The impact of understanding learners and techno-pedagogical competency on effective learning environments by designing the instructional process

This study aims to understand prospective teachers’ (PTs) preparedness to teach before they actually start working in the profession. In particular, the causal effects of “understanding the learner” and “techno-pedagogical competency” on “forming effective learning environments” by “designing the instructional process” were investigated. Structural equation modeling was carried out to estimate the effects of these variables on effective learning environments. A cross-sectional survey design was used with 314 PTs who were studying in a state university in Turkey in the 2019-2020 spring semester. For the purpose of this study, Preparedness to Teach scale was used to obtain the data after investigating the scale for validity and reliability properties. The results suggested that understanding the learner had both direct and indirect effects on forming effective learning environments. That is, the better PTs could understand the learner, the more appropriately they could design the instructional process and, ultimately, form an effective learning environment. However, techno-pedagogical competency had only indirect impacts on forming an effective learning environment. This finding suggests that the higher-competency PTs had in techno-pedagogy, the more effectively they could establish a learning environment by properly designing the instructional process.