General pedagogical knowledge, self-efficacy and instructional practice: Disentangling their relationship in pre-service teacher education

Teachers' professional competence is composed of cognitive (professional knowledge) and affective (professional beliefs) components. These components are generally assumed to be related and to impact instructional practice. However, studies simultaneously relating cognitive and affective components to instructional practice are scarce. The present study investigates the relationship between general pedagogical knowledge (GPK), self-efficacy beliefs (SE), and reported instructional practice based on a sample of 342 pre-service teachers. No significant association was observed between GPK and SE. Furthermore, SE significantly predicted all investigated reported instructional practices, although GPK only predicted reported instructional practices that dealt with student support and provision of structure.