This article examines pre-service language teachers' perceptions of learning and teaching and how differentiation manifests itself in them. The 67 participants visualised ‘an ideal language learning situation’ and complemented a number of teaching-related metaphors, for instance, ‘A teacher is like…’ and ‘A learner is like…’ in the first session of their pedagogical studies. Seven participants returned to reflect on these outputs in group discussions held at the end of their studies. The data were analysed qualitatively following thematic analysis. We identified some themes of differentiation already in the initial outputs, that is, visualisations and metaphors, such as teaching methods and learning environment. In particular, the metaphors contained references to the individuality and uniqueness of the pupils. In the group discussions, the participants further highlighted the importance of differentiation for instance through the themes of differentiation for high-achieving pupils and the contradiction between ideal and practice. Based on the group discussions, the participants' understanding of differentiation expanded at least to some extent during their studies. Overall, the results suggest that the ideal of differentiation is present at some level when students enter their studies and that they are able to embrace it even more during their studies. Despite this, some participants still reflected rather limited views of differentiation, for instance, the focus on ability levels and textbook-based learning. This implies that differentiation should be addressed more profoundly in pre-service teacher education.

中文翻译：

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“学习者就像一片雪花，每片都是独一无二的”：通过可视化、隐喻和小组讨论揭示职前语言教师对差异化的看法

本文探讨了职前语言教师对学习和教学的看法以及差异如何在其中体现。 67名参与者在第一堂教学研究中想象了“理想的语言学习情境”，并补充了一些与教学相关的隐喻，例如“老师就像……”和“学习者就像……”。七名参与者在学习结束时举行的小组讨论中反思了这些成果。在主题分析后对数据进行定性分析。我们在最初的输出中已经确定了一些差异化的主题，即可视化和隐喻，例如教学方法和学习环境。特别是，这些隐喻包含了对学生的个性和独特性的提及。在小组讨论中，与会者通过高材生的差异化、理想与实践的矛盾等主题，进一步强调了差异化的重要性。通过小组讨论，参与者在学习过程中对分化的理解至少在一定程度上得到了扩展。总体而言，结果表明，当学生进入学习阶段时，在某种程度上就存在差异化的理想，并且他们在学习期间能够更多地接受它。尽管如此，一些参与者对差异化的看法仍然相当有限，例如注重能力水平和基于教科书的学习。这意味着职前教师教育应更深入地解决差异化问题。