The intention-behaviour gap: Three case studies of the application of general pedagogical knowledge

Various studies have investigated the intention-behaviour gap in human behaviour, but research on this effect in the teaching and learning domain specifically are still sparse. This paper analyzes the enactment of intentions as it relates to the general pedagogical knowledge that teachers intend to apply in their classrooms. Based on a qualitative-reconstructive study within instrumental case studies, the study focused on the gap between teachers stated intended general pedagogical knowledge application and their intention-realization in the classroom. The findings indicated varying individual degrees of intention-behaviour gaps among the three cases, but no full intention-realization in any of the cases. Conversely, the findings also show that all the teachers realized some additional components of their general pedagogical knowledge which were not initially stated at the point of planning.1