Education for Sustainable Development places increasing demands on teachers’ ability to integrate technology into STEM teaching in meaningful and sustainable ways. However, many STEM pre-service teachers struggle to develop transferable technology integration competencies. To address this challenge, this study designed and evaluated a project-based learning and graphical programming training module aimed at enhancing STEM pre-service teachers’ technology integration competencies. Grounded in the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge framework, the training module supports practice-oriented learning in authentic instructional contexts. A mixed-methods research design combining design-based research and a quasi-experimental approach was employed. Following the iterative development of the training module, a quasi-experimental study involving 114 STEM pre-service teachers was conducted to examine its effectiveness. The results of independent-samples and paired-samples t-tests indicate statistically significant improvements in most dimensions of technology integration competencies, including pedagogical knowledge, technological knowledge, and overall TPACK. Effect size analysis revealed a moderate effect on technology integration competencies. These findings suggest that embedding graphical programming within project-based learning can effectively support the development of transferable and sustainable technology integration competencies among STEM pre-service teachers, thereby contributing to sustainable STEM teacher education.
Yao et al. (2026) studied this question.