The K-STEP Framework: Knowledge Structures of Teaching in Emerging Practice

The K-STEP (Knowledge Structures of Teaching in Emerging Practice) framework conceptualises the evolving, situated forms of knowledge that preservice teachers (PSTs) draw upon when designing lessons. Developed through analysis of South African PSTs’ lesson plans, reflections, and assessment data on the concept of the equal sign, K-STEP identifies five developmental dimensions—Inherited Knowledge, Formal Curriculum Knowledge, Simulated Pedagogical Reasoning, Emerging Learner Awareness, and Contextual Constraint Navigation. Although originally grounded in analyses of lessons on the equal sign, the framework can be applied to examine any lesson design or teaching context in mathematics and beyond. Collectively, these dimensions illuminate how novice teachers’ reasoning develops from remembered school practices toward more deliberate, learner-responsive pedagogy. The framework serves both as a diagnostic and developmental map bridging coursework and classroom application, and as an analytical tool for researchers investigating how professional knowledge takes shape through the process of lesson design.