SELF-PERCEIVED TPACK (TECHNOLOGICAL PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE) OF EFL TEACHERS IN TURKEY

Abstract

Although technology had been an important part of education for a long time, the pandemic of Covid-19 forced everyone through a crash course for using the available technology to its fullest potential. Since teachers are using technology into their teaching more than ever, it is important to learn more about technology integration into education. Teachers’ competence for integrating technology into education is measured by a framework called TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge). The primary goal of this study was to investigate the influence of demographic factors including age, gender, teaching experience, education background, and holding a teaching certificate on EFL teachers’ perceived TPACK. 36 EFL teachers working in schools in Turkey were examined. A questionnaire was used to find out teachers’ self-reported level of knowledge in different components of TPACK. Their perceived TPACK knowledge was then compared based on their demographic characteristics in order to find out if there was a significant difference in their TPACK according to demographic factors. This study also explored the digital tools that EFL teachers use to help them improve their teaching as well as their reasons for choosing those tools. The findings of this study indicate that education background and teaching certificates do not have a significant influence on any of TPACK components. However, gender, age, and teaching experience create a significant difference among teachers but only in some components of TPACK. It was also revealed that among all sort of digital tools that EFL teachers use, language learning games were the most preferred among our participants. This study helps us to better understand the influential factors on technology integration in education. Moreover, by learning more about the digital tools that EFL teachers use, we gain valuable insight into the effectiveness of combining pedagogy and technology