of individual points and their implementation in the teacher training examination regulations are still to be determined.

Contact

Dr Matthias Erhardt, Prof. Dr Hans-Stefan Siller: geschaeftsfuehrung-pse@uni-wuerzburg.de