Linking early indicators of reality shock with the quality of preservice teachers’ pedagogical reasoning

Novice teachers often face reality-shock, leading to poor performance and dropout. Strong pedagogical reasoning is crucial for early-career retention and effectiveness. Initial teacher education programs use field-based internships to mitigate reality-shock upon entering the profession, but the connection between these experiences and pedagogical reasoning quality is unclear. Through semi-structured interviews this study examined 38 preservice teachers' pedagogical reasoning quality and reality-shock precursors during internships. Qualitative analyses and clustering techniques identifyied distinct links between pedagogical reasoning profiles and reality-shock precursors. Recognizing these connections empowers teacher-educators to anticipate and prevent reality-shock in their students. By targeting specific risks in pedagogical reasoning quality and field-internship experiences, initial teacher education curricula can more effectively prepare teachers for the challenges of the profession.