This study examines the general level of effective teaching behavior of pre-service teachers teaching in secondary education. It also investigates the role of several contextual and personal characteristics in explaining differences in effective teaching behavior and the link between effective teaching behavior and pupils’ academic engagement. The results show substantiate differences in the level of effective teaching behavior between pre-service and experienced teachers. It was found that several contextual and personal characteristics determine differences in effective teaching behavior. Furthermore, the importance of effective pre-service teaching behavior for pupil engagement was established. The authors conclude that findings suggest that when pre-service teachers display better effective teaching behavior, the more pupils’ academic engagement is achieved.