Exploration of second language preservice teachers' cognition and learning. Study I: The role of second language preservice teachers' cognitive processes and the relationship between theory and practice. Study II: Second language preservice teachers' cogn

This dissertation research consists of three independent studies focusing on three related aspects of second language teachers' learning processes. The first study (Dahlman, 2005) explored the connections between the cognitive level of three preservice second language teachers' processing of new information and their beliefs of theoretical knowledge. The second study (Dahlman, under review) continued to examine the connections between second language teachers' cognitive and affective processes by examining the circumstances under which twelve preservice second language teachers engaged in lower- and higher level mental processing of information. The third study (Dahlman, under review) focused specifically on the act of six preservice second language teachers' accessing their background knowledge and the role of context in this process. All the three studies comprising my dissertation utilized the case study methodology. It was chosen as the methodological approach because case studies have been deemed particularly suitable for examining multiple, complex, interrelated factors involved in a phenomenon (Merriam, 1998). This is why a case study is particularly useful in contexts where the investigator has little control over phenomena, such as in exploring people and their thought processes (Yin, 2003).; The findings of the three studies suggest an intricate interplay between cognitive (information processing), affective (learner-based) and contextual (learners' responses to the environment) factors in second language teacher learning. For example, the cognitive level of information processing of the participants was dependent on the learning-to-teach context and the teacher learners' reactions to the context. This meant that the participants processed the same information through different levels of processing depending on the learning context and their affective reactions to that context. In addition, the participants' processing of information indicated a two-directional process where they made sense of the incoming information (outward processing) by making personal connections between this new information and their prior knowledge and experiences (inward processing). Thus, the findings further suggest that knowledge is a highly dynamic entity which exists in the active processing of its users, both outward and inward, based on the three dimensions involved in learning, i.e., cognitive, affective and contextual factors.