Opportunities to learn, technological pedagogical knowledge, and personal factors of pre-service teachers: understanding the link between teacher education program characteristics and student teacher learning outcomes in times of digitalization

Abstract

Despite the need to foster pre-service teacher competence with respect to information and communication technology (ICT) integration in school during the current era of digitalization, scientific understanding of the correlation between the relevant characteristics of teacher education programs and student teachers’ learning outcomes remains limited. This paper thus examines the relationship between student teachers’ opportunities to learn (OTL) and technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK) with the aim of obtaining insights into their learning processes and the effectiveness of teachers’ preparation upon completing their bachelor studies. A sample of 338 student teachers in their 6th semester at the University of Cologne was used. Findings from path modeling reveal that measures of OTL relate to TPK. While no direct effect of technological pedagogical OTL on TPK was identified, an indirect effect between conventional pedagogical OTL and TPK, mediated by student teachers’ general pedagogical knowledge (GPK) was found. Among the personal factors that affect student teachers, their motivation for using ICT reveals a direct effect on TPK. Further factors, such as gender and teacher education program type have no effect on TPK. The findings will be discussed in relation to expectations of teacher education effectiveness.