Empirical findings regarding the knowledge of pre-service teachers concerning evidence-based methods to improve writing competence

The professional competence of a teacher is a significant predictor of student competencies. Thus, knowledge about the structure and development of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of teachers is an important aspect in developing effective teacher professionalization programs. So far most of the studies have emphasized the assessment of PCK in the domain of mathematics and sciences. Little is known about PCK in the area of writing instruction (planning, writing and reviewing). Valid studies about evidence-based writing practices exist, but few studies examine the pre-service teachers' knowledge of these methods. The aim of the present study is to assess the structure and development of theoretically grounded knowledge in writing instruction. Therefore, a vignette-based test was designed for this cross-sectional study of 581 pre-service teachers of German who were in the first phase of their teacher education program. The structure of writing-specific didactical knowledge and the relationship between this knowledge and teacher training programs were analyzed. Then the relation of this knowledge to other relevant components of professional competence was investigated. A confirmatory factor analysis showed writing-specific knowledge to have a one-dimensional structure. Significant relationships between this knowledge and indicators of learning opportunities as well as other components of professional competence were found.