This article investigates changes in student teachers’ teacher self-efficacy beliefs (SEBs) as part of their competence development during their three-year bachelor’s program and how these changes can be explained through practical learning opportunities. Using two bachelor’s student teacher cohorts who studied during and prior to COVID-19, differences in the development of their competence are analyzed longitudinally over three time points. Unexpectedly, no increase in SEBs was observed; rather, a significant decline was identified, with little practical relevance for the cohort who had studied before and medium practical relevance for the cohort who studied during the pandemic. At the end of their bachelor’s program, students in the cohort who studied before the pandemic reported slightly higher levels of SEBs than those who had to study during the pandemic. A path model indicates that studying during the pandemic negatively impacted both practical learning opportunities and changes in student teachers’ SEBs, whereas practical learning opportunities positively impacted SEBs changes. The findings’ implications for practical learning opportunities in initial teacher education are discussed.

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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.