The importance of reflection for the development of teacher students into professional practitioners has become a generally accepted and central part of teacher education. What a reflection is, how a teacher reflects and how teacher students can learn to reflect has been perennial question in teacher education since Dewey and Schön wrote their central works. This is still mirrored in teacher education today because the ambition to develop teacher students´ reflection persists. However, the concept of reflection in teacher education research is surrounded by a problem, it prevails: “… mixed messages and confusing agendas (Fendler 2003 p. 20)”. Research has been carried out without clearly explaining the meaning(s) of the concept of reflection, in both teacher education (Ottesen 2007), and physical education teacher education (PETE) (Standal & Moe 2013). What needs to be supplemented in research on the concept of reflection, in the field of PETE, based on the prevailing knowledge base, is a more profound and nuanced understanding of what a reflection is and how different contexts affect PETE students' reflections.
Therefore, I created a proposal for a theoretical framework, based on a synthesis of mainly Wackerhausens and Schön's theories about what a reflection is. The framework also gives a proposal to understand different dimensions and sorts of reflections. And finally, this proposal for a theoretical framework gives a conceptual toolbox, based on Bernstein's theory, to understand how different contexts and factors in these contexts affect how PETE students reflect.