ELTs Beliefs and Attitude as Agents of TPACK Integration: Evidence from a PLS-SEM Study

Abstract

The swift evolution of technology has profoundly influenced educational practices, prompting teachers to incorporate various digital technologies into their instructional environments. This technological shift has not only altered teaching techniques but also reshaped the teachers’ pedagogical beliefs. Hence, the current research explored the Technology Pedagogy and Content Knowledge (TPACK) competencies of English language educators within the Pakistani academic context to examine whether their pedagogical beliefs and attitudes influence them. Particularly, this study emphasised on ESL teachers' TPACK practices vis-à-vis their constructivist and transmissive pedagogical beliefs and attitudes. It employed a cross-sectional quantitative design where the participants included Pakistani ESL teachers (N = 80) from several universities in Karachi, Pakistan. The questionnaire contained 51 questions and is categorized into three sections: teachers' beliefs, attitudes, and TPACK practices. It was administered online through Google Forms. To analyse the data, PLS-SEM was utilised. The results revealed the strong multicolinearity between dependent (attitude and beliefs: constructivist and transmissive pedagogical) and independent variables (TPACK). The attitude and constructivist pedagogical beliefs have a significant impact while transmissive pedagogical beliefs has an insignificant and negative impact on TPACK. The study findings suggest that teachers’ attitudes and constructivist pedagogical beliefs positively impact (27.7%) TPACK practices but transmissive beliefs negatively impact (-14.7%) teaching methods indicating higher the traditional beliefs lower the TPACK practices. Also, the findings have shown importance for stakeholders who want to improve language teaching methodology, effectiveness of the classroom teaching, and redesign course-related technology integration.

Keywords: language teaching, PLS-SEM, teacher attitude, teacher beliefs, TPACK