The development of professional competence is of major importance for each teacher student and in the end for the entire education system. Therefore, optimising students’ learning processes is a central goal of professional development at the university level. Learning processes are influenced by an individual’s prior knowledge, beliefs, and expectations. Having insights into the beliefs and expectations of our students should give us the opportunity to optimize their university courses. To obtain a better understanding of these beliefs and expectations we used a questionnaire with open questions. All statements of feedback from 168 students in BA/MA programmes were categorised. For this purpose, we developed a category system based on the COACTIV model of professional competence. The results indicated that many students assume that the most important influence on their future profession is the possession of self-related ability cognitions, but they do not expect to develop such cognitions in their university courses. As a consequence of these findings, the Division of Chemistry Education has begun offering students authentic learning situations with real pupils. This approach offers the chance for the students to try out the teacher role and to reflect upon the first teaching experiences. They can revise their image of the teachers’ role and acquire a realistic view of their future profession.
