Cognitive Processes in Developing Techno-pedagogical Competency among Prospective Teachers: A Critical Narrative Review

Abstract

Techno-pedagogical competency is commonly discussed as a teacher's capacity to combine technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge, yet this formulation says relatively little about the cognitive work through which prospective teachers learn to make defensible technology-integration decisions. This critical narrative review examines that developmental problem by synthesising research on technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK), metacognition, self-regulated learning, professional reasoning, cognitive load, transfer, motivational beliefs, contextual knowledge, and emerging artificial-intelligence-mediated lesson design. The review searched accessible education and multidisciplinary scholarly sources for work published from 1 January 2005 to 27 June 2026, while retaining selected earlier foundational studies needed to interpret cognition and teacher knowledge. Evidence indicates that techno-pedagogical competency is better understood as an integrated, situated capability than as the accumulation of separate technical skills. Development appears to depend on repeated cycles of pedagogical problem representation, activation and coordination of content-pedagogy-technology knowledge, evaluation of technological affordances and constraints, design justification, metacognitive monitoring, feedback-based revision, enactment, and transfer. Direct evidence is strongest for structured metacognitive support, subject-specific TPACK modules, design-based learning, authentic technology experiences, and reflective feedback, although intervention studies remain comparatively few. Self-efficacy, technology-related beliefs, institutional support, field experience, subject matter, and contextual knowledge influence whether cognitive resources are translated into instructional action. Major limitations in the literature include heavy reliance on self-report measures, short interventions, cross-sectional mediation models, weak measurement of real-time reasoning, limited observation of classroom enactment, and scarce evidence linking prospective teachers' competency development with sustained practice or pupil learning. Recent generative artificial intelligence research extends the cognitive agenda by making prompt formulation, epistemic verification, ownership, and agency visible as new components of pedagogical reasoning. The review proposes a cognitive-developmental account in which competent technology integration emerges from calibrated knowledge, regulated reasoning, contextual adaptation, and accountable professional judgement rather than from tool proficiency alone.