Amid the growing societal demand for qualitative enhancement in higher education and the advancement of teacher education programs, interest in the quality of teacher training courses has been increasing. At the same time, the rising number of teacher...
Amid the growing societal demand for qualitative enhancement in higher education and the advancement of teacher education programs, interest in the quality of teacher training courses has been increasing. At the same time, the rising number of teachers leaving the profession and the overall decline in preference for teaching careers have raised concerns about the potential deterioration of educational quality in schools.
In this context, strengthening the practical teaching competence of instructors in teacher education institutions is crucial to improving the quality of instruction. When pre-service teachers experience high-quality instruction, their commitment to teaching and satisfaction with courses are likely to increase. Therefore, fostering pre-service teachers’ commitment to the teaching profession and enhancing their course satisfaction are essential tasks for securing excellent future educators and improving the quality of education.
Nevertheless, few studies have comprehensively examined the structural relationships between instructors’ practical teaching competence, pre-service teachers’ commitment to teaching, and course satisfaction. This study aimed to analyze the effect of pre-service teachers’ perception of instructors’ practical teaching competence on course satisfaction, with commitment to teaching as a mediating variable, using a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. The specific research questions are as follows:
1. How does pre-service teachers’ perception of instructors’ practical teaching competence affect their commitment to teaching?
2. How does pre-service teachers’ perception of instructors’ practical teaching competence affect their course satisfaction?
3. How does pre-service teachers’ commitment to teaching affect their course satisfaction?
4. Does commitment to teaching mediate the relationship between instructors’ practical teaching competence and course satisfaction?
For data collection, a survey was conducted with 240 students enrolled in a teacher education program (including teaching track students) at University B, located in City A. To clearly examine the causal relationships between the independent and dependent variables, data were collected using a modified version of the Practical Teaching Competence Scale originally developed by Eun-hee Hwang and Sun-Geun Baek (2008) and Sook-hyun Park (2015), and a newly developed Commitment to Teaching Scale in March 2025. In April 2025, the Course Satisfaction Scale developed by Hyun-kyung Yang(2018) was adapted and administered.
The major findings of this study are as follows:
First, pre-service teachers’ perception of instructors’ practical teaching competence positively influenced course satisfaction. The standardized path coefficient from practical teaching competence to course satisfaction was 0.633 without control variables and 0.652 with control variables (gender, major, grade), both statistically significant at the p < .001 level.
Second, practical teaching competence had a significant positive effect on commitment to teaching, with standardized coefficients of 0.606 (without controls) and 0.628 (with controls), both significant at the p < .001 level.
Third, commitment to teaching positively influenced course satisfaction, with standardized coefficients of 0.227 (without controls) and 0.222 (with controls), both statistically significant (p < .01).
Fourth, commitment to teaching partially mediated the relationship between practical teaching competence and course satisfaction. Bootstrapping analysis confirmed the statistical significance of both the direct and indirect effects. Without control variables, the standardized direct effect was 0.633, the indirect effect was 0.138, and the total effect was 0.771 (p < .05). With control variables, the direct effect was 0.652, the indirect effect was 0.139, and the total effect was 0.791 (p < .05).
In summary, the findings of this study suggest that pre-service teachers’ perception of instructors’ practical teaching competence positively affects both their commitment to teaching and course satisfaction, with commitment to teaching partially mediating the relationship between the two. These results highlight the importance of enhancing instructors’ practical teaching competence in teacher education institutions to improve the commitment and satisfaction of pre-service teachers, thereby contributing to the quality of teacher preparation.