Research On The Primary School English Teachers' TPACK And Its Influencing Factors

With the gradually increasing use of technologies in social lives,technology integration has also gained its popularity in educational field.In order to keep pace with the rapid changes,teachers should have not only a grasp of emerging technologies,but also an appreciation of how to incorporate technology with content and pedagogy.In recognition of the trend,Koehler and Mishra therefore proposed a framework,Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge(TPACK or TPCK in short),as lens for understanding teachers' technology integration.Nowadays,despite the fact that there are many studies centering on the TPACK development,studies targeting English teachers in primary schools are still scarce.Given this situation,this study focuses on the TPACK of English teachers in primary schools and its influencing factors,aiming to provide some suggestions for teachers' TPACK development in future.This study mainly adopts the quantitative research,aiming to examine primary school English teachers' TPACK and its influencing factors.A total of 135 English teachers participated in this study.Data were collected by administering questionnaires to teachers online or in a face-to-face manner.To answer research questions,two questionnaires were adopted in this study.The first questionnaire was employed to examine the status quo of English teachers' TPACK,and the second questionnaire was utilized to drive information of factors influencing teachers' TPACK development.The findings reveal that:(1)English teachers in primary schools possess satisfactory TPACK levels on the whole.As to core knowledge bases,teachers score highest on PK than on CK and TK.In regard to the integrated elements of TPACK,teachers possess relatively stronger TCK and PCK compared with TPK and TPCK,which means teachers may do well in integrating content with technology or pedagogy,but they are less proficient in cooperating pedagogy with technology.Besides,English teachers' PK presents significant difference in terms of teaching experience,and teachers who have received formal teacher education score significantly higher on all TPACK components than teachers who respond negatively.(2)The second-level knowledge bases(PCK,TCK,TPK)partially mediate the relationship between the related core knowledge bases(CK,PK,TK)and TPCK.(3)There are moderate-to-strong correlations between TPACK components and the contextual factors.And Intrapersonal factor,Interpersonal support,School support are found to be significant predictors of teachers' TPACK levels.Based on the findings,the research suggests that more efforts could be made to enhance English teachers'TPACK,such as boosting teachers' motivation and self-efficacy for technology,providing support by school administration,leaders,colleagues,and industry experts.Furthermore,the technology training,government support could also make contributions to English teachers' TPACK application.