This article discusses the organizational and personal development in subject didactics as a particular field of social science research. Assuming the growing importance of subject didactics as a new field of research, the author invites to pay more attention to the interdependency of three components in the developmental process of a scientific discipline: 1. the personal development, 2. the knowledge management and 3. the organizational development. On the example of the first project, the article provides insight into the developmental process - conceptualization, implementation and institutionalization - of small organizational units, the ‘Centres of Subject Didactics’, which were established between 2001 and 2013 in the framework of teacher education studies at the University of Vienna. This process led to the allocation of manpower, of funds and of rooms provided by the university. The second component of the ‘developmental triangle’, the personal development of the research staff, is illustrated on the example of the research platform ‘Theory and Practice of Subject Didactics’. The four years’ interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary project (2009-2012) helped to improve and standardize theory building and methodological competence among the scholars working in subject didactics. The longterm process of cooperation and communication among scholars working in the field contributed to the differentiation of research questions, made the research dimension of the subject didactics apparent and helped to strengthen the identity of both, the identity of subject didactics as a new field of research, and the identity of the scholars involved who got a clearer understanding of their role as ‘subject didacticians’.

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This study aims to explore how teacher educators in the Netherlands support student teachers’ reflections on practice teaching in school. Over the past few decades, the realistic approach of teacher education has become popular. In the process of professional development in teaching, the role of reflection skills is emphasised for student teachers to become independent and self-directed practitioners; therefore, teacher educators are expected to provide appropriate questions to support student teachers’ reflection. The ALACT model (Action, Looking back on the action, Awareness of essential aspects, Creating alternative methods of action, and Trial) in the realistic approach facilitates this process. Based on recorded data from interviews and after-class conferences, it was revealed that teacher educators provided a variety of questions to help student teachers contemplate essential aspects of their own teaching. Additionally, this approach would function well when the policy of teacher development was shared between teacher educators and student teachers in trusting relationships.

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This paper describes an exploratory study that investigated the motivational patterns of Japanese university students classified as English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners whose English proficiency levels were assessed as low. To evaluate the motivational characteristics and the change between pre- and post- surveys, an exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted using a three psychological needs scale and a four motivation types scale based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT). The participants of the present study showed notably low intrinsic motivation and high introjected regulation. After a year of college education, most psychological needs and motivational subscales improved significantly. Although the SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) result confirmed the exploratory factor analysis, fit indices were not satisfactory. Even so, the model we constructed was in keeping with SDT and explained the reason why participants’ three psychological needs and other motivation types improved significantly.

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