The practical semester is an important but also demanding part of the teacher training programme. During this phase, prospective teachers gain practical experience in the school environment and prepare for their future work. Despite the importance of the practical semester, there is so far only limited scientific knowledge about how stressful this phase actually is for students.

The research project "Be-in-Praxis" is dedicated to this open question. It is being conducted by the Chair of Business and Social Education at the University of Cologne in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Petri Nokelainen from Tampere University in Finland. The focus is on investigating students' stress levels during various activities in the practical semester, including stress levels and emotional states. 

The focus is on the following research questions: 

• To what extent do positive and negative stress differ in different activities of the practical semester? 
• How do positive and negative stress levels differ between students as teachers in learner-centred and teacher-centred teaching?

In order to be able to answer this, the activities and the associated emotional states of students in the practical semester are documented for one week with the help of a smartphone app. At the same time, the individual stress level is recorded with the help of a smart ring. The "Moodmetric Smart Ring" measures changes in skin conductance, which indicates the activation of the sympathetic nervous system and reacts sensitively to changes in the cognitive or emotional state.

The overall aim is to contribute to the understanding of the stresses and strains in the teaching profession and to improve the design of the practical semester.