Educational Psychology's Contributions to Professional Teacher Development: Discussion of the Special Issue

On the basis of the editorial and five empirical contributions in this special issue, I want to point out the specific approach that educational psychology takes to professional teacher development as well as the findings generated by this approach. I will do this alongside three questions: How is professional teacher development defined in this special issue? How important are personality and competencies as prerequisites of efficient teachers? What are the roles of selection and qualification in competency development? From these considerations, several suggestions for future research as well as the practice of teacher education are derived.