Pre-Service Teachers’ TPACK Self-Efficacy and Teaching Competence: A Descriptive-Correlational Study in Philippine Teacher Education

Integrating technology into teaching requires teachers to possess not only pedagogical and content expertise but also confidence in applying technological knowledge. While the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework has been widely used to describe teachers’ knowledge base, the extent to which TPACK self-efficacy predicts actual teaching competence remains empirically contested, particularly in developing-country contexts. This descriptive-correlational study examined the predictive relationship between TPACK self-efficacy and teaching competence among 198 pre-service teachers enrolled in a Philippine teacher education institution. Data were collected using a researcher-developed TPACK self-efficacy questionnaire with established internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = .90) and institutional teaching observation ratings. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression analyses were employed. Findings revealed that pre-service teachers reported high levels of TPACK self-efficacy across all domains. However, TPACK self-efficacy demonstrated very limited predictive power for overall teaching competence. Only Technological Content Knowledge (TCK) and Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) significantly predicted teaching competence indicators related to content delivery and teaching methods. Notably, higher self-efficacy in Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) was associated with lower observed performance in some domains. The results suggest that self-efficacy-based measures of TPACK may overestimate pre-service teachers’ instructional capability and weakly predict observed teaching competence. Rather than undermining self-efficacy theory, the findings highlight the need for more robust, performance-based assessments of TPACK in teacher education. These results contribute to ongoing measurement debates and have implications for strengthening evidence-based teacher preparation.