The integration of digital technologies into mathematics education has created new demands for teachers’ professional knowledge. Although Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) has been widely recognized as an essential framework for understanding technology integration, limited attention has been given to the developmental mechanisms through which mathematics pre-service teachers construct TPACK. This study proposes a professional learning pathway model to explain TPACK development by examining the relationships among digital literacy, technology self-efficacy, teaching reflection, and TPACK. Data were collected from 386 mathematics pre-service teachers, and structural equation modeling was employed to test the proposed model. The results indicate that digital literacy contributes to TPACK both directly and indirectly. Specifically, technology self-efficacy and teaching reflection sequentially mediate the relationship between digital literacy and TPACK, while technology self-efficacy also independently mediates this relationship. Among the predictors, teaching reflection exerts the strongest direct effect on TPACK, highlighting its critical role in transforming technology-related experiences into integrated professional knowledge. These findings suggest that TPACK development is not simply a consequence of technological capability but a progressive professional learning process in which digital literacy strengthens technological confidence and teaching reflection facilitates the development of integrated professional knowledge. This study contributes to TPACK research by shifting attention from identifying factors associated with TPACK toward explaining how TPACK develops through a professional learning pathway. The findings also provide practical implications for mathematics teacher education by emphasizing integrated professional learning experiences rather than isolated technology skills training.

Yueping Su. Understanding the Development of Mathematics Pre-service Teachers’ TPACK: A Professional Learning Pathway Perspective. International Journal of New Developments in Education (2026), Vol. 8, Issue 8: 17-28. https://doi.org/10.25236/IJNDE.2026.080803.

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