Abstract
Despite the predominance of reflection for exploring the cognitive mechanisms of lesson planning and teaching enactment among pre-service English teachers (henceforth PSTs), empirical studies on their emotional regulation and emotional-cognitive practices remain limited. These underexamined mechanisms are critical for they determine the PSTs’ resilience and success in teaching practice. Guided by a qualitative case study design, the present study conceptualized a microteaching course as a bounded case, investigating a cohort of 28 PSTs’ engagement in video-mediated reflection (henceforth VMR). Data were obtained from semi-structured interviews and recorded teaching demonstrations, analysed thematically to explore whether VMR facilitated the PSTs’ emotional regulation and development of professional identity. The findings revealed five themes constituting the cyclical process of emotional regulation and identity consolidation: (1) reflective-affective noticing, (2) strategic emotion regulation, (3) reflection-informed pedagogical decision making, (4) development of professional self-concept, and (5) identity consolidation and renewal through the integration of emotional and cognitive processes. These themes explicate how emotional-cognitive praxis underpins PSTs’ teaching demonstration while refining their identity as teachers who develop different yet coherent identities. This study contributes to technology-enhanced teacher education by elucidating how VMR nurtures sustained and in-depth reflective engagement, which in turn supports PSTs’ emotion regulation and identity formation.